Month: January 1970

In her own words, Dr. Deborah Serani is “a psychologist who specializes in trauma and depression”. She’s using this weblog as a means of sharing information she’s studied and to provide others with a place to gain some useful information about issues that “impact the human psyche”. Right off the bat, I realize that this weblog will certainly not be for everyone. If I wasn’t reviewing it, I think the author’s bio would be enough to clue me in to the fact that this wasn’t going to be a weblog that is simple to read. In this case, that’s okay! This site isn’t for everyone and the author undoubtedly knows this.

By reading the site’s very first post dated in July 2005, I learned that Dr. Serani knows what she’s talking about. With her work and educational background, this weblog is written by someone that’s spent years and years studying the history, reasoning, and effects of all different kinds of psychology. Before I could even make a reference to Tom Cruise and his expertise in psychology, Dr. Serani writes a post and includes a suggested reading list for Cruise. While the letter focused on the serious side of the spectrum, it was enjoyable to see the author using her research to tap into pop culture from time to time.

Several of the topics that Dr. Serani covers are subjects that are constantly being discussed in today’s media. With articles titled “Body Image and Self Worth In Women” and “How To Choose a Good Therapist”, there’s valuable information available to those looking for it. Once Google picks up on this site, I have a feeling it will become even more popular.

One of the posts I found most interesting is the “Questions & Answers” interactive post. She allowed visitors to leave psychologically related question, and in turn she would answer them. This post received an overwhelming response, and it will be interesting to see if she does it again. Her post about Chromotherapy was also a unique post, as was reading about her experience as a consultant on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

I’m not a fan of the layout for several reasons. It’s a Blogspot template, or at least started out to be one. The author has added about 30 different buttons/links at the bottom of the layout that really give off the impression that they were just thrown there with no rhyme or reason. Sometimes, there are images that are thrown into a post that end up breaking the layout or overlapping another image. Personally, I wouldn’t call any of this “bad”; I would just credit it to inexperience with HTML and the specific Blogger code. Then again, Dr. Serani is a psychologist – not a web designer. As with the majority of the weblog layouts I’ve seen, this one has a center table for the entries, and a side column full of links to the archives, author’s bio, external links, etc.

Dr. Serani has done a lot of research before writing the articles she posts on her weblog. She ends each article with a list of sources she’s used to validate everything she’s written. Her information is the real deal, not something that’s just coming out of an uneducated-Tom-Cruise-like person.

While, as I’ve said, this weblog certainly will not be for everyone, I found it more interesting than I thought I would. I have a slight interest in psychology, so it was enjoyable and at the same time educational to read more detailed information about different aspects of the field from someone as experienced and knowledgeable as Dr. Serani.NULL

Upon first glimpse at this site I found it evident that it wasn’t so much a creative writing blog as it was musings on life and what’s going on in the world (Intelligent Design Creationism, Star Wars, quantum mechanics, et cetera are some topics discussed) with a slight creative edge.

This blog seems to be more commentary on different things and multi-part posts than anything else. There’s nothing wrong with this; in fact, I find it a nice change from the mundane. Moreover they’re interesting. Even though I don’t particularly care what they teach in schools or whether one movie is similar to another, it’s still compelling to read these “to be continued” style postings.

The design is simple, and looks like a Blogger standard, but it isn’t one of the horribly overused ones. The soft green colors are just enough to be aesthetically pleasing but not so much as to overpower the writing.

The extras are contained to just links and a shout box. Usually, a shout box would be a very bad addition to a site (I don’t care what anyone’s told you) but it doesn’t slow the page load so I can’t really complain about it. That’s the only part of the design that’s misaligned, and that’s probably just my screen resolution.

