Every day there are web sites launching that offer an unique and outstanding service to the internet community. These sites in all of their mass amounts of code and graphics are extremely inspirational. I find myself laying out plans for future websites all the time, never acting on the impulse to actually start. Lately I have been paying more and more attention to the services requested and needed amongst my fellow bloggers.
A few weeks ago I met with Chap and we discussed a few ideas for web services, sharing concepts of what we were wanting to accomplish as individuals. I was intrigued by an article on Chap’s website referencing Paul Graham and his papers, articles and resources surrounding the topic of business start-ups.
If you have not read anything Graham has written, I suggest you begin to immediately. Young entrepreneurs especially, his resources are inspirational! Thank you Mr. Graham, you’re making this seem much easier than it has ever seemed to me before. I don’t believe that statement came out right, yet you get the point.
On another note, the following are some of the various websites I have been paying attention to. Monitoring their growth, potential, monetization and other areas of development. Each site is pretty unique in its own way. Allow me to share:
WuFoo - Making Forms Easy + fast + fun
This service is absolutely spectacular! With the ability to create online forms in seconds, with variables of information you specify, WuFoo has created something definitely deserving of attention. Service is available for free, however, limited features exist on the free account(s). Packages price all the way to $199 per month for their infinite style account. If nothing else, just check it out.
StumbleUpon - Discover New Sites
New to me, stumbleupon is a pretty neat little thing. It is an extra toolbar that users download and install into their browser interface and allows users to rate websites and “stumble” onto new websites. I noticed this website for the first time by viewing my web referrer statistics, noticing numerous users reaching my homepage via stumbleupon. You are able to launch campaigns to pay for users to be sent to your website more often. I believe its a great concept, not too original but it definitely has something. Not sure if I am down for paying for blind visits..
la la - listen, discover, enjoy
La La is a fantabulous service! Everyone purchases music on cdrom mediums and grow tired of the same music at times. Still have some cds from when you were in middle school, back when Chambawamba was popular? Someone may want them, trade them off at La La! Only charging $1.00 per trade, its pretty nice to spend a buck and get some new music in the mix. Need I say more — go la la!
HostJury.com - Web Hosting Reviews, By You, For You.
There seem to be review sites for absolutely every topic on the internet. From CSS showcases to theme competitions and now even hosting. I enjoy hostjury’s review site because of the content, the user interface and the ease of operation. Getting ready to look for a new webhost or switching providers, check out Hostjury first to find out if they’re reliable. I think of it as the “carfax” of the hosting industry–
Flock - The web browser for you and your friends.
Although flock is not an internet service I believe it classifys as a service related product that belongs on my list for today. If you enjoy firefox, flock is built on the same rendering engine and provides some nice features. You’re able to implement so many day to day activities such as photo uploads and the like into flock to really make it.. useful!
Sep 13
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 at 1:09 pmand is filed under everyday, techwire, meat and potatoes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
4 Comments Web sites of interest
Chap
September 13th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
1Your post reminded me of something I read at a hosting blog http://blog.dreamhost.com/2006/05/04/web-hostings-dirty-laundry/ He exposes some fake hosting review sites.
Donna
September 14th, 2006 at 7:55 am
2I certainly agree with you that Mr. Graham’s take on hacking is inspirational and I certainly agree with most of what he had to say….however, I have recently seen several small online businesses go down overnight because a hacker took all of their money. My question then is…Does the hacker community take any steps to bring down these bad guys or are they just inspirational?
Justin
September 14th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
3I’m not sure if we are on the same page in terms of the actual word, “hacker.”
Graham references hackers in the white hat pursuit of knowledge not the black. Hackers currently defacing websites, stealing and corrupting our internet community are black hats.
Many black hats turn white as well. White hat wearing individuals hack for knowledge. I.E. writing exploits against a popular platform such as windows is to expose vulnerabilities, so they can be secured. That is a good thing, its when those exploits are used for bad, not to educate or prevent, but to create chaos by using them for unauthorized access..
In my online world, I learn from black hats. With methods such as IDS (intrustion detection) and such. The bait and switch routine is quite popular.. grant them access and watch what they do with it..
This could be a long discussion — they are not inspirations, they’re merely tools for learning. I believe and feel like I use black hat hackers as tools, as mentioned my Graham to learn and further my education. Without the “corruption” we have from blacks, its a slow learning curve.. they really raise the bar.
David
January 19th, 2007 at 11:23 am
4Justin,
I appreciate your review of Hostjury :)
We’ll soon be launching even more features to make the site one of the top resources for web hosting reviews!
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