Chris O.

(Reviewed by request)

This is one of those venues that inevitably leaves the older generation shaking its collective head and wondering what the world is coming to. This is most definitely not your grandmother's website.

It's promoted as a venue for older teenagers to do stuff which isn't allowed or welcomed elsewhere: rant, curse, swear, argue, moan, and generally vent their frustration that on the whole, life isn't a comfortable place for teenagers.

As such, perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea. If it kept anger out of other places, it would be doing the online community a service. Unfortunately it goes beyond that and into the realm of serious violence and easy access to shock materials. Anyone can go here and browse through member-uploaded videos, which range from endless clips taken from the execrable "Jerry Springer Uncut" through to many clips of real street fighting and extreme violence, teenage depression and suicide. I didn't watch the "suicide on webcam" clip I came across so I can't tell you if it's real or not. It shouldn't be here, regardless.

The site has around 2000 listed members, each of whom posts a profile which anyone can read, member or otherwise. Membership is split almost 50/50 male to female, though of course you can't be entirely sure who you're communicating with and I saw member photos that were of the opposite gender to the profile description. As this is a broadly teen community, there's an online dating feel to it. Making new friends is encouraged, though it's a little disconcerting that lots of angry people might be getting together to meet lots more angry people. I just hope they do it somewhere distant from me.

Obviously appropriate as a venue for the MySpace crowd, the whole thing could be taken as a relatively harmless joke. The outpourings of hate which are prerequisites of the teenage rite of passage aren't necessarily all that serious or long-lasting, and although the site encourages you to bring your bad temper with you, it doesn't openly seek out the real nutcases out there for whom anger is the first step to something very much more dangerous.

The message here is "get mad, but have fun!" and I would like to have laughed, but the more I saw of the content the more unpleasant the site became for me. Regardless of my age, which I freely admit has gone somewhat past teen, I'm concerned about the level of visual violence on display to minors. The uploading of real-life street fight videos is encouraged and it's a sure thing that the younger brothers and sisters of members here are going to be exposed to this material.

For me, this is a sleazy reality show that I don't want to watch, and wouldn't want my kids to watch either. Sure, it's easy to find shock material, violence and pornography all over the web if you go looking. But that's not the same as having it delivered to you at a venue so appropriate to young people.

Now then, before someone else reviews this site from a more sympathetic viewpoint and observes that the Terms Of Use state clearly that members must be 18 years of age or older:

1) I was able to register with a birthdate in 1993. That makes me 16 years old. In fact the registration form clearly indicates that members may be 16 years old.

2) There are many, many 16- and 17-year old members already using the site.

3) There is no hotlink to the Terms Of Use in the registration form. You are required to tick a box stating "I accept and agree to the user agreement", though you will not find any document by that name on the site. The "user agreement" is presumably the Terms Of Use, and you'll only find that if you look at the small print at the very end of the page. And it's the longest Terms Of Use I think I've ever seen, since it needs to separate the site from any responsibility for anything whilst committing you to considerably weakening any rights in the content you upload:

"You agree that any Content you upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available via the MeJab Service is non-confidential and that MeJab shall have a perpetual, worldwide, fully paid, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use any such Content in connection with the MeJab Service and MeJab's (and its successor's) business..."

Note the "and it's successor's business". You're handing over content not just to MeJab, but to any company which takes over the site subsequently. And they will be free to do what they like with it, as the information will then be subject to a different set of terms, if any.

"You also hereby grant each user of the MeJab Service a non-exclusive license to access your Content through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such Content as permitted through the functionality of the Website and under these Terms of Service. The submission of any materials to MeJab irrevocably waives any and all "moral rights" in such materials, including the rights of paternity and integrity."

This is a big catch-all. Any member of the site may copy your content, distribute it, alter it, and generally do whatever they like with it. You have no claim to it any more. Of course, in turn you can also help yourself to other members' information at no risk.

Let's step back a bit and see what is meant by "Content", legally:

"BY UPLOADING, POSTING, SENDING OR SUBMITTING PHOTOGRAPHS, PICTURES, IMAGES OR ANY OTHER CONTENT INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, GRAPHICS, VIDEO, DATA, TEXT, FILES, LINKS, SOFTWARE, MUSIC, SOUND, ("CONTENT") TO MeJab YOU ARE CONSENTING TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS OF USE."

