If content is king then user generated content is the heir to the throne. Some of the webs most traffics sites today are news aggregate sites, depending on user submission. These sites are very successful since they allow users to read content from around the web enjoying the best of the web at one place. After all, each of us has his own interests and in most cases a news site or blog can be too general for us containing some interesting items but a lot of fluff to go with it.

But most news aggregate sites have their flaws with problems such as misleading links and the lack of true user rating so you still have to go through a lot of junk along with the interesting content. But a relatively new site called Thoof.com have created what is possibly the ultimate personalized news by adding some great features unavailable at other sites. For one thing, any user has the option of editing or suggesting corrections to the description of a news item to correct any misleading information that may have been submitted by others. The collective power of the community makes a real difference and you rarely find an irrelevant article.

Also, the site facilitates what they call the Thoof Rank method determining a score for each site based on its popularity among readers for its category. A score above 50% means the site is above average in terms of user interest and the higher the score the better.

Submitting your content to the site is a great way to generate more traffic to your site and is a good way to build more incoming links. Plus you get to put the Thoof Rank badge on your site to let everyone know just how good you are.

123-Reg, a veteran in domain registration and web hosting just came out with a new service to allow people with no technical knowledge to create their own fully functional ecommerce site without having to write a single line of code. The service called 123-reg ecommerce provides a complete solution including everything from the domain name and web hosting to advanced features such as a secured shopping card, order tracking and mailing list management. Prices are reasonable and range from £8.99/month in the starter package up to £39.99 for the complete Business Pro package. See their press release below for full details.

123-reg.co.uk now offers great solutions for businesses that want to sell online but don’t have the technical know-how to do so. 123-reg eCommerce is an easy to use, yet powerful, online shop that comes in three sizes and includes a free domain name with the mid and top level shop.

123-reg eCommerce starts from as little as £8.99 per month for a shop of up to 150 products and gives users access to over 100 design templates, several marketing tools, as well as integration to eBay, Kelkoo and other shopping portals. 123-reg eCommerce also comes with trusted SSL encryption, Trusted Shop and Safebuy (UK) certification with the ability to take secure payments through the likes of PayPal, WorldPay and HSBC bank.

Thanks to 123-reg’s web hosting expertise, the new eCommerce merchant solution is pre-configured and fully hosted online in one of Europe’s leading data centres so no software is required to set up a shop or keep it running. With all the advanced features, such as a range of shipping options, stock control, languages and many more, users can customise their shop to suit almost any need.

Mark Beyer, sales and marketing director at 123-reg.co.uk, explains, “Whether you’re a business looking to start online, but lack web experience, or a webmaster wanting to expand with online ordering capabilities without investing in consultancy or unwieldy software, 123-reg eCommerce gives you the whole package. Our prices include the hosting, the marketing and back office tools, so you don’t have to buy anything extra to make your shop work for you.”
All 123-reg eCommerce packages are available on monthly contracts and start from £8.99 per month for the Plus version, £18.99 for the Pro version and £39.99 for Business Pro. The Pro and Business Pro versions include a free .com or .uk domain name

Apple was very thoughtful when putting screenshotting abilities in OS X. They included the “Grab” application, which allows you to capture the screen, a selection, or just a window, and then decide what to do with it. But what happens when the window isn’t big enough to capture everything you want, say a screenshot of a full web page. That’s the question I was asking before I started a search and finally came across Paparazzi for OS X. Paparazzi allows you to enter the web address, and dimensions you want for your screenshot. Then all you have to do is hit capture, and you have a full web page screenshot resized to the dimensions you specified.

What were they thinking?

GrandCentral, which was recently acquired by Google, is a company that allows you to combine your home, cellular, and office numbers into one number. After pairing your phones you have the ability to store all your voice messages in one location, record calls, block callers, switch phones in the middle of a call, and a lot more. This service is perfect for anyone who handles more than one phone in their daily routine. I have a personal cellphone, and a work cellphone. Now all I have to do is give out my new GrandCentral number, add contacts to my address book, and it filters them for me. Work contacts will be forwarded to my work phone, and personal contacts will be forwarded to my personal phone. And I can choose which phones ring when a group calls. If I’m relaxing for the day, I can set work calls to forward to voicemail and not ring at all, while personal calls forward to my personal cell as usual. There are just too many good features. Check them out for yourself.

GrandCentral is currently invitation only, and I have invites.

Contact me if you want one.

As the title might imply, NovaLet is a blogging service that is very simple, without all of the extra bells and whistles of, for example, Wordpress or Movable Type. It is not meant to compete with either of these services, however, NovaLet aims to make blogging a simple and fun experience for the user. From the outside, it looks just like a normal blog, tiny orange RSS icon and all, but when logged in, management is like no other blog service you’ve ever used.

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Spyware/Adware/Malware has got to be one of the biggest pains for any Windows user. Vista obviously isn’t the perfect solution and XP isn’t even a decent solution.

Spyware can only be eliminated through education of the end user. Software tools can help but it takes an educated user to find the right tools and effectively remove the problems.

Spywatchman.com is born.

I just finished a simple post going over The 4 Best Free Spyware Removal Tools. In many cases just using these 4 simple tools is enough to clean your system up and get things running better. If you have more complicated issues that still appear after running the free tools check around the site or ask on the forum.

- Todd

Here at Jetpacked, we absolutely love great design. So every once in a while, we’ll show you some of the best looking sites around in any given category. Here are twenty great looking one page designs. It takes a good amount of design skill to cram all of your information onto one page and still have it look fantastic.

EngineDigital.com

InvisiblePresence.com

EoghanMcCabe.com

ChrisZawada.com

Monopilot.com

SidebarCreative.com

SeanKlassen.com

Kontruct.com

Giant.cz

Sciant.net

EstudioMopa.com

Gloamine.com

RocketSurgeon.com

Daninko.ca

MidnightLeaf.com

CubanCouncil.com

VisualElixir.com

Zeniltuo.com

BPDesign.ca

BryanVeloso.com

John Chow runs a website called JohnChow.com. There he writes about making money online. He also has a system in place, providing if you write a review of the site, and link to his site with the anchor text “make money online” he will give you a link back in a post. What does this do you ask? Other than feeding a monster that is already huge, and giving back crumbs to the bloggers who made it possible, this gives him a content-relevent text link, and boosts his search engine ranking for the term. Want to see for yourself? Regardless of how unorganized, ugly, and lame his site looks, it’s filled with some decent content. Let’s be honest, he’s a pretty smart guy, or at least he looks like it. So John, if you’re reading this, I’d like to give you some advice, not on building a huge blog, or making money online, you seem to have all of that figured out. Here is my advice on creating a great user experience for your readers. You do care about that too don’t you? Redesign your blog, without the car pictures please, you’re wasting space. People have to scroll down to get to the content. Maybe make the layout wider, so it’s not so cramped. Give it some room to breathe. Stop it with all the integrated and intrusive ads, I know you wont, because it’s probably making you a shit-ton of money. Seriously, your content is good, but I can’t read it without wanting to pry my eyes out with a spoon. Besides all of that, your layout is boring. throw some bold colors in there, I’m sure you’re a pretty bold guy, why not let your site reflect that? One more thing.. how about a logo? You’re getting pretty big, so you might want to go ahead and develop yourself as a brand, I think a logo is essential to that. I know what your asking yourself right now, and that’s “Where can I get all of this done?!” Well John, it just so happens that we’re for hire. I can’t wait to hear back from you, but not as much as I can’t wait for the link from your site for this review!