Archive for August, 2006

House of Lies

Thursday, August 24th, 2006

The House of lies is a very simple website where you will waste quite a bit of time!  You are presented with a “satirical Statement”.  Click reload a new lie to get another one.  They seem to have around 200 “lies” that are loaded randomly.

Visit www.houseoflies.co.uk

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Directory Critic

Monday, August 21st, 2006

directorycritic logo

While working on the SEO of one of my sites, I came across Directory Critic  which at first glance was a “directory of directories”.  So, I took a quick look around and from the lists, submitted my site to a few of the directories, and added it to my bookmarks.

About a week later, I was doing some more  submissions of my sites to directories and came back to Directory Critic.  The first thing I liked about this site was the way that things are organised.  Firstly, you can choose from New, General or Niche directories. Once you chose an area, the listed directories were sorted into some generic categories such as Free, Paid, Reciprical and Article. So, of course, I selected the List of Free directories to start with.

There was a summary of how many Free general directories and the total number of directories in the database.  With over 1,000 directoies here I knew I would be spending a lot of time at this site.  Now, this time, I noted that they have a directory tracking system and wanted to try it out.  You can enter the name of your site to track, and next to each directory in the list you can tick a box once you have submitted your site.  The whole keeping a big spreadsheet of directories and submission info was no longer required!  Just tick the box next to a directory once you have made your submission, and once you have finished just Click update tracking.  Then, next time you come back you know where you were up to with your submissions.

The directory list is not just a page with a heap of liks on it - it is far more than that.  You can sort the list by name, PR, Points or submission date.  Not only can you sort the list, but you can see the details and all of the User rating of the Directory.  The user ratings are what determine the Points.  I would like to see a few more search features - such as hide sites where I have already submitted to.

The site is modern looking with a 3 column layout of Light/Dark Blue and Orange Background for the navigation.  The layout is centered with a fixed width of about 950px.  This of course means that some people will need to scroll left-right, but considering that Webmasters (whom this site is definately aimed at) tend to use bigger, high-res screens this should not be a problem.  Overall the site is quite fast to load, but when you choose a category of directories such as General->Free it does take a little longer to build the list of directories and display the page.

In the time between when I first found this site and when I went back, there had been about another 100 or so directoires added to the list.  This was a good sign that the site gets regular updates and will continue to be a useful place to all Webmasters building links to their websites.

Visit www.directorycritic.com

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All About Students - UK

Monday, August 21st, 2006

all about students UK Logo

At some point in our lives nearly everyone is a student, and if you are a student in the UK, AllAboutStudents is one portal you should check out.  The site is aimed at the Student who is in College or University and contains articles and information on a range of topics.

One of the biggest issues with being a student are Finances and where to find financial advice.  There is all sorts of financial info from banking to loans and credit.

Being a student is not all about the study, but also about the lifestyle.  All students at some point want to travel, either as part of your studies or to have a fun holiday with all your friends.  From a weekend in Blackpool to a week Skiing in the Swiss Alps - you are certain to find something that is within your budget here.

 Towards the end of your studies (or even on your holiday breaks) you will probably be interested in looking for a job.  Allaboutstudents has jobs listed suitable for Students and recent graduates.  You can sign up to be notified of new job postings or even advertsie a position if you are an employer.

The websites is laid out with a distinctive blue background, with centered content and is quite easy to navigate.  The information is up to date and updated regularly.

 Visit www.allaboutstudents.co.uk

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CV Online

Sunday, August 20th, 2006

CVonNET banner

At some point we all need to create a CV and CVonNET is such a site that can help you.  Simply sign up for free and you can Create a professional CV or resume online  The signup process is simple and you only need to provide a valid email addess and a password.  You need to click on a link in a validation email to finish creating your account.

When you first go to the site, you are presented with a splash page.  The purpose of this page is for you to choose the language you will view the site in.  You have a chocie between English and Swedish.  The site has a clean and professional feel and leaves no doubt that they will help you create your CV.  The navigation consists of 3 drop-down lists, and until you are logged in only some of them are active.

