Category: Uncategorized

Symbian Softwares Review is a blog based site for posting reviews of “Cellphones Games, PDA Games, New Symbian Softwares, Symbian Softwares, Pocket PC Games, Smartphone Games, etc”. The first thing that strikes me is that the word “software” is known as a zero plural word, that is it has the same form in singular and plural without needing an “s” at the end.

The second thing that strikes me is that even at my relatively high resolution, the whole first screen is ads. A massive google ad in the middle, and ad search bar under the title, 2 referral ads on the right hand side and then a directory under this whose first link is “viral marketing”. The site is a tidy package otherwise with the regular blogroll, button clutter on the right hand frame. Color coordination is fine with a distinctly light blue theme.

The content is, as you would expect from the title, all about mobile phone stuff. Some of the reviews are quite thorough, but all is not what it seems. I took some of the text in one of the reviews and googled it.. sure enough it is a straight copy and paste from the vendor website. I’m sorry my friend, thats not blogging. One review that did look original is the most recent post about a “snake theme” but it was only one line long, which hardly constitutes a “review”. Sure enough, the line “A cool snake theme for your phone. It will surely send shivers down your spine.” was also ripped from the theme author himself.

Sigh, if you read my reviews you will find I am pretty diplomatic. But I cant award this site any points. Blogging is not about copying and pasting. Free blogger services make it easy to create a blog, but the idea has been tainted by the rise of the splogs reaping revenue from ad clicks and attracting searches by copying other peoples hard work. NULL

Being a dad to be I knew I had to review this site. The name of Daddy Daze is pretty much what I have been in since I found out I was going to be a father. Some days are good, some days are scary, and the worst part is that the baby isn’t even here yet.

Daddy Daze is written by three dads. Each gives their perspective on what is going on in their child’s life as well as their own. It is unique in the fact that there aren’t very many daddy blogs out there, where as there are a ton of mommy blogs. Dads think of things differently, and this site proves it.

My favorite section has to be the pictures and the stories behind each picture. All three dads have uploaded some pictures and a great story behind it. Most of it is very funny and I tend to relax a bit knowing that is what I have to look forward to. Every now and then though that little voice inside my head freaks out based on what I read.

The design of the site is a simple 2 column layout with a customized header. Archives are done correctly with a monthly break down and each month lists the number of posts which is a bonus. There are also reviews of some products that they were asked to review which is a good thing.

I really cannot get into too many details about the blog without spoiling the good time you will have reading it. My guess is that this blog will be attractive to any parent, any soon to be parent, and anyone who likes kids. I have enjoyed reading it, and I know most of you will too.NULL

I had no idea what this blog would be about upon reading the title, and even after the initial page loaded, I still wasn’t 100% sure what the point or the main subject of this blog would be. I did the best thing I know how to do with something like this – I dove in head first.

The layout is a bit cumbersome. My screen resolution is set at 1440 x 900, and even with that much room, my screen still looked cluttered as I scrolled through the last two months or archives. It looks to be one of the infamous standard Blogger templates with more information added into the sidebar then it was designed to hold.

There were seven different links across the top of the design that I thought would lead me to different areas of the site, where I could find out more information, since this topic is something I’ve never done any reading about. When I realized that all seven of those links were different Blogspot hosted URLs, I didn’t even bother clicking on them. It seemed like a pretty lazy way to let people work their way through learning about the site at hand.

According to some information the author’s placed in the sidebar, the idea of this particular blog is as follows: “My plan is to each day try to find out something new to research – a place, a person, a house, an idea – anything that interests me.” With the self-description, it becomes obvious that this site has been created for the author’s own personal use, rather than to involve any regular readers he might have.

The author, I found from the sidebar once again, is a an architect in a Malaysian private practice. Learning his occupation explains why this topic is so fascinating to him to some degree, and my engage readers who have similar background to his.

Overall, I can’t say I’d visit this blog again. Having not one ounce of knowledge on the architectural subjects the author mentions, I wanted to find a post that would excite me about the topic and pull me into want to learn more. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. For those in a related industry, maybe that doesn’t need to happen, and this site will be just fine the way it is.NULL

The Blogging Blog is a collection of tips and tricks to make your weblog look… well, more schnazzy.

The header graphic states that this is blog is “blogging for the fun of it,” and they sure do have a host of fun items to liven up the average blog. Our authors have done a tremendous job over the past two years combing the web for interesting gizmos, gadgets, and doo dads to help you make your blog more interesting, and less Web 1.0.

The founder of the blog, Sharon, writes on the “About” page, “The web is thick with meta-pro-blogs: blogs to help you make money online, or optimize your search engine rankings, or get your readers to click those ads — but there is relatively little for those bloggers who just want to express themselves, connect with others, and have fun. This blog is for you.”

Looking at the front page, the color scheme is really nice with gold, brown and yellow, with complimentary text colors. The main body of the blog is white with black text, so my eyes were drawn right to the core content. The colors reach out and grab the viewer, but don’t beat him or her up. The header graphic is whimsical, and the three column layout is organized and easy to use. The categories section was most helpful, because if one is looking for specific widgets, or blogging tools, results are just a click away.

Not only does the Blogging Blog provide content on widgets and gizmos, but it also points to event blogs and causes online that bring bloggers together. On the front page of the site, there are two specific date-based blogging event days. October 15th is Blog Action Day, and I never would have known it if I didn’t visit here (and yes, I’ll participate! sounds interesting…)
http://quiz.blogactionday.org/

I have two very minor complaints about the look and feel. First, the Feed Graphic at the top of the page is humongous. Way too big. Takes up way too much real estate. Should really be reduced to about 1/3 the size. The second concerns the archive by month drop down menu. It is a bit too small compared to the categories content above it, and gets a little lost. It would possibly would do better to be placed up above the categories box. Also, the 2004 links in the drop down menu did not work, (May, June, July) so those may want to either be fixed or removed.

Since this is a team blog, contributed to by four bloggers, I visited each of their pages to see whether or not they were using the widgets they were writing about. For the most part they are, some more than others, which speaks volumes. It is one thing to write about tools in theory and another to use them in practice.

It is fun to go back through a couple of years worth of entries on web gizmos to see what was “new” in 2006 or 2005! I found this past year’s content a lot more relevant, obviously. With the way the web changes, it is nice to know Sharon and the team at Blogging Blog will keep an eye out for you on the changes, and report back the interesting things to make your bloglife more fun. I give the site a 4, and will certainly be returning to see what is new.NULL

First of all, there’s no way to fit a site like Kottke.org into a category. It’s one of those sites that takes as its subject matter anything that crosses the radar of its creator, in this case Jason Kottke. Blogs like this remind me in a way of newspaper columns by nationally syndicated writers like Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof, Art Buchwald, et al. The blog format means that the articles are usually much shorter, posted several times a day with topics that are much more wide ranging and often only comprised of a few sentences of commentary and a pointer to something of interest anywhere on the Internet.

The strength of columns and the best blogs like these isn’t necessarily any inside information or even particularly highbrow sensibilities or writing ability. Their strength is that they had a unique voice, and a sustained definable perspective that you enjoyed Revisiting regularly. Lucky for us that RSS feeds mean we don’t even have to go to the front door to pickup the newspaper, much less pay for a subscription.NULL