LiveJournal

Livejournal far predates the Web 2.0 revolution having launched back in 1999 and I think that on its own is a great homage to the site. To some degree they foresaw the Web 2.0 revolution and the addiction that blogging has took lately. Livejournal currently has a staggering 10, 147,824 journals and communities at the time of posting this. But what about the web site? Well that's the beauty, it has hardly changed. Let's consult the archives, shall we?

At launch, Livejournal looked like this:

Granted, it is very diferent, but good ol' Frank never moved! But once 2001 rolled round it became this:

Which remained until around 2004 when they switches to the current design pictured earlier. As much as these designs do differ quite a lot, it still hasn't changed a lot. I mean the design from 2001-4 is still available to use if you do wish in your account settings. Livejournal is a great site and is a prime example of a site that has survived the pace of time. Call it luck or call it foresight, Livejournal has done amazingly well. But on saying that, what effect will MySpace have on LJ? MySpace now offers blogging and no paid account gimmicks so will people be more enticed to just use MySpace? Ultimately the main user base of LJ is the main user base of MySpace. I think LJ need to start offering something quite radical and quick to over take MySpace because all they have at the moment is the fact that you can customise your blog/journal far more which, for most, isn't really a problem.

But on saying this, I still pay for my LiveJournal account and I never plan to switch to MySpace blogging. I'm too loyal!

Flock

Flock is my favourite browser, in fact I am blogging from it right now, but what about their web site? It's strange really. At first glance you think "oh" because it is so plain but I can't help but love the simplicity of it all. The three buttons on the home page, while exceedingly simple are also extremely beautiful to look at. The colours just go together so well and it's so easy to navigate around despite its simplistic attitude. Flock.com is simplicty to a tee.

As a side note, a new web site is under development. I hope it retains the simplistic attitude of the current site.

Flock.com 

MySpace – I’ve always wanted to do this.

Ahh MySpace, one of the most popular web sites on the whole internet at the moment. Started by Tom, who ironically has a PhD in English and not in Computer Science, it has fast become one of the biggest sites on the Internet. But why? Look at it, it's ugly! Well I think there is a point to be made here – looks aren't everything. You can make the most gorgeous site but if what you offer is not what people want they just won't stay.

I'm going to make a bold statement though, MySpace itself isn't that badly designed. It may not be gorgeous but everything is easy enough to get to, it's rare you're left wandering around like a headless chicken. I think the problem for MySpace – at least when it comes to critcism from your average geek – is that they aren't very Web 2.0. Basically saying there ia severe lack of AJAX and such things (the top 8 selection was a nice addition though). As much as AJAX is a buzz word, the improvements to MySpace through some clever AJAX integration would make a world of difference. Things like adding comments should be done over AJAX, as should leaving photo comments. Another implementation of AJAX would be too introduce draggable boxes. The whole of your profile is made up of little boxes, why not let people be able to drag them about, make them bigger or smaller or simply delete them.

I think with some simple changes MySpace could be so much better, a bit more interactive and such.

MySpace.com 

Veerle’s Blog

Often a blog that is voted as being one of the best blog designs and, to be honest, it isn't hard to see why. It's an incredible design done entirely in XHTML and CSS and, just to hammer it home, it validates, perfectly. My favourite bit about it though is that there is lots of content but it never feels cluttered, it's all placed perfectly. This blog deserves an award or something, it's awesome.

Veerle's Blog

Rob Morris – Digital Mash

I love this guy's site. If you right click his face at the top you can select different emotions/looks. Really nice use of Flash but it doesn't impact the rest of the site which is always a bonus because, despite what many people think, not everyone has flash.

Digitalmash.com

For all those sites you never want to forget.

The amount of times I go on a web site and think "wow" and then never tell anyone is just stupid so I thought I'd start documenting it instead. I will blog here any web site or similar entity that makes me go "Phwoar".

And yes, that does include MySpace profiles because, in all fairness, anyone who makes MySpace look gorgeous deserves some recognition.

I also plan to include web sites that I deem to be predominately ugly.