So the meaning of "Content" here is "everything" and therefore includes your personal photos and any other personal material or information that you provide. And any and all of that may be handed over to any business that succeeds the current owners of the MeJab service.

Moving on to the "Privacy Policy", we see that:

"MeJab reserves the right to transfer personal information to a successor in interest that acquires rights to that information as a result of the sale of MeJab or substantially all of its assets to that successor in interest."

And

"If... we are going to use users' personally identifiable information in a manner materially different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify by posting a notice on our website."

And they would be using your information "in a manner materially different" for what purpose, I wonder?

Lastly:

"we limit access to member information to those employees who need access to perform their job functions, such as customer service personnel and technical staff. Please note that we cannot guarantee the security of member account information."

So, it's essential that you understand what you're doing before giving the site any information or content of any sort. You may not then want to tick that "I accept and agree" button.

Everyone knows that, regardless of terms and conditions, teens add a few years to their true age when they sign up for social sites. Please don't try to convince me that every 21-year old on MySpace is truly 21, we all know this, and we know when we're pitching a site to young people even if we say otherwise. There's a duty of care which a responsible business should recognize. It concerns me when a business goes to such great lengths to distance itself from that duty of care and gives the impression that its' own rights are more important than those of the users. I would have much preferred to see the current owners of this site promise not to hand over personal information to anyone, successor or not, and to make at least some token effort to protect at least some of the uploaded content, at least that of a personal nature. I don't believe there's a need for employees to be able to access user login details without the permission of the user; I know my ISP won't get into my account without requesting my password. Because it's known, as a result of many breaches of security in the past, that employees who can collect saleable data and resell it on, sometimes do exactly that.

This is not a site I'm likely to return to, because I'm not comfortable there. If it's the right place for you, you'll know it when you see it. But even so, read the small print. Create an email address that you're only going to use for this site alone. Don't give away anything personal unless you're sure you don't mind what happens to it. And be really, really careful out there.

(Reviewed by request)

1) This is a FREE website hosted at webs.com - not an "online megastore".
2) Design, language both poor to awful.
3) Hotmail is not a service used by genuine, trustworthy businesses.
4) No proof that they are an LLC, as claimed.
5) Less-than-glowing customer comments:

"I ordered an Iphone and I got a fake fedex tracking number too! What happens when you call the toll free number is it busy?"

"Where is my order? What happen to great customer service? Why do I have a fake Fedex tracking number?"

"Last Friday I ordered iphone with overnight shipping. But I have not received anything from this company. Also, they gave a fake tracking number and never answer my call after sold item. I think you should cantact the police and your credit card service center to report a fraud this company. I'm already done.
Good luck and let's get our stolen money."

"Why didn't anybody call me or email me with a real fedex tracking number? "Why are all of the toll fee numbers line busy and have been busy since sunday? Please contact me because I have contacted the company twice from the contact us tab but nobody has!"

"I purchased the 3gs on Friday and paid extra for express. The shipping number is not valid and nobody has returned my emails! All of a sudden all the lines are busy and have been since Sunday... What is going on with my order?"

If you want to risk $300 on a site that looks like this, maybe you might as well send the money to me - I could really use it right now. It's very unlikely, in my personal opinion, that you'd get anything more from the person who runs this site.

A word in the ear of Jeffrey, the owner of this site: please, don't bribe your customers to give you good reviews on SiteJabber:

" If you are a satisfied customer, please take a moment to write a review at www.sitejabber.com. If we see your review on their site, we will give you a free pack of cigs with your next order as a thank you present."

Tut tut. I imagine other SiteJabber reviewers may have somewhat negative opinions about that. Pity, because if you can get past the harm done by people who promote cigarettes, the site is kind of interesting in a morbid sort of way. And I've yet to see a Chairman Mao messenger bag anywhere else.

But at the time of writing, expect a rush of "I love tygerpipes.com, please may I have my free ciggies now?" reviews.

It's not every day I have to go find out what "orthogonal" means, but having found Michael Chu's "Orthogonal Thought" blog (http://www.orthogonalthought.com/blog/) and drifted from there to his website, Cooking For Engineers, I felt obliged to find out. Sadly, now I know, I still don't know. But good grief, Jim, I'm a cook, not an engineer.

Cooking For Engineers has been created for those who have the ability to be both things simultaneously, lucky people that they are. And the result is a foodie fansite that's so neat and tidy, you could cut yourself on the edges.

