Bitcoin-qt, blockchain.info and btc-e are some of the good ones. All of them offer A class security so you don't have to worry about hacker getting in and hacking database or your account being hijacked easily, unless your computer has virus.
The problem is that newbies dont understand the importance of wallets and then they loose their money due to some negligence and then blame the tech i.e. Bitcoin. Thus, Bitcoin-qt is out considering there is no way to retrieve the wallet if you loose your computer.
Blockchain.info and Bitgo looks good as a webwallet . Although Blockchain is older, bitgo provides more security. Hive and electrum both are good as a desktop wallet. Lastly, Armory is probably the best but requires some computer knowledge to make it work in the most secure way. Thus, I feel this should be good enough to recommend to newbies. Now just need some good explanatory videos about each, and we should good.