RyanSpoon.com

What I’m Loving:

FriendFeed: Brilliantly simple and effective.

Bebo: started using it for Widgetbox purposes, but I have been very impressed by the quality of the site and their new open platform (which I actually prefer to Facebook’s). I actually think that Bebo takes the best of Facebook and the best of MySpace - not too clean and not too dirt. Also - rumors just broke that Bebo was acquired for $1b)

iTunes Podcasts: Can’t stand the interface (and I’ll continue to complain to my Apple friends until it’s updated)… but I am addicted to podcasts and rarely listen to music these days.

Notepad and WordPad: I find myself doing my writing and note-taking in notepad and wordpad. It’s light-weight and simple… much the same reason I use GTalk. And the more I work with html files and ftp, the more troublesome MS Word becomes.

Amazon: If you know me well, you know I love Amazon (easily my favorite website). This past week I’ve bought: rechargable batteries, dog toys, dog food, cereal, razors and more on Amazon. They all arrived in 24 hours and cost less than buying them at Safeway.

What I’m Not Loving:

Google Analytics: Why can’t I receive real-time updates? I’d be willing to pay for that… And why not at least timestamp the last update?!

Yelp: I thought it was just me, but other friends noted similar behaviors - I’m starting to sense that the quality of reviews is dropping rather significantly… troubling trend if true.

Netflix: Feels like it hasn’t been updated in ages. The finding experience was once cutting edge but now utterly useless. Try finding upcoming titles within a specific genre (ie Blu Ray) - I dare you.

SideStep: Not a direct comment on SideStep because I love the UI / UE… but as more lower-cost airlines refuse to integreate with the aggregators (Jetblue, Southwest, etc), I find sites like SideStep less useful.

Elance: I love Elance - but I am not loving their new site design. Great example of a redesign that is so radically different that it shocks users accustomized to the old design. This may be a better site design, but it is so inconsistent that I find the site unusable!