iNet411 please review, be brutallyhonest.

**Inet411** · 04-29-2008, 10:27 PM

Go ahead and be brutally honest. I've re-written the site 5 times in the last 2.5 years. Each time I've completely erased EVERYTHING and started from scratch. This time I believe I've 'arrived'. The site is written in php, ajax and some javascript. I'm a php macgyver so most of the script are combinations of others works. All work is referanced and credit is given where credit is due. Let me know what you think of the design, how user friendly the navigation is, if you like the online tools etc... Especially the search engine. It is a custom built search engine, its a little slow right now but I'm working on some cacheing and some php tweaks that will hopefully speed it up.
Let me know what you would change, keep etc...
Thanks in advance for taking the time to look over my site.
http://www.inet411.com

**tanicos** · 04-29-2008, 10:40 PM

the page is really short...the colors really don't match
i like the logo

**wogazm** · 04-30-2008, 02:44 AM

the logo looks to be the only good thing on the site, sorry

**Inet411** · 04-30-2008, 04:08 PM

Forget the design, that can easily changed. I'm talking about functionality, ease of use. Navigation... Are the tools useful, how does the search work for you etc...

**A Monkey Typing** · 05-01-2008, 09:49 AM

A mirror image logo, beta declaration and a web 2.0 sticker all in one small spot. My first impression is "oh no another site full of cliches".

Your navigation is very simple, and clear for the most part. I say "for the most part" because my first impression of the short menu + arrows made me suspect it was a menu tree, which it's not. You do have a vertical and horizontal navigation with the exact same links. It's a little redundant.

You have a lot of blank space, and most of the valuable information is crammed into the middle and pushed down. If you want visitors to stay, you'll need to show them what you have to offer in a few seconds. Your not really accomplishing this.

Your search page confuses me. I thought I was going to be taken to a search where I could locate tools on your site. Instead I'm given a ton of links for other websites. What are you accomplishing by driving traffic away from your site? Also the little preview image on the bottom of the screen is cute but I don't see how it's useful. Maybe if I cared what the other websites looked like it would matter, but your site isn't geared toward design.

When I clicked the actual search box I got an error.

I love how you actually explained how some of the tools were made. That makes me think you created the tools from scratch and really put some effort into this, as opposed to just grabbing tools of random sites and slapping them in there like so many other turnkey sites.

**Inet411** · 05-02-2008, 10:13 AM

Thanks A Monkey Typing - especially for the logo comment. The logo sucks, it was made with a free logo creator - one of the 'joke web2.0' logo makers. I find it funny that everyone likes the logo when logos have nothing to do with web2.0. Web2.0 is rss, user generated content, mashups, ajax etc... NOT gradient images and mirrored logos!

Yeah the two menus are redundant, I am not sure how to go about that. I was thinking maybe the top horizontal menu to be the main categories and the side menu would be sub-categories of the choosen main category.

The search page is a search engine, not a site search. I will make that more clear. Thanks for pointing that out. The search engine is really an experiment using apis, ajax, javascript, php and some dhtml and making it all valid xhtml. One of those 'look what I can do'. Not really meant to be used a your primary search engine. Which is why I am looking for suggestions. The floating side image of the sites when you mouseover a listing was another fun thing. I guess it really doesn't serve too much of a purpose since each listing has its own pic anyway.

About explaining how the tools were made...Yeah I'm not looking to make money with this site, this is just something fun I'm working on so thats why I'm showing the source codes so others can make the tools also. If you look at the gradient image maker you'll see it is really a compilation of quite a few other scripts. And I want to make sure all those 'open sourcers' out there get the credit they deserve.

A Monkey Typing, thank you for a real review. I've taken the things you've said to heart and will start implementing some of the changes.

p.s. just added http://www.inet411.com/webmaster-too...w-keywords.php
I would like any comments on this tool. Any improvements, that is functionality etc.. (not design, I really don't care about design).

**phppoddotcom** · 05-02-2008, 10:47 AM

I like the design apart from the dark frames of the menu. The navigation is very easy. The tools are useful and return results quickly.

**A Monkey Typing** · 05-02-2008, 10:57 AM

No problem! Your appreciation is worth the few minutes it took.

The keyword analyzer is fast, clear and simple. Exactly what I would expect without any nonsense. The only thing I didn't see was the density % for each keyword.

One suggestion I would make is offering to compare two sites to each other, but perhaps that would be another tool entirely.

**nickohrn** · 05-02-2008, 09:43 PM

Since you've since dismissed any criticism of your design, let me just say it needs to be changed.

That being said, I think the functionality of your site is quite superb. I really enjoyed the pagerank verifier, although a little more information on why PR is considered verified or unverified would help.

Everything else worked as expected which is always a good thing. Great job on the site, now just get the design changed and you'll be good to go.

**kevsteele** · 05-02-2008, 10:00 PM

its a work in progress but it looks like its coming along well.
Keep at it and soon it will be a good resource for people to go to

**Charm Royal** · 05-02-2008, 11:30 PM

I don't like the color combination

Too much text for me, maybe choose a better looking font that's less BOLD

The center content area just looks too crowded

I think the footer area should be light gray instead of black and the link shouldn't be yellow

Just find a nice color scheme