The Sentient Search Engine

Allmusic.com - http://www.allmusic.com/ – 3 Stars

It’s been awhile since I’ve reviewed a site, so I thought I ought to get my but in gear. Up today is Allmusic, music’s answer to IMDb.

I really like this site, and for a person working an information desk in a public library branch or a reference desk in a music\arts library it is invaluable. It has a huge number of reviews, bios, discographies, and other info on various artists, groups, and composers. There’s quite a bit of album art as well, so if you’re iTunes library is a little plain, so this is a good source for those obscure classical music album covers.

Allmusic has a lot of nice review articles and the Allmusic blog, which highlights new albums, features artists, and posts music news. It includes a new releases section and a nice search function that does a commendable job helping the user find the album or artist for which he’s looking. Many albums also have track previews, which will help you identify the song you heard on the radio while driving home.

On the downside, the site is chock full of ads which is irksome at the very least. The site is also incredibly cluttered, with nothing in the way of “white space”. One does not really know what to look at on the home page. It definitely has the look of a page trying to squeeze in more than it should while keeping the ads nice and visible.

So things look a little different, eh?!

I researched my options and decided that WordPress was going to let me do the things with my blog that I really wanted to do. It has more options for design and some intrigueing features. Of these I really like the ability to make “pages” to go with the blog. This will allow me to add some features to the site and keep things in one compact, professional looking product. Blogger always seemed hobbled to me.

WordPress has its problems too. For example, what exactly is the deal with the ban on custom Javascript? I really do understand their concerns about abuse. I don’t respect them but I understand them (kind of the coward’s solution to the problem, no?) I have had the idea drilled into my head by all my LIS classes that just because its easier to say “no” dosen’t mean that it makes sense. Sure they might have to take more precautions if they allowed custom Javascript, but those precautions would be worth it given the benefits to their users. The end result of all of this is that now I have no more LibraryThing widgets (curses!). This was not a deal-breaker, just a disappointment…

Well, take a look around and enjoy! Let me know what you think!