Orangeinks

Compare the Loading Speed of your Blog with Others

Timing the page load of your blog/site is important for optimization. You can test if there is an error in your site depending on how long it takes to load. You can also find out which widget installed in your site makes the loading slower. You can see it below your Firefox browser as your site loads. If a widget takes too long to load, chances are that its host is having problems. If it does not get resolved immediately and have been doing it for days, maybe it’s time for you to remove it.

WebSlug is a web service which helps you to measure the loading time of websites or blogs. You can do comparisons or test your site alone. There is also a list of fastest loading websites and the slowest. Unfortunately it does not give out detailed information on which part of your website loads the slowest of fastest. It would be great if it can dish out some stats to better optimize your site. That being said, it’s still a great tool for checking your sites loading time and compare it with others. This way, if your site takes too long to load, maybe you should think about optimizing your site by checking for errors and removing unnecessary widgets and plugins that makes your site crawl.

Tip: You can also use the FireBug Firefox extension to check your site for errors.

The information about WebSlug is contributed by one of our readers. Thanks to Kimble of GreenerDesktop for sharing WebSlug.

Tags: Blog, loading, website, webslug

Get Website Information Using QuarkBase

QuarkBase is a free online tool that you can use to find information about a website. It’s a mashup of over 30 data sources and many algorithms gathering information from Internet on various topics like social popularity, traffic, associated people, etc.

It’s a great tool if you want to know more about a website without going from page to page to gather information. You can easily find out which framework the website is using and where it is hosted. Other useful information is also available such as description and contact information. You can also use QuarkBase to look for similar and related sites to the one you are viewing. It’s also great for viewing the number of Feedburner subscribers if the owner chooses not to show it in his/her blog.

There a many services that you can use to get information about a website and QuarkBase is just one of them. You might also want to check out Cubestat which estimates a website’s worth and shows other information about that website plus a traffic ranking other than Alexa.

Tags: information, quarkbase, website

CubeStat: How Much is your Website Worth?

CubeStat is a web app which computes and estimates the worth of a website/blog plus a lot more. It gives details on the website’s traffic, daily ad revenue, rankings, indexed pages and other information about a particular website.

I don’t know how accurate CubeStat is because the only way to determine a site’s worth is if someone is willing to pay a certain amount to acquire a particular website. That being said, it’s still pretty cool to check out how much your/other website is worth according to CubStat’s computations. It’s like one of those Technorati “How much is your blog worth?” thing that people place on their blogs. The only difference is that CubeStat’s computation is based on different stats and rankings.

Aside from the actual worth estimation of CubeStat, you can use it in checking your/others site ranking. You can find out how many backlinks and indexed pages a website has. You can also find out the age of a website including the expiration date. CubeStat is a neat tool for checking all those stats in one place. You don’t have to go to different websites and check your stats manually.

Tags: cubestat, rank, stats, website

Free Easy Website Design Tools

Edicy is another website design tool which lets you create a fully functioning website in just a few minutes. The easy to use WYSIWYG editor makes it a useful tool for users who want a website created quickly without coding knowledge.

Based on their template designs, the web editor is basically designed for creating a simple profile pages for small companies and individuals. You can choose from a small selection of templates with simple but elegant designs. Although the editor doesn’t give much freedom to customize the layout of the page, it does allow you to easily add media to your pages. Edicy also has a blog installed where you can compose a blog entry from within the web editor.

Wix: This is a tool for creating flash based blog sites which we covered when it was still in private beta. It is now out for public use and I must say that this is the most interesting flash based website creator that I’ve ever seen. The editor has a very visual touch where you can just drag and drop media on the pages. When I tested the service, the only coding part that I can remember of doing is the part where I placed a URL link to an outside site. Wix also offers an embed code for your flash site so you can publish your creation and embed it anywhere. You can read the full review.

Weebly: This one of the more popular website creation tool. It gives a lot of freedom to the user with regards to the content of the created website. It even allows you monetize your creation and place Google Adsense and Adbrite ads in your pages. Custom HTML is also allowed which makes the tool quite versatile. They have a wide range of templates for you to choose from which makes it a favorite of many.

FirstPagr: Make a simple introduction page with FirstPagr. Create lists, list items with links, descriptions and images, and drag and drop lists and items. It’s great for introducing your list of websites or top favorite websites to everybody. Firstpagr is very simple and very easy to use.

Google Sites: Is a website creation tool which is geared to creating a simple website for a group of people or a community. The members can each access the created website to input their own content/news. Read the review.

Tags: edicy, firstpagr, google sites, webdesign tools, website, weebly, wix

Create a Group Website using Google Sites

Google Sites is an online application which is part of Google Apps program that lets a user create a website in a snap. You do not need to have a domain to create a website from Google Sites. The general service is similar to blogger but with huge differences in practical application. Blogger is obviously specifically optimized for blogging while Google Sites is made for team or group website building. It targets organizations who want to create a website which can be managed and edited by a group of people. It’s like creating a wiki website for a company or an organization where every member can take part in the development and content distribution of the site.

The service is entirely free and each account is allowed a 100 MB (megabytes) of space for images and attachments. Using the service will let people gather information about their organization in the website. They can place videos, calendars, presentations and attachments. The website can be set to be viewed by the whole world or for members only. The owner can easily invite others to the website as co owners, collaborators or as viewers. You can check out the video demo below on how to use Google Sites.

Tags: create, Google, google sites, group sites, website

Scoutle: The Automated Social Networking Site for Bloggers and Website Owners

Scoutle is a social networking site which targets website owners, bloggers and other social networking site users. One might ask what this particular social networking site has to offer. There are already numerous social sites out there aimed to connect bloggers together not including niche social sites where other bloggers use to promote their websites on. With so many out there the only thing missing is a social networking site for social networks.

So what makes Scoutle unique? What Scoutle does is automatically do the networking for you. They described Automated Social Networking as networking without doing anything, without knowing each other and without the need of communication. All of this is done by web crawlers called Scouts. A scout contains information about the website which is created by the owner. After a Scout is created, and embed code will be given to the owner to be placed in his (her) blog or website. As far as finding networks that suites your blog depending on your given category and the value of your blog, that is all you need to do. The scout will crawl or as they say “walk the internet” to meet other scouts. The meeting will take place on a “stage.” The stage is the widget placed in your blog where other scouts meet and say hi to each other. The number of meetings that your scout makes with other scouts affects the way your site is rated in Scoutle.

Behind the names of Scouts you see the amount of points that Scout has. This actually is a rating. The higher your points, the higher your website is rated. A high rating will be given to Scouts (websites) with high traffic and lots of connections. Connections are made when two site owners agrees to approve each other’s connection requests. A higher rating will give your profile more visibility in your category.

Scoutle is a new and interesting way to promote and get visitors for your blogs. You get to meet other bloggers without actually meeting them, weird but interesting.

Tags: Blog, scoutle, social network, social network service, website