I hate Makeuseof.com. I mean really, really, hate it.
In an online world where 99% of websites that catalog and review online services are nothing more than thinly veneered shells that simply repost the manufacturer’s description with a two sentence praise or pan (usually praise), Makeuseof is one of those websites that actually takes the time to use and then describe all manner of web-based resources, both good and bad.
…most websites simply repost the manufacturer’s description…
If you are looking for a free online service or utility that you know exists, that you hope exists, or that you aren’t sure exists, but man would it be great if it did, makeuseof.com is where to go to both find it, and then find out if it is going to do what you need it to do.
If there is more than one offering, chances are they break down your options either via a single comparison piece, or just by having articles available on all the options that you can peruse to create your own comparison.
Too Much of a Good Thing
So, why do I hate them?
There is nothing that shoots my time management to heck more than finding something interesting. For me, nothing is quite as interesting as the allure of a new tool that I can use, and makeuseof is full of them. So, while its great that Makeuseof led me to HTTrack as a way to download an entire website for offline browsing in a Wi-Fi-less area, it isn’t so great that by the time I found, downloaded, and installed that utility I had opened 8 new tabs. Sugarsync vs. Dropbox? Oh, yeah, I had Dropbox once, or was is box.net? And, it’s recent; yes! 4 Free Tools for Fool-Proof WordPress Backup? I was meaning to find something like that!
Nothing is quite as interesting as a new tool I can use…
If that weren’t enough, every time I go to the site I think that maybe one or two of my sites would benefit from looking more like the Makeuseof.com layout, even though it probably isn’t appropriate for the content I have. (Most of my stuff doesn’t lend itself to being excerpted.)
Great; now it’s 8:30 AM.
Curse you Makeuseof! Curse you and your infinite collection of distractions!
Ooooh…online versions of Risk! I didn’t know that there were any. I wonder which one is the best — (Psst. Don’t look now, but here comes 9:00 AM!)
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