Everything here is very square, in a geometric rather than a sociological manner. The photography is rarely less than excellent and the text, even when enthusing over a recipe, is crisp and to the point. So, well, I guess I'm implying that this is very much a site for men who clear their desks before the end of the day and don't think a slide rule is a playground regulation. I wouldn't know, somehow I've never made friends with one of those guys but I think I've seen them, from afar.

If you're comfortable with the lack of clumsy exuberance that infuses other, less precise cookery sites then there's plenty to learn and study here. You may find the tone just a touch deprecatory, as in this, from a book review:

"In the cholesterol entry, it starts off with "A soft, waxy lipid (a type of fat)..." which is also kind of wrong. Since cholesterol is fat soluble it is a lipid, but fats are type of lipid, not the other way around. Vitamin A is a lipid, but is not a fat. Similarly, cholesterol is a lipid but not a fat. But, here I'm nitpicking..."

But you have to admire the thoughtful precision that imbues even a simple task such as splitting a muffin:

"Meanwhile, I had taken my English muffins and halved them with two forks. Using a knife produces a smoother finish on the muffin halves which doesn't toast as well or produce the famous nooks and crannies for sauce and dressing to fill."

Wonderful attention to detail. I will, however, take issue with the description of English muffins as "resembling crumpets." I'm English. They don't. A crumpet is a crumpet and as Wikipedia says, an English Muffin only "bears a *vague* resemblance to a crumpet." But there, now I'm starting to nitpick, it must be catching.

I did enjoy my trip around this site, though I didn't have time to explore the attached forum and I've bookmarked it for a return sometime soon. It has a different flavor from other foodie sites but that's a compliment. An engineered one, but a compliment all the same.

This is a popular self-help weight-loss site that doesn't try to sell you phentramin-d, which in itself is a bonus and a refreshing change from all the other weight-loss sites trying to get reviewed here at sitejabber.

This site rather stuns you on arrival, there's so much happening on the front page. But as you'll notice, it was created by a man with a most impressive hat so it gets my vote right there.

It also got the votes of the vast majority of readers at lifehacker.com, as the best weight-loss site around. And you've got to take that seriously because us lifehacker folks take our website recommendations very seriously.

The site was also named "Best Health Website" in 2006, 2007, and 2008 by Business Week, and it offers, amongst other things, a personalized diet & fitness plan, calorie counter & exercise tracker, fitness demonstrations & videos, and over 100,000 articles, recipes, & tips. It all looks so very jolly and positive, I'm almost tempted to join up, myself.

Well, maybe after dinner.

According to UGG, ANY site with UGG in the domain name, except the official Australian site, is a F-A-K-E. Sorry for being tedious, but I'm posting this in any page that reviews one of these fakes. If it's not uggaustralia.com, it's phony. Please, tell your friends and save someone else from losing money because they didn't read the small print.

Please go here:

http://www.uggaustralia.com/retailstores/onlinestores.aspx

And here:

http://www.uggaustralia.com/retailStores/counterfeit.aspx

And post these addresses anywhere you see phony sites trading, or being reviewed or discussed.

Here's a novelty, a Chinese website selling fake electronics. Who would have guessed?

All the products here are manufactured in Korea, just for a change, and then sold out of a Chinese website. So I think it's safe to conclude that you aren't buying a genuine Apple Macbook Air for that 330 Euro price tag.

At least there's some honesty here - the site clearly states that all their products are made in Korea and then sold through the Chinese branch of the company. But as I've said elsewhere, you really have no guarantees whatsoever that you'll get what you ordered, if anything, as a result of trading with websites like this one, even if they do tell the truth about their manufacturing sources.

What's truly scary about this site is not the fake MacBook, it's the fake motorcycles. Yes, you read that correctly, another novelty of this site is the inclusion of a motorcycles section alongside the electronics. For a mere $2,400 you can purchase a "Honda" which retails at $12,000 in the USA. Hands up, anyone who fancies risking the freeway on a bike faked up by an anonymous Korean manufacturer and sold out of China? Anyone?

The only genuine site with UGG in the URL is the official UGG Australia site, http://www.uggaustralia.com. The rest are fakes. 'Nuff said.

Chatterblocker isn't a web-based application as SimplyNoise.com is, this is a piece of software you'll have to spend $19.95 on if you find it works for you. But the idea is the same, to mask background chatter in offices and other noisy environments by introducing audible interference. Rather than simply use white or pink noise, the application uses a mixture of musical, human and natural sounds and the user can vary the effects to find the best choice for a given situation.

