Random StumbleUpon
Written by
David Dunn on August 4, 2008 – 7:24 pm - 1,226 views I’ve decided that I am going to now press the StumbleUpon ‘Stumble’ button 5 times, but each time I am going to take a screenshot and I’m going to comment about the page.
The pages are obviously going to be random and if I don’t really want to comment on the page that’s tough because I have decided I have to!
So… here goes…
Number One - Add a Picture
Oh dear… as I have just got myself a new StumbleUpon account, the first page I am given is the page to add a photograph for my profile. Okay well, I guess I will add one, seen as they asked nicely!
That reminds me, I need some friends added to my new StumbleUpon, if you would care to add me, please do… http://buymeaferrari.stumbleupon.com/
Number Two - RetailMeNot.com
Hmm… seems like a great site in theory, however, it appears to be aimed towards an American market, and as I’m in the UK it doesn’t really help me at all.
Oh.. hold on.. I’ve found a UK button 
That’s a lot better! There’s actually a really good selection for the UK market - didn’t think that there would be as many coupon codes as there is.
This site gets a thumbs up, however, not for the homepage but for the page dedicated to the United Kingdom.
Number Three - Friday, insane time, and this is what we are after
The third site in my random stumble is ‘The Funny Site’ (dfunny.info). And a blog post from them.
First impressions seem to count here as when the page first loaded, I am greeted with what you can see in the above screenshot. Now yes, I am definitely no expert but I know what I like and what I don’t like; all I can pretty much see when it first loads is a load of adverts and links, I can see one line of the post.
I personally prefer to see a bit more of the blog post, I don’t so much mind a load of ads on a homepage of a blog but on single post pages, I prefer to see a lot of the screen dedicated to the blog post itself. Just a personal opinion.
The post itself isn’t really to my taste either - it’s just a load of photographs of drunk people gathered from across the internet, some of which I have seen before.
Yes, of course this will be to some people’s taste, but to be honest, it isn’t to mine. This one is getting a thumbs down, not because I think the post is useless because it will appeal to some people, but it because it doesn’t personally appeal to me.
Number Four - BookMooch
As you can see from the boldness of my RoboForm toolbar, I am already a member on BookMooch. However, I can’t remember the last time I logged in.
I personally much prefer a site I found after BookMooch and that is ReadItSwapIt - to me it’s so much easier and seems to have more books to my taste.
However, I am still going to give BookMooch a thumbs up as it is still a really good website it’s just I have found a better resource to suit mu needs. The website itself has a decent design and functions pretty much as I would expect it to.
Number Five - There’s a method behind StumbleUpon’s madness (VentureBeat)
In all honesty, this is the most interesting blog post I have read in a while - MG Siegler is talking about the workings of StumbleUpon and explores the StumbleUpon Recommendation Engine.
I knew a little bit about it and the different methods the toolbar uses to recommend you pages but I didn’t really know about it to this extent.
I’m also glad to real that the co-founder he talked to has said that the limitation on the amount of friends you can have is going to be raised from 200 to 1000. On my previous account I struggled to shuffle the friends around so I could have a decent friend base but still keep within the limits (yes, I know, it probably doesn’t seem like it with my new account but it will grow :-))
This page is definitely going to get a thumbs up, a review and I am even going to comment on the blog itself as I really did enjoy reading the post.
Summary
I really enjoyed implementing this idea and actually talking about each of the sites which I stumbled upon. It made me really think about the site rather than just aimlessly stumbling, thumbs up/down then moving on.
This will definitely be something I will do again on FerrariDave as like I said, I really enjoyed it. I hope you enjoy reading the above. If you did, or have any other similar ideas that I could have a go with, please don’t hesitate to leave me a quick comment
| 3.6 (1 person) |
Tags: blog, cool, General, Internet, site, stumbleupon
Posted in General, Internet | 4 Comments »
A New Blog
Written byDavid Dunn on January 18, 2008 – 11:31 am - 875 views You will have probably read recently that I was expanding and that I was only going to post motoring-related stuff on here - I lied - just this once, sorry!
I thought it was only right that I post about a new blog I have just released, it’s the money making blog that I talked about and it is called Buy Me A Ferrari.
It’s going to talk about money making and how I am making money on the internet. More information can be found on the blog itself - would be great if you could head on over there and have a read of the welcome post.
