Luckily, we can get an idea of who some of those smaller casualties were by reading through the long thread started by a Google employee, looking for examples.

The Water Cooler Talk About These Sites

Since then, I’ve noticed quite a few people making fun of the sites listed in that thread. The general attitude in many conversations has been along the lines of, “Well, have you seen those sites? They are typical spammy, autogenerated, ugly MFA sites.” After seeing that kind of remark many times, I just assumed it must be true, and in my mind, all the sites in that thread must be ugly, autogenerated trash.

Once I started really reading through the thread, however, and began looking at some of the sites listed, I questioned what I’d heard. The sites I saw didn’t really fit that description. I’m not saying they are all beautiful, but it isn’t the trash-heap I’d expected.

Just The Looks, Ma’am, Just The Looks

Keep in mind I’m only talking about the overall look and feel of the sites. I haven’t fully analyzed the actual content deep throughout each site. I definitely haven’t had the time to do that. So is it possible that the sites do contain low-quality or ugly content? I suppose so. I’m not able to fully judge that at this point. But I did think someone needed to stand up and say, hey, lots of the sites that got hit DON’T fit the ugly, autogenerated trashy look. All in all, I think they tend to represent the web as a whole pretty well, in terms of design.

So What Do They Look Like?

I grabbed 50 or so sites I found in that thread (turns out to be 45) and took screenshots of the homepages of each. There are more sites in that thread, to be sure, but frankly, I just ran out of time and patience copy/pasting urls and taking screenshots. I figure the following are pretty representative, however, since I just grabbed urls without knowing what they would look like.

So here is a gallery of the homepages of some small sites that Panda Farmer update decimated. Some look good, some not so good, some are a little ugly. I’ll let you decide what you think about the overall “quality” of the sites based only on a quick look at them. Remember: I’m not able to judge the true quality of the content this way, but I did think someone needed to defend against the water cooler talk that all the sites were ugly. Click on a thumbnail to open the lightbox and then click the arrows to scroll through them:

The site urls are listed below. Hopefully, someone with lots more time than myself will do some real analysis (not based on design alone) of why these sites may have been hit.

aqua-fish.net
artpromote.com
askageek.com
askmehelpdesk.com
best-running-tips.com
blippitt.com
c21theharrelsongroup.com
calfinder.com
charlesandhudson.com
chinesechicken.net
classroomjr.com
craftjr.com
darrenbarefoot.com
diet-blog.com
do-it-yourself-gifts.com
dreamhomedecorating.com
ergoindemand.com
everythingusb.com
excellent-romantic-vacations.com
fonerbooks.com
freegeographytools.com
gadgetvenue.com
geeky-gadgets.com
giftcardgranny.com
healthhype.com
homeconstructionimprovement.com
italianchef.com
kitchensource.com
lcipaper.com
miami2vegas.com
mondinion.com
mrbreakfast.com
my3cents.com
oneprojectcloser.com
onewayfurniture.com
pcmonitors.org
prices4antiques.com
proposalwriter.com
pubclub.com
shoutpedia.com
thewhippet.net
totalbeauty.com
trendtimes.com
universetoday.com
wirelessandmobilenews.com
wordnik.com

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2011. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: farmer, Google, Panda, search industry, update
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I recently joined a microlending site called Kiva. Microloans are small loans, in amounts as low as $25, that help entrepreneurs in developing areas lift themselves out of poverty. People like you and I, who aren’t rich but who do enjoy some of life’s pleasures that aren’t accessible to many others, can help them find some of the successes we enjoy, by making tiny loans to them. Your tiny loan combined with my tiny loan, within a group of tiny loans, creates a fund that enables someone to realize their dream, doing work that will lift them out of poverty. Many of these budding entrepreneurs only need a few hundred dollars to make that dream come true, so it only takes a few of us to make it happen. And since these are loans, not handouts, the entrepreneurs pay us back in a fairly short amount of time.

You choose who to lend to – whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq – and as they repay the loan, you get your money back.

That’s one way that each of – as individuals – can join together in tackling a massive problem – simply by being one tiny part of a solution.

I encourage you to check out Kiva and see if perhaps you might be interested in becoming a lender. You can sign up as an individual, and you can also join one of the community teams. These teams are merely a social aspect of the site, and aren’t a requirement by any means, but it does allow for some interesting conversations and joining together to make things happen. I joined the Bloggers team. I’d love to see you there as well, but there are lots of other teams that may be more to your liking. It doesn’t matter which team you join. You don’t have to join a team at all, but the team “spirit” seems to help everyone understand that by working together, we can alleviate poverty. Once you’re a part of the team, you can choose to have a future loan on Kiva “count” towards that team’s impact. The loan is still yours, and repayments still come to you – but you can also choose to have the loan show up in the team’s collective portfolio, so the team’s overall impact grows. Again, it’s just a social aspect, so the more important issue is simply being a lender – whether or not you join a team.

So let’s make history together. Let’s make an impact together. Let’s change the world together. Individually, we can make a difference. Together, we can change lives.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Afghanistan, Cambodia, farmer, Iraq, Peru, restaurateur, Uganda
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.