One of the best places to send a Mac novice who wants a taste of good software is the Useful Mac Web page - http://www.usefulmac.com/. Hell, even a longtime Mac user may find something useful in there.

Oh, and VersionTracker has been taking a lot flak lately, and with good reason. They keep adding screens to force their ad count up. Many are defecting to MacUpdate http://www.macupdate.com

And for Daily Mac news, MacCentral is still one of the best. http://www.maccentral.com