Creating some inception here, I wanted to point out some of my favorite websites that help me research the people. places, things, and all other surrounding nouns that I traverse in YOU are Here. I have three sites to share that all have been killing it in the blogosphere, but not without some helpful criticisms and guidelines from moi.
I have been consulting this site for about a year now and it is filled with almost an overwhelming amount of information covering a vast amount of topics.
My favorite feature of Rifener29 is the ‘local’ section that gives in depth dining, shopping and entertainment tips for NYC, LA, SF, London, and Chicago. You can literally search best iced coffee Brooklyn or antiques in West Hollywood and an exact match will come up. Most of the information is formatted in slideshow format, which is very digestible. The graphics on the site are also very cutsey and creative.
When not consulting for travel tips I usually check out the fashion and living section. Be wary when following Refinery29 on Facebook because they post like the dickens and most if it is pop crap (my word for popular celebrity culture).
Uncrate is a new site to me that a work colleague made me aware of. He was a technophile and uses the site to stay tech savvy. I checked out the site and found a curated paradise of quite a random amalgamation of goods. The simplicity and clean layout of the site is very attractive and user friendly. I also like how the site routes you right to the wholesaler of the goods when you click ‘buy now’
The web design does have a few flaws. Drop-down menus would enable easier navigability of the site so when you enter a subset of a larger category like ‘Knives’ in ‘Gear’ you can not get back to other subsets of the category.
Along with curation come exclusion, and the prices of some of the products are certainly for the elite. So be careful getting too excited about anything before you see what the price tag is. Finally, while the site has a vast amount of items, it is designed exclusively for me. I obviously still use the sites but I find myself getting very jealous of the fine men’s outfits laid out under ‘Style’ with no female counterpart.
Gallivant is a sister (or in this case I should say brother) site of Uncrate. The feel is similar but a little warmer then Uncrate with glossy photographs and some serious sepia overtones. There are many ways to search which is helpful and also a bit overwhelming. The site is also supposedly “For men’s eye’s only” and offers up the slogan “Travel Like a Man.” Honestly, the phrase for this site is completely unnecessary and ridiculous because none of the suggestions are strictly for men. Gallivant encompasses cities from around the world so don’t be fooled by the 25 or so listed because there is many more if you poke around other headings. I checked out Gallivant’s suggestions for Chicago and DC and I do approve of what I see for suggested destinations. I look forward to using it on my travels near and far.
YOU Are HERE 