Blog Sites Heat Up!
03/17/2007, 1 year 5 months ago
Fuelmyblog.com has just been launched, and promises to be a popular online blogger gathering place. Kevin Dixie, a British blogger based in London and La Rochelle, France created the site to allow bloggers to publicize their blogs for free. Fuelmyblog also lets users recommend blogs to their friends and networks by rating each entry with votes.
The site is a little bit like a combination of MyBlogLog, Digg and Netscape, which is refreshing and fun. Kevin will be introducing a range of weekly podcasts and competitions in conjunction with interviews and a blog chat radio broadcast as expanded features of the innovation. In a press release via PRWeb, Kevin elaborated on his vision and how it came about: "I came up with the idea after writing my own blog and wanted to find a site that brought bloggers together and enabled easy reading within a couple of clicks. I always thought of blogs as just online diaries and never realized there was so much good creative content in the blogosphere."
Fuelmyblog is almost immediately likable! Part of this has to do with the visual aspect or impression the site leaves on you. I am not sure if it intentional or not, but the designers put together a gripping combination of colors and frames. The lion staring at new visitors while chewing provokes immediate laugher, and being able to see so many categorized blogs is interesting too. This site is evidence that some of our communities need to tone up their outer wear. Fuelmyblog is colorful without being too busy or noisy. Many sites have become so bland and boring in their attempts to reduce noise and appear "tech" worthy.
Blogs are categorized and a transparent mouse-over informs you about each of the blogs displayed. I actually signed up for the listing, and it was simpler than MyBlogLog or any of the others. I am officially awaiting acceptance as I write this, so we shall see what turns up on this new blogger hangout.
Clicking on the transparent pop-up makes the info frame static and offers several options to the user. You can "fuel" the selected blog, snuff out the blog or visit the blog. I hope there will be some accountability here, as this could end up being a sabotage nightmare otherwise. Perhaps there should be degrees of "snuffing", so that overzealous or angry bloggers will have to read more to actually hurt someone.
I like the site a lot! It is clean and simple, which really should be the criteria for any new site these days. Kevin and his people are adding even more functionality in the near future and I know that user feedback will make the site even more attractive. People are going to like this site, and you should check it out. I just hope the lion does not start eating the blog thumbnails.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to profy RSS feed!
I have to give you credit, Phil! I tried to check the site out and was so annoyed by all the fly-ins that I couldn't bring myself to delve deeper. As for the lion, unless Dreamworks is affiliated somehow with the site, I'm assuming that's not going to last long. It's animation from the movie Madagascar.
I understand Cyndy
Actually, you must have had 100 hours of "Warbirds Over London" flight simulator in order to like the multi-targeting approach to reading individual blog info bubbles. LOL
Phil
Really nice review Phil.
Regarding the “fly-ins”, are they really that bad? If so, we are open to listening to suggestions Cyndy, we feel one should know what the blog is about before reading it..or maybe it should just be a free-for-all based upon better categories? I’d appreciate any feedback.
Thanks
Kevin
Thanks Kevin, I actually like the fly ins, but they are a little disconcerting at first. The new user or surfer might not be as determined as me. I wonder if slowing them or delaying them would help?
Phil
Kevin,
I have a neighbor who is fond of downloading bootlegged movies and throttling our broadband connection every so often. If you are dealing with any lag (which I was at the time), the fly-ins get “stuck” and you can’t even view other blogs. It also shows a lag even at full bandwidth with loading all the little thumbnails.
I’m also partial to a pretty clean-looking landing page so I can sort out what it is the site does and get a feel for where I want to go and how I want to use it. Think of folks like me as four-year-olds going to the circus for the first time. We do better with one clown and a balloon before heading over for popcorn, then taking our seats than we do entering at a point when all three rings are going at the same time.
Cyndy has a great point Kevin, I notice that the many blog thumbnails take some time to load, and just a sampling separated by categories might load and look better. I am ADD any way, so one clown might not be enough, but 12 clowns might get my attention. One really giant Lara Croft looking beautiful clown would do it for most guys.
I also noted that this might be one of the things you are about to deal with in upcoming changes.
I thanks both of you for your comments.
The image loading is being rectified during the next week or so and in the cateogires, we will only be displaying 160 random blogs followed by paging.
Am still unsure about the fly-ins and whether they stay or go, we’ll have to discuss that this week, I do like the idea of delaying them or even offering the surfer the choice to see them or not..that could be something!
hello