Overall, this is a pretty good blog. The design is nothing fancy, but the writing is deep and the content is kept to the topic at hand, which is good. I have to frown about the Google ads, but I didn’t even notice them at first. They’re unobtrusive, just like everything else on this site. I have to conclude with a 4.75… my highest score yet. Congratulations at having an almost perfect site.NULL

I truly didn’t know what to expect when I saw the name “Truly Obscure.” I thought I had come across another blog, but when I visited the website, it was truly much more. According to their description, Truly Obscure is, “Hawaii’s best (and only) print and online magazine focused on news and reviews of the latest, greatest, and strangest.”

From the description, I expected to read a lot about Hawaii and things happening in Hawaii, but this is just one section of what is available at this zine/blog. And that is a good thing. There are sections about all things cinematic, literary, music, games and gaming, web stuff, gadgets, and food, as well as things about Hawaii. But all this information and interesting articles seem buried by only being available by the links at the top, and way at the bottom, below the long description, and the full length latest article. The description of what ‘Truly Obscure’ is about takes up too much space. New visitors want to get to the content as fast as possible and repeat visitors don’t want to see that long intro over and over again. Another benefit of reducing that long intro is that you can get to more of the content faster.

The design integrates well with the function. The menu in particular was very eye catching, with a combination of a picture, the link title, and a nice color change when the mouse hovers over the link. I would change the layout of the content so that I could see more of the articles from the other sections sooner, rather than have to scroll to the bottom. The sidebar really doesn’t have much useful information other than the bios and the ‘about’, and this space could be utilized better. In addition, I would have liked to see more color. The design, although very functional, was a little plain for an online magazine.

Overall, I liked this website so much that I bookmarked it, (and spent a lot of time giving what I hope was a very detailed, helpful review). Definitely a 5 for content, but the layout and presentation of the content needs some improvement.
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One of the things I enjoy about blogs is when I find a blog about a specific topic. This can be any topic, but it has to stay focused on that topic. I knew right away that The Google Spot would be a blog focused solely on Google and I curious as to what this blog had to offer about the company.

The blog is hosted on blogspot, using blogger, and using a blogger template. I wonder if the author is trying to score extra points by doing all this. The header says just what I suspected “The Google Spot is dedicated to all things Google”. So now onto the blog itself.

First a question. Did you blink? If so you might have read the entire blog. This blog consists of total of nine posts. This blog is still a baby. The posts are of course about all things Google. This ranges from news about a Google browser, Google WiFi in SF, Google and Sun’s announcement and of course the Google maps. Yup, everything is about Google.

This blog while a specific topic is not doing it for me. The problem is that there are too few posts to actually be considered “the source of all Google info” and the author doesn’t post on a daily basis. Additionally, all of the things that the author posted I have read about before on other more generic “news on the web” type sites.

I give the author credit for starting a blog dedicated to Google. I only know of one other that is dedicated to the almighty company (only because they have top search result for the phrase weblog). This blog has potential; however the author needs to invest the time into the blog in order for it to grow. If he doesn’t than this blog is just taking up space in the blogosphere.
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This isn’t a blog. It is a dating site. This line of text from the page makes it clear what the site is about: “Russian dating, love and marriage: Russian women photo personals seeking men.” The site provides a list of Russian woman who are available for marriage, mostly to “European” men. If you click on a picture you are sent to a slightly more detailed profile of the woman and may view a few more pictures. There are no pornographic overtones to the site (thank goodness), though the enterprise is slightly distasteful. The favorite word the women use to describe themselves is “calm.” The favorite choice for body type is “sporty.”

There are no posts, only personal profiles. There is no “author.” There is a clear purpose to the blog: finding husbands for Russian women.

The design is ugly. There is white type on a black background, my least favorite set-up. There are Google Ads on the right side of the page, a mish-mash of fonts and typefaces and generally no unifying elements to the design. A basic blogger template would be more attractive. Getting off the front page is easy, but you are then forced to navigate archives without much direction. The site design serves its purpose, but just barely.

If you are a European man looking for a Russian bride, you may be interested in this site. If you are a potential Russian bride you may want to take a look in order to size up the competition. Otherwise you’ll want to skip this one. It’s not even good for a laugh–it just made me sad.

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