I did find that the application offered me some relief in a noisy family living room, and if I had to work in this sort of environment regularly I'd definitely give this a go. There's a free trial, so it's worth a download if coping with environmental noise is an issue for you.

The top source of prescription drug information, it features an unique and authoritative pill identification wizard which will help you identify anything you find accidentally dropped on the floor, or hidden in, say, your teenager's bedroom. That alone is priceless for parents. You may learn about your prescription drugs, how they work and how they interact, and even check out your pet's medication here. In addition to information on about 25,000 medications classified by name and by illness, the site also keeps visitors up to date on the latest pharmaceutical news. One of the top handful of websites that you simply must bookmark, and highly recommended.

"Oobject is a design blog all about technology. We create hundreds of lists of unusual or interesting gadgets which are ranked by user votes, much like music charts." - Oobject frontpage.

Don't be put off by the term "lists", as these are more accurately collections of images rated in order of relevance to the theme. And there are some pretty obscure/unexpected/daft themes here: "15 Spectacular eye-testing gadgets", or "8 Pointless uses of carbon fiber" for example. Visitors may vote and comment, and each image thoughtfully links back to its origin so you may go explore further.

Sometimes these lists work, other times they don't. For me, anyway. But the list of lists is almost endless and there's generally at least a minor giggle here somewhere. Bookmark this one for coffee-time and you'll probably find yourself sharing it with your friends.

I followed the review by Lori B (http://www.sitejabber.com/users/307ceeb6f0bd6f86d*******ddd5a19c4f and sorry about the length of the URL but no doubt the site admins are working on it) to get to this remarkable site.

Waaaaay back, back in the day, Yahoo! Was grey, owning a 28.8k modem was cool, people learned HTML 3 and wrote their websites by hand and computer programs were still computer programs and not Apps. There was also a triumvirate of internet communities - Geocities, Angelfire and Tripod - which opened up the web to people who'd never published anything before and gave them the freedom to expose themselves, so to speak, to the world. Offering not only space, but also simple design and file management tools, these sites enabled anyone with web access to publish something for themselves, largely free of charge.

The result, in many cases, was a hideous explosion of inappropriate colors, unavoidable and unstoppable soundclips, massively oversized images, eye-popping animated banners and an outpouring of more personal information than anyone would want to know. Everyone who could afford a space on Geocities and had the publishing urge, could show the world what their personal lives were really like, what their hobbies were, what their dreams and beliefs were, and, more often than not, how truly bad they were at designing websites. But in there too, were little gems that opened windows into other folks' lives in more gentle, less explosive ways. And this is one of those, a survivor of less hasty times.

Using only the minimum of coding bells and whistles consistent with a neat and tidy site, the Nolls' website is - at least for me - a step back into the days when personal websites were worth visiting, and even recommended by the Yahoo! Directory (which, astonishing though it seems today, was at that time created by real people looking at each submitted website in person). These days, of course, no search engine will bother with this stuff: there's no money in it. You come across it by chance or recommendation, as I did here. And that's a pity.

The Nolls describe their site as their "window on the world", though it would be true to say it's rather more our window, on them. And I won't spoil it for you, but they've been around the block a few times and are still at it, so although you'll get handy homespun tips on seasonal produce here, they'll also show you China and try to encourage you to learn to speak English properly and not mix American and British on the same page (forget it, folks, it's a lost cause).

All the prerequisites of the early days of home websites are here: photos and descriptions of the computer, the cameras used, right down to a photo of their battery charger. The webcam in the backyard. Vacation and family stories. And all presented as plainly as it comes, without a single nod towards any coding development less than ten years old and apparently no temptation to turn this into a blog and lose that 20th century touch.

I realised as I was coming to the end of this review that this is the first genuinely personal, non-profit, non-forum, non-blog website I've visited in years.

What happened? I guess We got awfully self-important back there somewhere, and now everyone's a social commentator. Strangely, society doesn't seem to have changed that much for all the opinions we've blogged, but the Nolls are still here, and let's face it, how many blogs teach you how to can prunes anyway?