Once you log in, you have access to the “Your CV” menu.  Each of the Options allow you to add information to your CV.  There is a choice of 4 CV and resume templates at the time of our review.  Once you have completed all the steps you can download a copy of your CV as a PDF.  Your CV that you create is Private and not available to anyone.

Under the Your Account Menu you can choose to make your CV available for downlaod directly from the site.  You can even choose to protect it with a password.  The resume you create here will be every bit as good as one that you could pay a professional to write and lay out for you.  By creating your CV online, you can easily edit and update it as required and simply download the latest version.  You can even provide a link from your own site directly to the download link of your CV as long as you have not password protected it.

Visit www.cvonnet.com

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Spy Review

Saturday, August 19th, 2006

For the budding Spy or Security Professional Spy Review should be high on your list of sites to visit.  As their name implies, they provide reviews of all sorts of spy and security products.  The site is based on a wordpress Blog and gets updated with interesting content quite often.  The site is clean and very easy to use making it easy to find information and reviews on a whole range of things.

They have reviews on all sorts of cool stuff that you can buy or make for yourself.  From books to bugs they cover it all. Without doubt, my favourite is a cool gadget - the USB missile launcher!  Yeah, not a spy toy, but certainly cool!

The information is presented in a friendly-easy reading manner which is a credit to the webmaster.  Quite often a website will contain information but the writing style makes it impossible to read - you won’t see that here.  The webmaster is passionate about what is written and it shows, along with his wonderful sense of humour.

So for the budding “James BOND” or the security professional looking for an edge there is something for everyone at Spy Review.

Visit www.spyreview.co.uk

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Free Image Hosting

Friday, August 18th, 2006

4freeimagehost banner  

Sharing your pictures and photos has never been easier.  It does not matter if you just want to post a photo in a Forum, an online Auction or even to just share it with family and friends.  The easist way is to host your pictures with an Image host.

4freeimagehost provides this service at no cost to you.  From their site you can simply upload a picture and be given some codes so you can share the picture.  You can do all of this woulth having to sign up.  There are some limitations if you do an anonymous upload - you can only upload images of up to 150K filesize and only get a couple of codes to display your picture.  Anonymous uploads are typically removed from the server after 45 days.

If you do decide to sign up for a free account you get some more features - such as being allowed to upload bigger pictures (750K in size).  You have the ability to manage your pictures as well.  This means you can get the codes for a picture and delete a picture as well if you want.  The biggest advantage of signing up is that your images are stored for at least 90 days before being purged.

There are a few limitations on what sort of pictures you can upload - they do not allow any adult images and delete them when people don’t follow the rules.

Visit http://www.4freeimagehost.com/

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Driver Education

Friday, August 18th, 2006

Driver Education Online is a resource site that provides information for The Learner Driver and their Parents.  They provide information in all aspects of obtaining your License starting with a Practice test for your permit.

The site is very easy to navigate and find out the relevent information of the requirements for each State.  The information is clear and concise and will help you plan everything from obtaining a permit, then a provisional license, right through to a Regular license.

We all know that an important part of obtaining a license is to get out on the road.  In order to do this you need an instructor.  Paying for a driving instructor can be an expensive proposition.  Rather than paying an instructor, you can do an online course to get you started and Driver Education Online provides one such course.  The course contains all necessary information including a parent lesson plan.

They do not stop helping you even if you have a license - as they also offer  Defensive Driving Online as an alternative to traffic School in the event you get a traffic ticket.  Traffic school is not only for drivers who have a ticket but should be considered for every driver as by showing your insurance company that you have taken a course you will probably reduce your insurance rates as well.

You can also start your search for insurance on the site as well, which makes Driver Education Online a convenient one-stop shop for all Drivers.

Visit www.drivereducationonline.us

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