James Oppenheim’s blog

Recently I came across a fantastic site dnScoop, which attempts to estimate the net value of your domain and website. It even gives you an approximation on how much a single link on your site is worth by taking into consideration a number of factors when calculating your websites value:

1. Links pointing to the domain
2. Popularity of the domain
3. Age of the domain
4. Pagerank of the domain
5. Traffic to the domain

Interesting concept, however, your site is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. What about an old fashioned eBay style auction? Anyone want to buy my website for $220? Or do I hear 1 million dollars?

Technorati Tags: domain name, website, interesting site, pagerank, analysis, dnScoop,

With the advent of Web 2.0 and the evolution of the web as a whole I started to wonder: How far has the web come from its humble inception? Luckily Archive.org can provide a portal into our past, looks like we don’t need Doc from Back to the Future after all. Below are some interesting comparisons, I hope you enjoy.

1. Google
   1998 - Take me back
   2007 - http://www.google.com/
2. Yahoo!
   1996 - Take me back
   2007 - http://www.yahoo.com/
3. eBay
   1997 - Take me back
   2007 - http://www.ebay.com/
4. Microsoft
   1996 - Take me back
   2007 - http://www.microsoft.com/
5. Sony
   1996 - Take me back
   2007 - http://www.sony.com/
6. BBC
   1998 - Take me back
   2007 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/
7. Adobe
   1996 - Take me back
   2007 - http://www.adobe.com/
8. Apple
   1996 - Take me back
   2007 - http://www.apple.com/
9. GeoCities
   1996 - Take me back
   2007 - http://www.geocities.com/
10. AOL
    1997 - Take me back
    2007 - http://www.aol.com/

This begs the question: What will websites look like in 2020? Will we be up to web 5.0? Will Google control the internet?

Technorati Tags: websites, archives, web, web 2.0, Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Microsoft, BBC, Sony, BBC, Adobe, Apple, GeoCities, AOL

I like this idea of Jeremy Keith’s elsewhere. Grabbing all the pieces of information on the web about you and then placing it all in one spot. I had a go and look at what I came up with.

Nice idea, I suppose I could redo my whole blog to just be a collection of other information about me around the internet all complied in one spot.

Go Jeremy!

Technorati Tags: Elsewhere, Jeremy Keith, web, personal, interesting sites

http://www.spamhelp.org/harvesterkiller/

Not a very nice looking site, but wow what a great idea. Do your bit to hit back at the spam bots, but clogging up there database with invalid email addresses. Ever been caught in an endless loop while programming one of your applications. I know I have. Hopefully this can annoy the spam bots as much as they annoy me.

Well done http://www.spamhelp.org/

Technorati Tags: spam, spam help, spam bot, interesting sites, web, personal

http://www.rosefu.net/

Wow, clean code in book form, who would have thought. Now this is a really nice portfolio site. Clean HTML and CSS, combined with fantastic graphic design to create a unique user experience, that hopefully get Rose Fu some work.

(more…)

http://en.wikipedia.org

Now I love Wikipedia. Yes I am obsessed, from feature articles to on this day. It is an information overload and I love it.

The concept of a Wiki is fantastic. User generated / community generated content, the cyber world’s answer to Encyclopedia Britannica. And it’s free!

Will we ever be able to quote Wikipedia as a legitimate academic resource? I am not sure. However, I think the interesting question is: why does it work so well?

I know from previous experience that collaborative projects can sometimes be hard to manage, especially when there is an international edge to the project. Anyone can add and edit the content already there. But the interesting thing is no one takes advantage of this novel situation to post radical and controversial ideas. Amazing!

Maybe I can incorporate the concept of a Wiki into my design process mashup. It would be a perfect use for it, from documentation to concept generation.

Technorati Tags: wikipedia, wiki, site of the week

http://www.thehorizontalway.com/

Is my web browser broken? Have a somehow switched over to Internet Explore by mistake? The answer is no! This is an interesting website, one that challenges the way we should design websites by displaying the information in a horizontal format.
The site showcases other websites that display its content in horizontal not vertical direction. I have seen some websites like this before, so the idea is not completely new one, however, I believe that this site pulls it off quite well.

Bad practice and usability I here you scream, well maybe it is not the convention. Yes as a web user I don’t like side scrolling. However, I think the presentation of content in this manner should be explored. Don’t just use a convention for the conventions sake.

Technorati Tags: design, conventions, site of the week

http://www.pieceofshow.com

Wow, what beautiful work!

Piece of Show is a forum for the work of Andrew Zbihlyj. Andrew takes paint, tape, ink, paper, some harmful chemical and fire to create some stunning artwork.

While I don’t like the functionality of this site, I find it awkward to use, the work easily makes up for this shortfall. Maybe my dialup connection does not help the situation. With an excellent use of negative space and screen real estate this website really does what it intends to do, showcase the artwork.

Exquisite work with a political bent, I love it.

http://www.dontclick.it/

Now here is an interesting site that pushes the bounders of user interaction offering an experiment on how we interact with websites. To click or not to click, that is the question. The navigation within this site is set up so that a rollover activates the buttons rather than the traditional click. This removes the need to click at all throughout your journey of the website.

An interesting idea. However, I found myself wanting to click on the icons and links within the site. To the point where it was quite unnatural and somewhat disconcerting not being able to click with in the interface. This is such an ingrained habit that I was constantly tempted to click and wanted to click even though I know I shouldn’t.

Why should we reinvent the wheel, I am sure Jacob Nelson and Steve Krug would agree. Interesting research and a very strange experience to boot. I think Steve’s book sums up my feelings on the situation ‘don’t make me think‘.

What do you think?