All Awardees Selected.
Get a steady stream of great content curated by real people on the topics you love.
Target Audience: Anyone that uses the interent to discover new information on topics they care about.
Website URL: https://www.ensemba.com
Feedback sought:
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
Yes, anytime a co-founder is able to produce a video and represent a company or website it that way, it is very encouraging. The social media buttons are another good suggestion that the site is trustworthy. The simple clean design with very intuitive “How” and “Why” sections also advances the trust factor. The brief but professionally produced video about Ensemba also drives the point home that the site is the real deal.
Â
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
I clicked on to the “how You Use It” link and completed registration. I then began searching for how to gain links to my site. The next page reveled a series of websites, but It was not immediately intuitive. Perhaps a simple intuitive two liner on what to do now that you are on this page would help. How to get the links and what is the process maybe. I then clicked on one of the website links and was transported to a site, but not sure what to do next?
Â
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
Yes, there is no issue there, I felt very comfortable creating an account. The trust is obvious and i see no reason not to sign up. Signing up allowed me to better explore the site and try out its functionality. In addition, the statement on the website encourages the user to signup. Indicating that it only takes 20 seconds, and in return you will have access to links. I liked that I did not have to open my mail client and verify my email address. This makes the site even more appealing.
Â
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
In doing a search for “Link Building Networks, Social Media” I was able to find the following site: https://www.linkemperor.com/link-building-networks. There are not very many sites with the similar functionality. This is probably good, making the site unique. The site that i did find was good and offered a similar but not exact service, again because there are perhaps no other exactly similar sites offered. The big advantage I see with Ensemba is that it is very web 2.0 and interactive, as well as very social in nature.
Â
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
Overall, good site, intuitive, clear and easy to understand and navigate. If it is not already a part of the future plan of the site, a Terms Of Service and a Privacy Policy should be included. Also testimonials and live chat may be considered as viable options for the site. Probably the most pressing issue with the site is making the process more intuitive and easier to get to the “meat” of what is being offered, if you will. The web 2.0 simple clean platform is appealing and the concept is genuine and has great potential. It seems to be the perfect marriage of link access and building with social media technology. Good work, will book mark the beta and check back from time to time.
1. After looking at the home page for about 30 seconds, my initial impression was that ensemba! enables users to indicate their interests and then receive a steady stream of links related to those interests. Once I watched the video, which is paced well and looks professional, I could see that my first impression was basically accurate but missing some details. In particular, the video explained that users can rate the content they receive to better tailor it to their interests. Also, the video mentioned that there’s a social networking component to ensemba!, although it didn’t clarify how that works. Â
Â
From a design perspective, you have an attractive, colorful logo, although the rest of the home page is rather dull. But at least it’s not too busy. Better to be a little dull than too busy. Layout is appropriate with the video, logo, tagline, and headline well placed above the fold and the three selling points immediately below it. Speaking of those selling points, I like that each one opens in a pop-up window. It takes a lot less time to go through them than it would if I had to load a bunch of separate pages. Now, this is a minor point, but I would make “Why We Built It” the third selling point instead of the second. Visitors generally care more about how the site can help them than about the inspiration behind it, so the “about us” stuff should be last. Finally, I noticed that there are a bunch of grayed out links at the bottom of the home page. Why is that?
Â
You asked if the site looks trustworthy. “Trustworthy” is a word I don’t throw around lightly when it comes to web sites. Sites like PayPal and Amazon are “trustworthy” in my book. Start-ups without any existing reputation simply look “dangerous” or “not dangerous” to me. I’d say your site looks like it’s “not dangerous.”
Â
2. I wanted to find out if this is a free service or if you charge something for it. Unfortunately, I didn’t see that information anywhere. One of the problems with your site, I think, is that it does a very good job of giving an overview of ensemba!, but there’s no place to read through the details. Usually when I consider registering at a site, I start by reading the introductory info to find out if I’m interested in the concept. Then, if I am, I move on to the nitty-gritty details to make sure I want to be part of it. I feel like ensemba! doesn’t offer those details. It needs an FAQ or something similar so that visitors can find answers to questions like whether this is free or not, how many links they can expect in a day, how they will receive those links (e.g., by email, by browser feed, by mobile app, at your site only, etc.), which topical categories they can choose from, who your curators are, and so on.
Â
3. I could see myself possibly being interested in something like this because it would save me Google search time every day.
Â
4. I wasn’t successful in finding another web site that does what you do. I searched on “get daily links,” “get daily content,” “get news that interests you,” and “get personalized news” and couldn’t find anything like ensemba!. However, I know I’ve come across services like yours before; I just don’t remember any details about them. One alternative to your service would be to simply use Google News alerts, but they’re not personally curated and therefore not always relevant, leaving the user with a lot of extraneous junk to sort through.Â
Â
5. I went ahead and signed up for your service, which was an easy process. I was impressed to see that you have over 700,000 topics to choose from, and I think that’s a fact worth advertising on the home page. However, I didn’t have much success finding topics that interested me. For example, I first tried “Facebook stock.” That didn’t return any results. “Facebook” was a possibility, but what if I really only wanted to be alerted to news about the stock? My second try was “health care.” My intention was to look for news and articles about the health care debate, but the categories that were returned were obviously about health and beauty rather than about a sociopolitical issue. My third try was “Occupy Wall Street.” That returned nothing, which I thought was strange considering that a lot has been written about that movement. Finally, I decided to look up a specific person, so I tried “Robert Downey, Jr.” Okay! Well, that worked at last. So I clicked “next” and found…eight links available. That’s paltry compared to what I could find with a basic Google search.
