Finding similar websites to a given website

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by MrBrian, May 9, 2009.

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  1. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    I recently discovered www.xmarks.com, which tells you similar websites to a given website. Xmarks, which was formerly known as Foxmarks, mines the 600 million bookmarks made by users of its browser add-on to make its recommendations. You don't need the browser add-on to use the website discovery functionality. Xmarks also tells you a given site's rank within various topics, and lets you explorer the top ranked sites within a given topic. Wilderssecurity.com, for example, ranks "#87 in security, #60 in forums, #293 in antivirus, #1987 in tech." The list of similar sites of wilderssecurity.com is www.av-comparatives.org, www.castlecops.com, www.spywarewarrior.com, www.grc.com/intro.htm, www.spywareinfoforum.com, www.virusbtn.com, www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm, and www.virustotal.com. The top 9 sites for topic "security" (unfortunately, doesn't seem you can get more than 10 for any topic) are www.securityfocus.com, www.grc.com/intro.htm, www.sectools.org, www.cert.org, www.insecure.org, www.truecrypt.org, www.secunia.com, isc.sans.org, and www.sans.org. Related to topic "security" are the topics "it security, hacking security, information security, firewall, hacking, security tools, larry seltzer, antivirus," which you can further explore. Xmarks seems like a great way to discover websites when Google (or Yahoo, etc.) keyword searches aren't giving you the results you're hoping for. The topics from Xmarks can also give you ideas of what keyword searches to use in Google, Yahoo, etc.
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2009
  2. LenC

    LenC Registered Member

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    MrBrian -

    Thank you - very helpful site. It seems to be very accurate when I test it with sites that I know - it gives me the answers I expect.
     
  3. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    You're welcome :). I think I will be using this site quite often - the "wisdom of crowds" indeed.

    If anybody has any other strategies for unearthing good websites, please share.
     
  4. aigle

    aigle Registered Member

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    Good find indeed. :thumb:
     
  5. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Thanks for this, a real nice addition to the toolbox.
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2009
  6. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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  7. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    Nice one. Cheers!
    Mrk
     
  8. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    After exploring the site a bit more I change my rating of it from very good to AWESOME. This is one amazing tool, I will get a great deal of use from it. Thanks a million for this one, thank you, thank you, thank you.
     
  9. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    I'm glad some of you like this one :).

    Note that there is also a browser add-on available for IE, Firefox, and Safari. The add-on, in addition to recommending similar sites, also lets you synchronize bookmarks amongst multiple browsers on possibly multiple computers, and marks the most popular 3 of every page of Google search results.

    This site has only been live since March or April 2009. I suspect that's why many haven't heard of it yet.
     
  10. Someone

    Someone Registered Member

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    Great find!
     
  11. c2d

    c2d Registered Member

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    I was searching for this...Thank you MrBrian
     
  12. Trespasser

    Trespasser Registered Member

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    Interesting. Thanks, MrBrian.
     
  13. Saraceno

    Saraceno Registered Member

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    Thank you for this link.

    Best link I've come across in ages. Found some great websites I didn't even know existed. :thumb:
     
  14. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    I've found two more "similar sites" websites that are good enough to mention:

    a) http://www.similarsites.com/ - shows up to 20 similar websites
    b) http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo - will also show the location of a site within its Web directory (same directory as Open Directory Project uses) if an entry exists. You can also explore the Web directory. Sites aren't necessarily ordered by popularity within either "Related Links" or the Web directory, but popularity seems to affect the item order more in the Web directory than in "Related Links". Alexa also shows the global top 500 sites based on popularity, and has available a downloadable list of the most popular 1,000,000 websites.

    Both of these are also available as browser add-ons.
     
  15. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    A note to anyone exploring the Alexa Web directory: Google Directory, also based upon Open Directory Project, will display items by Google PageRank.
     
  16. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    There is a difference between the Alexa Web directory and Google Directory: Alexa includes items from subcategories in category lists, but apparently won't show more than 500 items. Google Directory, on the other hand, does not include items from subcategories when listing items.
     
    Last edited: May 11, 2009
  17. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    The Xmarks website has a link called 'All Xmarks Topics' that wasn't available when I started this topic, but is available now. It lists all Xmarks topics, as you might expect from the name.
     
  18. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Thanks again for this excellent tool, and for the update.
     
  19. PROROOTECT

    PROROOTECT Registered Member

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    Attention, please.

    The link xmarks from 1th Post - contains recognition pattern of the HTML/Spoofing.Gen HTML script virus, according to my AntiVir !o_O

    P:thumb:
     
  20. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    You're welcome :).

    I wish one could see more than just the top 10 similar sites. I'd like to see the top 100 similar sites to a given site.
     
  21. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    I agree, that would be nice.

    By the way, if you click on the sites rankings under the various designations you are taken to different top 10 lists. This gives you more than just the top 10 found on the initial search.
     
  22. PROROOTECT

    PROROOTECT Registered Member

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    Today - all goes well with this link to xmarks site.

    Apparently they have solved their problem.

    P:thumb:
     
  23. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Thats very good news, thanks for the post so I can use the site without undue worry.
     
  24. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    http://www.quantcast.com/ is another site that lists similar sites - see 'Audience Also Likes' and 'Audience Also Visits' sections.
     
  25. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    I just discovered http://similar-site.com/. IMHO, this site gives excellent results :). Also, for many sites you are given a list of over 100 similar sites, which is many more than the number of sites given by most of the other sites mentioned in this thread.
     
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