web sites Archive

I don’t know about you but I’ve always wondered to myself, “self wtf does centernetworks really sound like?” Well as of today I no longer need to ask myself that question. I can just head over to CodeOrgan, pop in a url and hear what the site sounds like.

Here’s how they come up with the sounds:

• to find the key – CodeOrgan pulls in all text, removes non-musical characters and then figures out which note is most commonly used
• synthesizer – whichever letter matching one of the 10 synthesizer effects is most popular
• drum loop – uses 10 loops and finds the most popular matching loop to content that is analyzed on the page that was entered into the CodeOrgan musical entry box and then the analysis to which is performed

InsideTransit is in the key of CM with a rock guitar and the number 6 drum loop. HTMLCenter pulls in key of A with “rifty” and the number 1 drum loop. And drumroll please, CenterNetworks has a vibe of key of A, strings and a drum loop number 8. I think I like the way CN sounds the best out of the three.
Continue reading “Wondering What Your Website Sounds Like? CodeOrgan Plays Your Tune” »

Last month we reported on the startups that came out of the StartupCamp in Australia. Today I’ve learned that the six startups are now being auctions individually on the Sitepoint Marketplace. I am unsure if this was the plan from the beginning or if the developers just decided to pick up a small bit of cash quickly.

Here are the startups with links to their auctions (amounts in US$):

• ActivityHorizon – current bid $1,800
• EpicTweet – current bid $600
• MyPetsNeedLove – current bid $555
• GiveDo – current bid $1,600
• ThreeFeeds – current bid $500
• iTrafficApp – current bid $1,550

Not only are most of the hottest Web 2.0 startups unprofitable, quite a few lack viable revenue models altogether. This has led cynics like me to criticize these startups quite harshly over the past several years.

Twitter, for instance, is the perfect example of the prototypical Web 2.0 startup that has captured the hearts and minds of the Web 2.0 "community" but hasn’t captured any real money (outside of venture capital).

When confronted with questions about the financial viability of their hottest startups, Web 2.0 proponents usually have a similar response: Rome wasn’t built in a day. When Google launched, we’re reminded, it didn’t know how exactly how it was going to make money. For young Web 2.0 startups that are growing rapidly, we’re often told that growth and "critical mass" are more important than revenue models and profitability.

As we recently learned that Digg was still losing money on revenue numbers that look quite paltry, it occurred to me that Digg and some of Web 2.0′s other hot young startups really aren’t hot young startups anymore.

Continue reading “Web 2.0, Revenue Models and Profitability: A Web 1.0 Comparison” »

Day #2 in the CN Holiday Gifts goes to Website in Seconds. Here’s an overview provided by the company along with their giveaway to the CN readers.

Website in Seconds is a web hosting company committed to helping it’s clients achieve their online goals. Whether you want a personal blog for friends and family or an eCommerce solution for your new idea, we have you covered. Our customized site builder will help anyone, web savvy or not, construct a terrific website or eStore. We also have the means to design and deploy dynamic Web 2.0 businesses. Website in Seconds even provides professional SEO and unique marketing offerings like postcard mail-outs to promote your online endeavors. Your site will be up and running in no time with a 99.9% up-time guarantee. Help is always only a toll-free call or live chat away.

For the geeks, we don’t skimp on specs either. We’re techies ourselves and only offer servers that we’d want to be rolling on ourselves. We’re also committed to being a "green" energy company. Website In Seconds is continually evaluating new services and tools to provide added value to our customers.

The company is offering 33% off of new shared hosting subscriptions – just enter code ’0-h0h0h0′ during the checkout process.

Editor’s note: This post is part of our Holiday Gifts series. The company listed didn’t pay CN for the listing. The content above was provided by the company.

I thought it would be interesting after Mike posted about 15 web sites he couldn’t live without (I am guessing he would still get oxygen if they disappeared but maybe not!) that I post 10 web sites I could live without but wouldn’t want to. Rather than look at Web 2.0 type sites, I want to give you some other gems that might be worth checking out. So here goes in reverse alphabetical order… let’s take a video look shall we!

Some say the video is entertaining as well…

Here are the links I mention in the video

• TripAdvisor
• Spoofee
• LinkedIn
• Flyertalk
• Fatwallet
• Expedia
• eBay
• CreditBoards
• Citibank
• Amazon

Time Magazine has listed the "50 Coolest Websites" for 2006. I find it interesting that with all of the "cool" sites, they had to list their own TMZ site as a coolest Time Waster. Here are some that I think were left out:

Time Wasters: 

The biggest omission I see is StumbleUpon. This is clearly the best/coolest Time Waster around because not only is the tool cool, but the sites you learn about are cool.

Travel & Real Estate:

Where is TravelZoo? The absolute coolest site as it saves you money. And that's cool.

News & Information:

Digg? C'mon people. Digg does not have content. Would have been nice to see some good blogs here.

Staying Connected:

Where is Zoho? If you are going to put Google Spreadsheets down (even though now its Docs & Spreadsheets), Zoho should be there too.

Oh well, they did a pretty good job overall, I give them a B-, and as they say, there is always next year.

Netcraft released its Web Server Survey for November 2006 today and we have passed the 100 million web sites mark. Some interesting notes from their release:

The 100 million site milestone caps an extraordinary year in which the Internet has already added 27.4 million sites, easily topping the previous full-year growth record of 17 million from 2005. The Internet has doubled in size since May 2004, when the survey hit 50 million.

Blogs and small business web sites have driven the explosive growth this year, with huge increases at free blogging services at Google and Microsoft.

So what's really interesting is when I began commercial web design/development, Netcraft says there were already 10,000 web sites online. Seems pretty accurate. Some really cool stats include:

• April 1997 (1 million sites)
• February 2000 (10 million)
• September 2000 (20 million)

Apache still dominates the web server market holding over 60% market share.

The survey is well worth the read if only to imagine what the web was like when you began, even if that was just yesterday.