Watch Gossip Girl Online
Watch Gossip Girls Online (watchgossipgirl-online.net) is another site crammed into posting episodes for a particular show, and judging by the look and url - this looks to be another site intending to drain every last dollar from fans of this particular show. To start off with the site is crammed with ads - banner ads, flash ads, fullscreen ads and in-video ads. The obvious point of the site is to drive some quick traffic to the episodes and reap rewards on the numerous ads being placed in front of the users eyes.
The videos listed all appear to work and are hosted on sites like ZShare, so they're reasonably fast but also suspect to be removed within a short amount of time. To the benefit of the site, they also provide alternate links to other video hosts carrying the episodes which is a good touch and the saving grace of this site. Some links were outdated or already dead which is important to note.
Navigating the site is difficult as there's no obvious or clean sign as to how to get to older episodes. Or at least it wasn't made obvious, it's a shame that the navigation wasn't easier on this site and also that the sheer number of ads on this site make it unusable, or else it would be quite decent.
The Overall Ratings for Watch Gossip Girls Online:
Show Diversity: (3/5)
Based on the mixture of television shows available on the site.
Loading Speed: (4/5)
The time taken to navigate the site and load videos.
Ease of Navigation: (1/5)
How easy is it to use and navigate.
Advertisements: (4/5)
Based on the annoyance level of advertisements on this site, the amount of ads, and the volatility of ads appearing on the page.
The lower the rating, the less annoying the ads are.
Total Score: 9/20
Watch Gossip Girl Online tries to stuff one too many ads in your face, and while many of the episodes work - the lack of proper navigation really makes it difficult to use this site. Even if you manage to navigate the site, the sheer amount of banner ads, flash ads and in-video ads make it extremely annoying to use and load. The main reason this site fails is that they added fullscreen ads, which coupled with all the other ads make it unusable or just not worth visiting.
The videos listed all appear to work and are hosted on sites like ZShare, so they're reasonably fast but also suspect to be removed within a short amount of time. To the benefit of the site, they also provide alternate links to other video hosts carrying the episodes which is a good touch and the saving grace of this site. Some links were outdated or already dead which is important to note.
Navigating the site is difficult as there's no obvious or clean sign as to how to get to older episodes. Or at least it wasn't made obvious, it's a shame that the navigation wasn't easier on this site and also that the sheer number of ads on this site make it unusable, or else it would be quite decent.
The Overall Ratings for Watch Gossip Girls Online:
Show Diversity: (3/5)
Based on the mixture of television shows available on the site.
Loading Speed: (4/5)
The time taken to navigate the site and load videos.
Ease of Navigation: (1/5)
How easy is it to use and navigate.
Advertisements: (4/5)
Based on the annoyance level of advertisements on this site, the amount of ads, and the volatility of ads appearing on the page.
The lower the rating, the less annoying the ads are.
Total Score: 9/20
Watch Gossip Girl Online tries to stuff one too many ads in your face, and while many of the episodes work - the lack of proper navigation really makes it difficult to use this site. Even if you manage to navigate the site, the sheer amount of banner ads, flash ads and in-video ads make it extremely annoying to use and load. The main reason this site fails is that they added fullscreen ads, which coupled with all the other ads make it unusable or just not worth visiting.
Labels: gossip girl, tv links
MonkeySee - Viewers Do - Expert Guides
Monkeysee is another video site vying for a space in the video tutorial and guide industry. It's a mix between a youtube-style video sharing mixed with guides on a plethora of topics. All the videos are how-to, meaning that you're not going to find non-instructional videos on here. There's a good deal of instructional content here, and there really is a large variety to choose from.
The videos are categorized by industry or topic and are generally short, but unlike competitors there is no time limit which means that certain videos can be tediously long or repetitive. The production quality of the videos appearing on the featured list were exceptionaly good, rivalling that of something you'd expect from a major publisher on TV. This also hints that the videos appearing on the page may be heavily moderated to only the best submissions of content to be added. There are a few ads on the site, and they're slightly annoying - as at the time they were showing risque and unrelated material.
The main downside of MonkeySee is that the videos are quite slow to load. On 3 seperate occasions of attempting to load videos on the site from various connections and computers, the videos loaded at a snail's pace. This is one of the main limiting factors of what is otherwise a very good site.
The Overall Ratings for MonkeySee:
Show Diversity: (4/5)
Based on the mixture of television shows available on the site.
Loading Speed: (2/5)
The time taken to navigate the site and load videos.
Ease of Navigation: (4/5)
How easy is it to use and navigate.
Advertisements: (1/5)
Based on the annoyance level of advertisements on this site, the amount of ads, and the volatility of ads appearing on the page.
The lower the rating, the less annoying the ads are.
Total Score: 14/20
MonkeySee suffers from some slow loading videos, but it certainly has a lot of great stuff for thosewith a do-it-yourself attitude. There's a lot of friendly tips and video guides to help you along the way, if only you can get it to load fast enough for you to keep your interest. Overall it's a very good site, that would be worthy of being called great if not for the video loading issues.
The videos are categorized by industry or topic and are generally short, but unlike competitors there is no time limit which means that certain videos can be tediously long or repetitive. The production quality of the videos appearing on the featured list were exceptionaly good, rivalling that of something you'd expect from a major publisher on TV. This also hints that the videos appearing on the page may be heavily moderated to only the best submissions of content to be added. There are a few ads on the site, and they're slightly annoying - as at the time they were showing risque and unrelated material.
The main downside of MonkeySee is that the videos are quite slow to load. On 3 seperate occasions of attempting to load videos on the site from various connections and computers, the videos loaded at a snail's pace. This is one of the main limiting factors of what is otherwise a very good site.
The Overall Ratings for MonkeySee:
Show Diversity: (4/5)
Based on the mixture of television shows available on the site.
Loading Speed: (2/5)
The time taken to navigate the site and load videos.
Ease of Navigation: (4/5)
How easy is it to use and navigate.
Advertisements: (1/5)
Based on the annoyance level of advertisements on this site, the amount of ads, and the volatility of ads appearing on the page.
The lower the rating, the less annoying the ads are.
Total Score: 14/20
MonkeySee suffers from some slow loading videos, but it certainly has a lot of great stuff for thosewith a do-it-yourself attitude. There's a lot of friendly tips and video guides to help you along the way, if only you can get it to load fast enough for you to keep your interest. Overall it's a very good site, that would be worthy of being called great if not for the video loading issues.
Labels: diy videos, how to videos, music videos, tv links
iTricks TV - Magic Exhibition
The design and operability of the site is nice but it could have done with a bit more colour in the design considering it's a magic site and should be more spritely. The site is very clean with only one banner ad appearing on the site, which is quite nice and welcoming comparitively.
The Overall Ratings for iTricks TV:
Show Diversity: (3/5)
Based on the mixture of television shows available on the site.
Loading Speed: (4/5)
The time taken to navigate the site and load videos.
Ease of Navigation: (3/5)
How easy is it to use and navigate.
Advertisements: (1/5)
Based on the annoyance level of advertisements on this site, the amount of ads, and the volatility of ads appearing on the page.
The lower the rating, the less annoying the ads are.
Total Score: 12/20
iTricks TV doesn't look like what you'd expect from a magic video site (that is a video site about magic) in design, but the video content is there - although quite sparse. The site could do with a few more videos, and possibly could benefit from hosting the videos itself to further brand the site. There doesn't seem to be very many video sites in this particular field, and iTricks tv could easily corner the market if they were to make a few small changes to their design as well as the variety and quantity of their content. If you're into magic, check this one out.