Props to Ron K for finding this one, and educational to see what can be achieved with $15k of venture capital. I immediately thought "aha... free porn distribution" and it turns out that adult content has indeed been a major area for this service. There was a plan to open a companion site, called "Stripd", to contain the adult material that was pouring in, but the link to Stripd on the Snipd site is not working so I guess that didn't work out.
(source: Cnet.com)

Snipd works by bookmarklet, which is a small piece of javascript code embedded in a bookmark which you create in your browser. Once you have that, you can copy anything you like from anywhere on the web, to your own personal area on Snipd. Video, Flash, bits of text, images, you name it. Very handy for grabbing and redistributing video clips, for example.

So the most obvious question is, how does the service get around the fact that copying just about anything in this way is a breach of copyright? According to the terms of use, you can't use the service to copy anything that "infringes upon [a] third party's intellectual property rights or copyright." Which is more or less anything that doesn't already belong to you. And that renders the whole thing pointless, since the only items you're going to copy are ones that you didn't create.

The site distances itself from legal action by making the users responsible for their own actions and declaring its right to decide whether something is legal or not. But if I read it correctly, it's dancing very close to the edge of current copyright legislation. And while I don't entirely agree with that legislation, I don't think I really want people helping themselves to everything I produce and distributing it via this site or any other. At least, not without asking.

Anyway I decided to try this for myself, created the bookmarklet and registered at the site. Several attempts later, I still had no saved snippets and I gave up. It may be that the service isn't compatible with my browser and extensions. And I don't really feel like asking for help; the site has no forum for discussion or any guides other than the basic "how-to", and it feels kind of cold and empty. Which is bad for a social media site, I think.

Despite the cool idea, traffic to the site has dropped significantly since its launch this time last year (source: Crunchbase).

I wish I could be more positive but the service simply doesn't work for me, and I'm not about to change browsers. Hopefully someone else can try it out and post a further review.

Sources:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-*******_*******9484-2.html
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/snipd

Very briefly: this is a known scam. Owned by a Pole, gives a Polish address in Sweden (go figure). Listed at WebOfTrust as a scam by several previous users. Site is littered with typos and bad grammar, a fair clue in itself. If you truly believe anyone is going to pay you $100 to read an email, you shouldn't be allowed out.

The IP address of this site is 174.132.219.90, which is an IP owned by an American web host, www.getpaidsolutions.com. If the mailsmoney site is acting illegally, you could always report it to its web host and ask that it no longer be hosted. However, getpaidsolutions.com specializes in hosting pay per click and pay to read sites just like mailsmoney.net, and as their servers are in both the USA and Hong Kong they may well avoid U.S. jurisdiction.

Nevertheless if you feel you've been ripped off by the mailsmoney.net site, it might give you some satisfaction to send off an email to the web host even if you have no hope of getting a result. Their address is *******@getpaidsolutions.com. Or you could drop a line to the site owner, Mr Gruchala himself, at *******@gmail.com. I can't imagine that will help, but you might feel better for having a say.

Manages an impressive 325 complaints at RipoffReport.com. Enough said, probably.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/Search/Body/Net-Detective-.aspx

"Gear for geeks and gamers", this is a cool collection of T-shirt and sticker designs which appeals to me as both geek and gamer. I love tees that aren't vulgar for the sake of it and will always choose clever over crass. So I'd buy most of these if I could afford it, which I can't. But I'll bookmark it and come back when I can, as it's rare for me to find a range which contains so many good designs. And aside from the shirts and stickers, there are mugs, magnets and more good stuff here.

The site also offers artists a chance to submit their own ideas for new shirts, for review and critiques by their customers. Plus a competition to win a shirt for your very own, just by telling them your very, very good reason for winning. Such as, for example, that you've just given them a glowing review on SiteJabber...

I must admit to being a bit confused as I was looking at this site and another, www.weightcritic.com, at the same time and they appear to be, if not the same horse, at least out of the same stable. I wouldn't be surprised if there are hundreds more, with slightly varying designs, and slightly varying prices, but all basically the same site with the same message.

I didn't have time to read the reviews of every medication on this site, but it seems to be better constructed than many and, if it delivers the goods as promised, is at least being honest about what its main purpose is - to sell you phentramin-d.

That being the case, it doesn't really need to have the FDA logo or the National Library of Medicine logo on the front page; they can't be clicked and obviously don't belong here, they're just here to make the page look important. Ironically, that would be enough in itself to make me go elsewhere, because there's nothing worse than an obvious fake.

However and surprisingly, the site does bother to describe the contents of the phentramin-d pill, and accurately: a combination of Dimethylpentylamine 1,3 and Trimethylxanthine + 1, 3, 7 (pure caffeine). So there you have enough information to go do some research of your own before you buy.

