Web 2.0 Blog

If you’re like me when shopping online, you’ll spend ages reading product reviews before buying a product. These reviews have a tremendous influence over my desicion whether to buy an item or not - sometimes more so than the price. It frustrates me when I can’t see the feedback of a product on sites such as Amazon or Play.com because no one has bothered to write a review for it.

Startup product review site Test Freaks is a fantastic idea for a website. It is essentially a haven for critics to express their opinions on products they have bought, and for shoppers to get an idea about their product’s qualities (and lack of) from previous buyers, before a purchase is made. Often the manufacturer’s description isn’t enough - they’re obviously going to heap praise onto their products!

I was very impresed with the usability of the site, and I really like how the search function gives you both product and category matches as you type into the bar - a very neat touch.

The product page gives you a heap of useful information from reviews, ratings (expert and user), a gallery, pros and cons, and impressively, links to websites on the Internet where the product is being sold at the best prices.

A couple of issues I had with the site was the fact that a product I was looking for (a popular Sony TV) wasn’t in the database. I guess you can’t expect everything to be there, but certainly in order for this to be a huge success, users must feel they can depend on it for any product.

Another small issue I felt was the design. While very usable, I felt the colour scheme of dark oranges and greens, and lack of excitement generated from quite a basic layout didn’t do justice to the qualities of the service. It makes the site look quite home-made rather than a serious commercial application. I think a white/grey + blue or red colour scheme similar to that of their competitors Pricerunner would be a step in the right direction.

Overall though, I was very impressed with the amount of reviewers on the site and the catalog of products that are on there. It does what you want it to and deserves to be very successful. While on the subject of reviews, I’d give it 5 stars. *****

Simple Steps For Dealing With Computer Problems

It is not very difficult to maintain a computer and keep it free from problems. The following are a few simple steps that you can perform to achieve this goal.

Update your Software

Manufacturers of computer software and device drivers release regular updates and security releases to patch up any security loopholes and vulnerabilities in their products. These updates also help in incorporating new features in the software you are using. If you fail to install these updates, you expose your system not only to several malware programs that are built around these vulnerabilities, but may also encounter outdated file related errors and problems, such as ccsvchst.exe high CPU usage problems.

This is the reason why, you must take care to update your software on a regular basis. To update Windows and other Microsoft products, you must ensure the Windows Automatic Update feature is always enabled. To keep your drivers updated, you may use a reliable driver scanner tool to automatically scan and update your outdated drivers.

Prevent and Remove Malware

Malware usually comprise malicious software, such as virus, Trojan horses, worms, adware and spyware. If you suddenly start receiving errors, such as the exe error or runtime error, especially when you are trying to start your applications, chances are that your PC is infected with a malware.

To prevent and remove malware programs, it is essential for you to have antivirus and antispyware tools on your computer. To ensure that these tools are working efficiently, you must update them every time new definitions are released by the tool manufacturer. Also, be sure to schedule both tools to perform a full system scan to detect malware on a regular basis. If possible, you must schedule the scan on a daily basis.

Disable Unwanted Programs

When you buy a new PC, it usually comes installed with several programs that you may never use. Some of these are enhancements that you don’t actually use. An example is the audiodg.exe beeping issue that is quite common with Windows Vista users. The worst thing is that many of these programs load at system start up, feed on your system resources and deteriorate the performance of your computer. To prevent this from happening, it is essential that you disable unwanted startup programs. Listed below are some of the methods that you can use to do this:

• Use the option available in the related application to prevent it from loading at system startup.
• Use System Configuration Utility to disable unwanted startup programs.
• Use a good third-party startup program manager tool to manage your startup programs.
• Uninstall software that is not essential for Windows to run and that you no longer require.

Scan and Clean your Registry

The Windows registry is used to store all configuration information related to hardware, software and user profiles on your computer. Registry problems start occurring when your registry bloats up due to the accumulation of a large amount of unwanted entries within it. Because a bloated registry tends to get fragmented and corrupt the chances of system slowdowns and errors are quite high. To prevent these issues, you need to scan and clean your registry on a regular basis.