Webbi List: Review #5
Reviewing CGI (and related) Resources
Almost all good web sites have some interactive features: Polls, quizzes, guestbooks, What's New logs, email contact forms, Free for All links. Then there are tools indispensible to the webmaster: counters, web statistics, image indices, HTML editors and/or testbeds. Nearly all these features have one thing in common – CGI/Perl scripts. However, most web hosts do not have their own copy-and-paste scripts. Many do not even allow you to provide your own. Several webmasters do not or have not the time or expertise to write their own. I tried my hand at Perl but came away frustrated; I could never make the script do what I wanted. So I, like most webmasters, rely on remotely hosted CGI. In this review I'll look at a handful of CGI resources that I use – or have used in the past – on a regular basis. Since this review is primarily geared to the WebTV/MSNTV user, I'll focus only on those services that are proven LBB-friendly.
I tried CGISpy for a short time, and I still use their counters and web stats. CGI Spy offers the usual applications though one needs to "Upgrade to premium" to access all the scripts. Free members have many scripts to choose but these are limited – and ad-driven. Still, it is not a bad service. The only problem I have is the site itself is a pain to navigate with WebTV. The home page is slow loading – You can't even log in until the page – and all those banner ads – loads completely. Even after logging in, you have to wait several minutes before being transferred to your account page. Some of the applications are a bit challenging to configure on the Little Black Box.
Well, Bravenet was very WebTV friendly in the past; in fact, I used Bravenet's services almost exclusively until they decided they didn't want to accommodate WebTV users. Recently, I took out a new Bravenet account, even used the counters and web stats, but I came away dissatisfied. The site is slow loading on the LBB, and there are ads all over the place. Although most of their features are not that hard to configure or manage, Bravenet, in my opinion is still very hostile to the LBB crowd. I don't even use my account anymore, which is a shame because I loved Bravenet's web statistics and counters.
I found WWWToolz during a Google search, and couldn't sign up via WebTV. Although I did manage to sign up with the PC browser, I found WWWToolz offers the same applications as SiteGadgets but more. One nice thing is the site itself is fairly easy to navigate and what scripts offered are easy to configure. The big plus is it's ad-free. That's right: No annoying pop-ups or banner ads. This is why I'm giving WWWToolz a rating of 9.
Anyone know if and when Hosted Scripts will ever move to their new server. This has been promised for years, and I doubt the service will ever take on new customers. Too bad, since they offer everything I'm looking for in remotely hosted CGI. Counters, jumpboxes, message boards, tell-a-friend, the whole bit. From the demos shown, Hosted Scripts seems a good bet, but since there are no new sign-ups, why bother? I'd give them a good rating, but I can't.
Finally, if you're game, Ult-Tex has several free CGI, PHP, and Javascript applications ready for installation. Just your typical scripts: Guestbook, image index, source viewer, form mailers, jumpbox, etc. Your web host must have a cgi-bin for your use and allow imported scripts. Ultra's scripts are very nice, easy to install, and reliable. Rating: 10
I've used SiteGadgets for several years and find their service reliable and very easy on our sometimes temperamental (and outdated!) browsers. SiteGadgets provides the usual, more popular, applications: Guestbooks, jump boxes, mail forms, counters, message boards, What's New logs, FFAL, interactive stories. As of now I just use the jump boxes. I don't recommend the guestbooks or message boards as they are a pain to control – I had a SiteGadgets guestbook years ago but gave it up after one troublesome poster filled it with junk. Deleting those entries was not easy, so I just gave it up. Their other features are quite reliable. One drawback: Since SiteGadgets is ad-driven, there are banner ads all over the Whats' New pages, message boards, and FFAL. Which is not an issue for me since I just use a few features. Sign up is quick and easy, and logging in is a breeze. Customer service is "iffy" but you can get some support if you run into a problem.
Rating: 9
Rating: 7
Rating: 3