If you do that research, and then go see your doctor and get proper professional advice, you'll be able to make an informed decision about needing this drug or not. Although it's a non-prescription drug it is still powerful and may not be appropriate for you. It messes with some brain chemicals you possibly don't want messed with, and in an extreme case it could have a very serious effect if you are already taking certain other medications for pre-existing conditions.

There are a great many of these sites, so it's clear that selling phentramin-d, or its more dangerous predecessor, phentermine, is HUGE business. As long as you know that, and as long as you go into it with professional healthcare advice and monitoring, you shouldn't have any unpleasant surprises. Whether you choose to use this particular site or another, is up to you.

I will, however, suggest that you don't buy from any website that displays fake logos that don't click-through to the right places. If you see, for example, a BBB (Better Business Bureau) logo or graphic of any sort, that MUST then click through to the BBB page for that website. If it doesn't, or if there's not hotlink there at all, move along. Likewise if you see logos or graphics declaring that a site is "safe", "trusted", "secure", "hacker-proof", or affiliated to the FDA or other organization, and these graphics don't take you to the correct page in that organization for that website, then they are phony and the site is likely to be, also. The more dubious a site, the more it will try to convince you of its authenticity. Look before you leap. Search health forums for people who've used these sites before. Join those forums yourself and ask questions. Be careful out there.

Wow, what a bunch of contrasting reviews this site has collected! And given that it's a poorly-designed affair anyway, surprising that it's getting so much attention.

I can't think of much to say subjectively, other than it doesn't look like the sort of place I'd personally go to spend money, and I haven't found any indicator that AutomarketingInc is an independent business entity; it does, however, share location and ownership with another company entirely, called Supreme Vehicles, a car broker in Omaha, and that company may have a connection with a similarly-named company in London, since the one site links to the other.
The registrant of automarketing.inc is DeAntoine Warren, PO BOX *******, Omaha, Nebraska *******, *******@yahoo.com. And according to the BBB: Supreme Vehicles, Auto and Truck Brokers (not a member) is also a Mr. DeAntoine Warren, 222 S 15th St #306, Omaha, Nebraska *******. I'd guess that they're one and the same, just a guess, of course. But if so, you'd have to wonder why the lack of transparency.

Updated November 11th 2009

I have found myself using this site quite regularly since I reviewed it, and I've raised my rating of it as a result. I don't think my earlier opinions need serious revision, the site still looks and functions the same, but it's a more useful source of information than I expected it would be. I haven't voted on anything and to be honest I usually don't even think to look at the votes. It's a good one to bookmark just to see what's new, though.

==========================
Original review

A site intended to bring the latest and best of the new internet startups to the attention of the general web public and venture capitalists out there, they claim to be reviewing more than fifteen such new startups every day.

When I visited, they had nothing at all for today and I had to go look at yesterday's selection. I found only five reviews, far short of the 15+ that were claimed, and the reviewer for each was the same, a "pbarker" whose name wasn't hotlinked to a profile, making him or her effectively anonymous.

I found that it was possible for me to vote on a review without registering. So I assume if I go to a different PC or clear my cookies, I can vote as many times as I like for my own company.

I confess that I didn't spend as much time on this site as I often will before writing a review. And there's a reason for that. If it's true that hundreds of startups are appearing every week, then whether I'm just a curious surfer, a venture capitalist, or the writer of the coolest web blog around, I'm not going to have the time to wade through all of them. I'm going to want to see the best and I'm going to expect that the reviews are, if not actually authoritative, at least plausibly honest and independent.

Unfortunately there's no indication that the reviews here are independent, and the voting system is pretty much irrelevant given the ease of anonymous and probably repeated voting. The site software is also broken in that the number of votes on a review is different depending on what page you are on, as is the timestamp on the review. For example, the one I have in front of me now, according to the index, has 6 votes and was published 20 hours ago. But if I click through to the review itself, it now has only 1 vote and was published under a minute ago.

None of this leaves me with any feeling of confidence in anything published here. Which is a shame, because a reliable index of the latest and coolest startups could become hot property. This, though, is lukewarm at best.

A Belgian blog featuring the author's choice of what is, was and might still be cool in the various worlds of design. I think he chooses well, it's unpretentious (though the content may well not be) and a relaxing coffee-timekiller.