Entrecard competition
If you are participating in the Entrecard competition, I’ve got a new way for you to gain a lot more entries - any comments that you make over at Buy Me A Ferrari will convert into two additional entries per comment.
If you subscribe to Buy Me A Ferrari via RSS and post a comment in the original Entrecard competition post, you will earn yourself an additional 5 entries to the competition.
There’s one last way you can gain more entries - StumbleUpon. If you thumb up the homepage and/or any of the posts at Buy Me A Ferrari, you will get yourself 3 entries per page you thumb up. You will need to tell me about what you have thumbed up, along with your SU username, in the original post.
Back to motoring
I now promise you - 100% that there will be no more posts about anything other than motoring - but please don’t hold me to that promise 
Good luck in the Entrecard competition and I hope that you join me over at Buy Me A Ferrari.
| 2.5 |
Tags: blog, buymeaferrari, General, Internet, off-topic
Posted in General | No Comments »
Things That Annoy Me Around The Internet
Written byDavid Dunn on December 30, 2007 – 8:51 pm - 339 views Pretty much every single day, I’ll visit a bunch of websites on a various amount of different subjects. Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of these websites have a lot of great information on them.
However, not everything is sweet on the internet. Some website have a selection of little annoyances that really get on my nerves whilst browsing around the internet.
The following two posts on different blogs inspired me to write about these things: Irritating Design & Web Annoyances and 10 Ways To Annoy A Website Designer.
Sites that resize my browser window
This one really gets me annoyed, I have my browser maximised pretty much all of the time and it’s like that because I like to see as much of the website as possible. Therefore, as it is my browser, you shouldn’t be able to resize my window to something much smaller; I don’t care what resolution the website was designed for, I’m viewing it 1280×800 and that’s how I want it to stay.
Auto-playing music
Nine times out of ten, while I am browsing the internet, I’m listening to my own choice of music through iTunes. This tends to mean that I really don’t want some other random rubbish playing through my speakers at the same time. When I’m not listening to music through iTunes, it is usually quite late at night and my Mam is in bed, now sometimes I have the habit of leaving my speakers connected and quite high, if I go onto a website and it auto-plays through my speakers, it’s likely to wake her - something I really would rather not do.
Requires Internet Explorer
As most of us already know, Firefox is by far the better browser in terms of reliability, security, etc. etc. Internet Explorer is crap, simple as. Even websites designed for Internet Explorer will usually load in Firefox. Some web designers seem to be unable to grasp this and decline access to their site unless I am using IE, something I refuse to do.
Another point about requiring IE; I enjoy filling out surveys for a few companies on the internet. When a survey comes up that allegedly requires Internet Explorer to run I’ll just simply avoid this survey, whether it pays top dollar or not, I aint doing it when I am required to use Internet Explorer.
Unexpected pop-ups
I’m pretty sure I can safely say that nearly everyone hates pop-ups. I have to agree completely with what Mark Lloyd says in his article about how he closes pop-ups immediately, I am exactly the same. I also, like Mark, hate when I begin to read an article or just a page on a website when 30 seconds into the article a pop-up takes up where I was in the article - very annoying.
Flashing banners
This kind of links on to the last point I made as some of these banners come in pop-up form. I never ever want to see a advertisement banner which flashes repeatedly between two completely contrasting colours. Not only does it distract me from whatever I’m reading, if I am reading a long article the flashing of the banner will eventually give me a migraine or at least a headache. I especially hate ones where I am supposed to be the 1,000,000th viewer of the website, yeah right, me along with the other 100s of people viewing the banner.
Rollover ads
Yep, this is another advert rant. I can’t stand it if I’m browsing a website, reading the new for example when my mouse accidentally touches one of the Flash banners and the thing rolls out and covers my whole browser window.
Requires Real Audio plugin
I’ve never ever liked the Real Audio plugin so I no longer install this onto my computer. Some websites only offer their audio content in the Real Audio format. This confuses me, why not offer the files in MP3 format? Surely this is much more widely accepted?
I think that just about covers all of my pet hates on the internet, I’m sure there are a few more but those above are the main ones that really get on my nerves. If you can think of any I have forgotten or would like to show me some annoying websites adapting some of these tactics, please do leave a comment
| 2.5 |
Tags: ad, annoy, hate, Internet
Posted in Internet | No Comments »
