Blueprint Ventures

Today we pushed out some key updates to snapshot.compete.com. Thank you for all the great feedback — keep ‘em coming! We’re listening!

You will immediately notice the following new features:

• The ability to compare 5 domains (previously 3)
• Portfolios – Save your favorite site comparisons to a portfolio for quick recall later on
• Graph improvements
• An inverted graph for the Rank metric
• Enhanced rounding/spacing/labeling algorithm
• A new page look and feel for multiple site comparisons
• Type domains into the header – you no longer have to click on the “Compare Domains” button
• Deals are viewable for all domains via the Deals accordion (previously just the ‘main’ domain deals were viewable)
• Simplified url for sending people SnapShot links (http://snapshot.compete.com/ebay.com+amazon.com+target.com)
• Canonicalization – For example, type in bn.com and we will automatically redirect to barnesandnoble.com

Richard St. John is author of Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and RICH: What really leads to success — and it’s not smarts, looks, or luck.

First published on the Compete Blog on 7-Dec-2006.

Key observations:

• In October, there were exactly 20 domains with over 20 million unique visitors. This is it. The elite of the elite!
• There is a gap of *33 million* unique visitors between #3 AOL and #4 MSN.
• Name a website that gets between 80-100 million unique visitors a month? Trick question. There are none! The top 3 domains – Yahoo, Google and AOL – are truly in a class of their own. There were NO domains with unique visitor traffic between 80-100 million (see chart below).
• Who is new on this list? (compared to Oct ’05):
  • Adobe.com
  • Live.com
  • Wikipedia.org
  • YouTube.com

• Who is absent? (compared to Oct ’05):
  • Expedia.com
  • Monster.com
  • Paypal.com
  • Weather.com

  Interesting note: Even though Paypal.com and Weather.com fell out of the top-20, unique visitor traffic to those domains is actually up.

I am not looking forward to it. Period. I’m trying not to think about the surgery at all, but it is hard not to!

I dislocated my right shoulder (I’m right handed) back in the summer of 2003 in France during summer school. Ever since, it has never been a 100%. I hurt it again playing tennis back in 2005. It was then I knew I needed a more permanent solution to the problem.

I know I am not going to enjoy the surgery (who does?), and the long recovery period (6-8 weeks in a sling) and physical therapy (6 months worth)… but you know what? I’ll make it through all this like a champ as long as I keep reminding myself why I’m getting this done and all the things I’ll be able to do after all this over. Ahhh…Yes!

I have infinite trust in my surgeon, I’m glad my mom is going to be around to take care of me, and a forced 2 week “vacation” ain’t that bad either.