Blogbuzz

Simply Stating the Obvious is a great blog to read if you’re looking to just relax with some light, friendly fun. You’ll find anything from the latest on CBS soaps and musings about favorite programs like Journeyman and as Liz says on her “About” page, “anything and everything that strikes my fancy”.

I agree by the way, that NBC’s Journeyman needs to stay, or at this point, be brought back. They had a great storyline going and just left it hanging.

So if you’re looking for a good blog, Simply Stating the Obvious is a good place to go. You’ll have fun reading. Oh, and lets not forget contests! There was one recently involving the new A&E miniseries remake of “The Andromeda Strain” and she’s talking about another contest coming up sometime soon.

Readability 8.5

Not bad, the text color of #666666 (medium-dark gray) on white background made me have to squint just a tad but the font size was large enough to keep it good and readable.

Layout 9.5

A three column arrangement with a narrow header that allows a large portion of the first post on the page to be visible above the fold. single post pages would benefit from having next & prev post links would make browsing site easier

Load time 9.8

Excellent. Firebug reports loading 50 requests (216kb) in 9.75 seconds

Scrollability 9.7

Great. Smooth scrolling even while the page is loading

Writing 9.5

The author has a light, friendly neighborhood type of style that makes posts fun to read because it’s more like people just chatting than the way some blogs can sound more like somebody with an eternal ‘tude ranting about stuff.

Total Score 47

Simply Stating the Obvious BuzzRank: 94%

Technorati Tags: recommended blog, blog review, review, blog, buzzrank, 94% buzzrank

watchuonline.com has the dubious distinction of being the first blog to achieve a zero score. I was referred to it by my wife who found it while dropping Entrecards. I decided to take a look at it for myself when I saw the trouble that she was having. The full story follows.

Readability 0

Because of how the page loads and is taken over by what appears to be a full page popup ad for blinkx.com. The actual blog content is only visible for a short period of time and honestly can’t be read.

Layout 0

It’s nearly impossible to determine anything about the layout because the site is only scrollable for the first 10-15 seconds of loading, it’s then taken over by some kind of pop-over ad for blinkx.com

Load time 0

Without doubt it’s the worst I’ve seen for any website in years.. Firebug reported 285 requests that loaded 14.94MB after 2.78 minutes. The page never did finish loading, shortly after that point my browser locked up and had to be restarted.

Scrollability 0

Scrolling is only possible for the first 10-15 seconds of page load time, after that scrollbar dissapeared when the pop-over loaded and never returned.

Writing 0

The only chance I had to read any of the content was by choosing to “view source” and read it through the html, which is a lousy way to have to read a blog (or any website for that matter) and would only be wothwhile under the most extreme of circumstances. A situation that I doubt will ever apply to watchuonline.com unless whatever it’s put through some major re-design of how much and what kind of advertising to use.

Total Score 0

watchuonline.com BuzzRank 0

[it's normally my custom to include links to blogs that I review, however in this case I simply can't recommend it enough to do that. Those who wish can visit the site easily enough but remember this: you have been warned, my browser locked up and died trying to load this site. (Your Mileage May Vary)]

Technorati Tags: not scrollable, not viewable, site to avoid, popover, entrecard, slow loading, popup, large, blog, blog review

The Luminous Rabbit is the first “Book Review Blog” that I’ve seen and while it’s still relatively new with only three posts on it thus far. I think it’s got a great potential to establish itself as a kind of “authority site” regarding the books that are reviewed there.

For example, In a review of “Worlds of the Imperium, by Keith Laumer” is a title that I’ve never heard of before yet with an interesting enough sounding plot that I might be willing to give it a go sometime in spite of a few “cons” about the book.

The Luminuous Rabbit is definitely going to be a good place to look for good recommendations for your reading list.

Readability 9.5

The text color is gray (#474B4E) on an off-white (#FAFBFB) background but the font size is large enough so that it still manages to be readable without a need to magnify or highlight the text

Layout 8.5

It looks like a basic “standard blogger” type of template. It puts the posts first by loading them before the sidebar so that visitors can get right to the main content while the sidebar stuff loads.

Load time 9.5

Fast loader! Firebug reports 34 requests loaded in 7.25 seconds

Scrollability 9.8

Barely noticalble lag in scrolling but not enough to be a problem.

Writing 9

I like the author’s style. Each review explains the pros and cons of the book in such a was as to give a good idea what it’s about without unnecessary spoilers that would ruin it for potential readers who don’t want to know what happens until they read it.

Total Score 46.3

The Luminous Rabbit BuzzRank 92.6

Technorati Tags: book review, blog review, blog, new blog

Dessert Haven is aptly named. The sign at the top urges visitors to “Go ahead, free yourself of guilt, indulge your sweet cravings!” and then the writer proceeds to provide plenty of tempting amunition for that tasty task.

If you’re looking for a variety of dessert treats this is definitely a good place to look for them.

Readability 8.2

The text color is a #666666, which works out to a medium gray on a background color of #CCF8FF, which is a light, almost cyan, shade of blue. I think a text color a few shades darker like #2B2B2B would stand out better against that background color.

Layout 9

It’s a refreshing variation that moves away from the standard vanilla Blogger templates. I like the hanging sign style of blog header. I uses a bunch of the “above the fold” space, but more than makes up for that by giving the blog a unique personality.

Load time 7.5

Firebug reports 129 requests (585K) in 32.11 seconds. The sidebar loads first so you don’t see any of the post content until it’s finished. Fortunately the sidebar isn’t overloaded and comes in reasonably quick. I’d recommend that if possible it would be great for the template to be adjusted so that the post content loads first, especially if there were to be much more added to the sidebar.

Scrollability 10

Smooth scroll, no heavy javascript or flash widgets to slow things down.

Writing 9.5

There’s some interesting recipes, usually with pictures showing the finished product and always with clear directions for making it. The blog is also not exclusively recipes and includes occasional random thoughts about other topics

Total Score 44.2

Dessert Haven BuzzRank 88.4

Technorati Tags: cooking, dessert, blog review, cooking blog, recipes, blog