| Sports Social Search Engines |
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| OUR PICK: |
Lives Up to Its Hype |
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ArmchairGM gets a lot of regular read and has a very active member base. Best system we use. Games, short takes, and very very fan friendly. Great base of users too.
PROS:Easy to use; Readers participate;Easy to build audience of friends. Minor league friendly with simple Wiki-based additions.
CONS: Many major league fans who look down their nose at the minors.
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One of the first of the sports SSEs. First sports engine to put in dedicated minor league categories. Well read, particularly for baseball and hockey. Nice blend of news and social networking services.
PROS: Easy to use system. Easily add your off-site blogs and
RSS news feeds to their services.
CONS: Personal page is a bit blocky.
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In the Minors, This Dog Won't Hunt |
Bigger Isn't Always Better |
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Very major league, so much so that they don't even have many rookie players listed even after call up. No minor league categories. Great layout, and connection to outside content. Good blogging for the occasional idea you want to contribute. Tough to make friends.
PROS: Nice look and feel; Easy to put in stories
CONS: No minor league categories; No way to add categories or players; hard to make friends connections
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One of the newest SSEs for sports, FanNation.com is backed by CNN/SI. Poorly built, with a little too much tilt back into the SI system. They should have bought one of the others and upgraded.
PROS: CNN/SI Backed and Connected
CONS: Clumsy and harder to use. You may have to leave a blog posting in your blog plus in separate groups blogs to get it seen. Harder to make friends.
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More international site with fans that have car racing on the brain. Does have minor league categories and encourages outside blogs but is very low on short takes and blog space within the site for the casual contributor.
PROS:Minor league categories;
CONS: Poor look and feel. Searches hard to find; Blogs get approved but don't show up in directories.
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The DIGG of sports sites. Exceptional sports news site, but it is limited to discussing particular stories. If you just want news and the ability to put your two cents in, then this is the site for you.
PROS: Excellent news gathering and simple design;
CONS: Lacks the social components. No friends, games, or other takes. Needs better graphic design.
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General Social Search Engines |
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General social search engines range across a wide field of interests. There are many, but we particularly think these three stand out. |
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Heavy student emphasis. If you're in a college town, it is a must.
PROS: Safer for kids; Network via school and business connections first;
CONS: Very clunky interface; Not a huge sports focus, but you can talk about whatever you want, so it is building; You need a student to figure out how it works.
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The biggest SSE. Almost too big. A ton of sports interest. Not a well regulated site, so bad for kids, but it has an absolute ton of minor league sports groups and content. Waay too many ads distract, but one of the best for grown-ups with diverse interests.
PROS:Minor league groups and fans;
CONS: Cluttered look and feel. Windows-only editing interface for blogs is so 1980s.
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Low sports, high poetry truth-and-beauty site, but has exceptional tools and reaches a bit older audience. Minor league groups are easy to set up, and don't require a college student to help you navigate.
PROS: Exceptional design;
CONS: Sports is under-served and does not even appear as a category of discussion (boo. hiss.)
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