Site Reviews by Dave Kim in the Norton Safe Web community Thu May 17 03:17:30 +0000 2012 http://safeweb.norton.com/profile/Dave%20Kim Paypal was acquired by eBay several years ago, so as easy as it is to use for paying in general it's even easier if you're still using eBay. Safe site that has been around for 710 years. Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:18:56 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=paypal.com Pownce is a recently released microblogging website where users can do regular updates like Twitter but can also share files and events. It's co-founded by Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg. Safe site but I don't know how dangerous or limiting the file sharing aspect is. Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:15:51 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=pownce.com Xiaonei is a Chinese social networking website that looks nearly identical to the US Facebook site. Verdict is still out on this site, it's suspicious for sure especially with the outright stealing of the design. Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:13:52 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=xiaonei.com Orkut was built by a Google engineer as the social networking answer to Friendster back in 2004/5, but it never really took off except in Brazil. As a result, you will get all sorts of Portuguese spam and requests if you're not careful. Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:09:28 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=orkut.com .... Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:32:03 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=lolcatbible.com ecommerce site for computer electronic items. Bad UI and too much clutter and they live and die by the mail-in rebate. They have some questionable standards and processes there, so watch out. The BBB gives this place a grade of "B" so it's legit but you may experience some pain. I prefer newegg personally. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:27:21 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=tigerdirect.com Put simply, this is the PHP dictionary and encyclopedia that everyone PHP developer should have as their reference. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:21:45 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=php.net .... Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:16:50 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=fanpop.com I'm a huge fan of REI. Yes they have gone very mainstream lately but have done a decent job of keeping to their roots. They're still a co-op so a one-time membership fee and you get a dividend depending on how much you spend. It's like getting 1-10% of your money back! And I have an REI credit card so I get a huge dividend every January! REI is still the go to place for most people at a beginner level of many sports, but it can't always beat the specialty stores. Rock-solid ecommerce site. They do things right here. Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:14:41 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=rei.com yeah I'm a guy and you normally wouldn't think you'd be perusing a site for bags, but you'd be mistaken. I've gone here time and again for everything the last 2 years. Camera bag for my dSLR, new laptop bag, new cycling messenger bag. Who knew I needed (or wanted) so many bags? Legit ecommerce site with occasional coupons and deals and a fantastic 60-day return policy. Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:12:27 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=ebags.com Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:55:16 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=jayisgames.com Due to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, consumers are allowed to request and obtain a FREE credit report annually from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian, TransUnion. These three companies created ANNUALCREDITREPORT.COM to facilitate free access to annual credit reports. Others especially those heavily advertised on TV are a SCAM. Freecreditreport.com is a big scam!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freecreditreport.com Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:00:53 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=freecreditreport.com Due to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, consumers are allowed to request and obtain a FREE credit report annually from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian, TransUnion. These three companies created ANNUALCREDITREPORT.COM to facilitate free access to annual credit reports. Others especially those heavily advertised on TV are a SCAM. Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:59:38 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=annualcreditreport.com good place to look for open positions, but it really helps using this site in conjunction with a recruiter Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:51:59 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=indeed.com Plurk is a competitor to Twitter only they're not doing a great job of it. They try to implement a timeline and karma to increase their stickiness and user loyalty, but so far I'm not impressed. Verdict is still out on them without a large userbase. Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:36:45 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=plurk.com Twitter has exploded on the scene and with APIs to facebook, friendfeed and others as well as a recent acquisition of the Summize search platform it has a lot of promise despite their constant outages Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:34:25 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=twitter.com Great informational site about seating on just about any plane on any carrier. Cross-reference this when booking flights to find the seats too close to bathrooms, without a window, with extra legroom, etc. Great reference tool! Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:31:29 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=seatguru.com Forget starting at expedia, orbitz, priceline, etc. Kayak consolidates and aggregates things for you! Best site to start with for all travel! Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:30:02 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=kayak.com Chowhound is the distant cousin to Yelp. Yelp attracts a larger audience but Chowhound has a fiercely loyal group of followers. Yelp focuses more on reviews and compliments whereas Chowhound focuses almost solely on forum interaction, something Yelp hasn't quite mastered Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:29:10 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=chowhound.com Great shopping site where there is one deal for the day until it's all sold out or time expires. Also try shirt.woot and wine.woot! Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:27:37 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=woot.com Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:26:57 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=metafilter.com .... Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:26:50 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=reddit.com Digg is a great social news site. Questions about whether the top stories generate from a truly democratic method, but the site is solid and safe. Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:26:38 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=digg.com I use meebo to integrate all my chats, but security is a big if here. Unlike your direct Yahoo IM app, you can't control many settings and I've gotten spam and phishing IMs that are annoying to no end. Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:21:37 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=meebo.com I use it all the time. Fantastic site and they live up to their motto "Real People. Real Reviews". I've been an active user for 3 years and it affects many of my gustatory decisions. Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:04:07 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=yelp.com UPDATE: Craigslist has released a new feature. Craigslist has implemented a phone verification system in certain categories to reduce SPAM content. When you attempt to make a post, it asks for you to verify yourself by typing in a viable phone number. It automatically calls it and repeats a verification code which you must then enter for your post to go live. If your post gets flagged, the phone number you verified with will be blacklisted. Craigslist is great but be careful of the scammers out there. Craigslist does a fair job of notifying the end users of these scammers, but basically the responsibility is in your hands. Best advice is, if you're going to meet in person for an exchange of goods and cash, bring a friend along and meet in a very public place during daylight. Craigslist is usually helpful, often informative, and always entertaining. I never get tired of perusing Best Of Craigslist for some hilarious stories and excerpts. BTW, it's amazing how all of their revenue is solely through fees for job postings. How it's managed to stay so current is amazing. Their design reeks of 1999 but when you think about it, this was social networking before social networking existed. Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:02:11 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=craigslist.com I do a majority of my online shopping at two places, Amazon and Newegg. I first heard about Newegg in 2001 when it just released as I was buying parts to build my first computer. I bought almost everything from mobo to chipset, sound and grafx card, power supply to DIMMs there. The experience was great and the shipping was cheap, fast, and reliable. I do most of my tech shopping at Newegg still. They've kept things relatively the same from a user-experience standpoint, but have added a lot of things to enhance the experience as the site has grown. At times using the filters and finding what you want is confusing, but you'll eventually find it. It's so popular now that occasionally things are out of stock. One thing I have noticed is that the shipping is a little slower since they've switched their shipping provider from FedEx. Their customer service and return policy are spot on. Go to Fry's to check out the things physically, then go home and buy it at Newegg. You won't be disappointed. Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:56:56 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=newegg.com ... the name Six Apart originates from the fact that the founders' (Ben and Mena Trott's) birthdays are six days apart. The Trotts are fairly well known in the web community and make an enviously cute couple. A friend of mine works there and he loves the culture. I like Six Apart and all of their web services: TypePad, Vox, MT, LJ. I've used all of these products except for TypePad at some point. LJ has a dedicated niche following and many people were worried how that community would be affected by the acquisition. As far as I can tell, it has had some negative impact to the LJ community but the overall crux of LJ remains relatively intact. Their offerings are fairly wide, from a completely self-contained user-friendly community like LJ or Vox to the more technical TypePad and MT, with a lot of potential customization on the MT side. In my opinion, Vox and LJ succeeded (mostly) where Blogger failed, but competitor WordPress succeeded where Type and MT failed. Vox was a pivotal release for SA, and I jumped on the bandwagon early on but for me the site is unfortunately not sticky, despite the fairly cool social network functions. Albeit not the best service out there overall, Vox did achieve a level of success in the social networking world of bloggers that hadn't really been achieved before LJ, which is probably why they were acquired. Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:56:15 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=sixapart.com WARNING, as of late I've seen email notifications that say they come from my friends only to find they are spoofed and have spam links in them. Friendster is becoming a seriously liability. Friendster, you had it all. But in typical first mover fashion, you couldn't keep up with the exponential demand and subsequently fell by the wayside. From once being valued at $50M in 2003 to getting a big head and turning down Google's $30M buyout offer to being overtaken in 2004 by MySpace, Orkut, Yahoo 360 and eventually Facebook, now you're worth about 5% of your highest valuation and are considered one of the biggest early gaffes of the internet boom. What you did right: you made social networking relevant and viable. You connected people. Current friends, old friends. Friends from college and HS, a few exes, a few friends that shouldn't have been lost. Having 300 friends (I think that was the early max) and getting testimonials was the cool thing to do. But all of the improvements came too late. The move from JSP to PHP, addition of personalized content like blogs and video, the infusion of infrastructure to alleviate poor response times (this is still an issue) and mitigate outages, the "Web of Friends" methodology and subsequent patent, the terminating of 5 CEOs in the past 3 years ... You tried the java-based network visualization, but it was slow and overcrowded and quietly yanked. I always imagined this to become some kind of dating site or some other business model to become profitable, but nothing happened. Match and eHarmony beat you to it. It could have linked professionally, but LinkedIn beat you there too. So now, you're an afterthought. A has-been. The MC Hammer or Vanilla Ice to Will Smith and LL Cool J. Friendster was awesome the first 2 years, a completely captivating and truly viral social site in its heyday. Now it's the black sheep of social network services, but we'll always remember 2004. Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:53:15 +0000 http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=friendster.com