Â
So, after trying ensemba!, I have to conclude that I’m disappointed with the service as is. It sounds amazing when you state that you have over 700,000 topics for me to pick from, but the reality is it’s pretty hard to find topics that you actually feature. Maybe I just picked topics that were too narrow? I don’t know. If I’m interested in following Occupy Wall Street, what broader topic could I pick? “Economics”? “Politics”? Those would seem to be too broad. Also, now that I’m signed in, I’m still not seeing any further information about how to make the most of your site. In particular, I’d love to know if I could have these results emailed to me in a daily digest or installed as a feed in my browser or something because the thought of having to sign in for them every day isn’t too appealing.
Â
Bottom line: Your site has a nice, clean design and layout and does a decent job of generating user interest initially. However, it lacks details about how ensemba! works. Those who sign up anyway will soon find out that no further details are forthcoming, either, even once they’re registered. Another basic problem is that ensemba! promises a lot but doesn’t yet deliver on it, at least not in my experience. It shouldn’t be so hard to find topics of interest, and available topics should have more than, say, eight results. Right now, I’m not seeing a lot of advantages to using ensemba! over just searching Google.
Â
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
The site is clear and straightforward. Seeing a photo of one of the co-founders of the company and the information about taking ensemba for a test drive provides integrity for the site which contributes to its trustworthiness. The use of plenty of white space makes it easy to browse the home page content and not be overwhelmed by content. I wasn’t too sure what the product or service was intially until I read the brief blurb about ‘how to use it’ which indicated that this is a content curation tool. The pale grey navigation labels at the bottom of the page are quite difficult to view and could do to be in black for easier viewing.
Â
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
There was no search box on the site which meant that the only way I could find something was via the navigation menu at the bottom of the page or via the three visual icons. I clicked on the How to use it option which took me to a sign in page but I couldn’t use the back button to go back to the home page. I knew instinctively to click on the ensemba brand name to go back to the home page but only the one at the top of the page was clickable and the one at the bottom of the page wasn’t.
Â
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
The mention of the fact that it takes 20 seconds to sign up was encouraging. It certainly didn’t take long to sign up and the instructions were very clear and easy to follow. The screen that appeared after I’d signed up was slightly wider than my laptop screen meaning I had to scroll across at the bottom in order to read the “get awesome links recommended….” window that appeared. This additional window didn’t seem to serve much purpose and I found it annoying as it shaded out the content on the page behind.
Â
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
 I compared ensemba with Scoop.it which I’m already familiar with. One of the first major differences is the way that Scoop.it presents the curated content in a magazine style page. This creates a visual appealing format. The guided tour is also a good introduction to the tool. With ensemba I didn’t initially understand what the tool offers in terms of presenting curated content other than a results page. In the ‘Why you will love it’ on ensemba it would be good to have a walkthrough of a finished profile showing screenshots of the actual tool and how people use it. Also mmore explanation of what the different tabs are for and how the voting system works.
Â
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
The coloured tabs across the top of the page make it easy to see where to access other content. The results are listed in a clear easy to browse fashion including thumbnails which are helpful and give the results a visual perspective. Once I was in my profile page I couldn’t get back to the site’s homepage even by clicking on the ensemba logo.
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
What Brett and his friends have done to create this site is truly remarkable. My first response was that it is one of the few site that use video this good. Simple clean and to the point. It has a professional look without the clutter you find on most new sites. I can see a lot of thought has gone into it and ensemba did capture me from the minute go. I actually immediately signed up and went through the process. Couple of thoughts would be why the name ensemba cause it is difficult to remember for offline word of mouth and does not really give me the idea what it is about. Fair enough it is a free world and for the effort Brett putt into it I guess he can choose the name he likes. I appreciate a person who is not say to say who they are and what they stand for. This truly did it for me and helped me to understand why autism is such a high priority. Overall I would give first impressions a 9 out of 10 🙂
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
There is no search bar on the website and it is more like a capture page so I could not really find something unless I went through the process of signing up. This process was quite simple and straight forward. We all have hobbies and interest and why not have then all at one place were like-minded people spend time. Also highly rated websites gets the most traffic and if a website does not future in googles top 10 it is not likely that we ever see them. If there are millions of websites available that match our search how the heck will we know if it is truly relevant to us. Also only the guys who is website guru’s get to the top of google. Not always the people who truly know what they talk about like autism cause these guys do not spend their time getting a better google ranking. They spend their time researching autism or their passion.
So to answer the question I would venture to say the process was straight forward after you signed up. The words that caught me was all my interests at one place. That got my attention and made me want to sign up.Â
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
As mentioned I was hooked from minute go. I felt Brett’s passion for a topic and hope that I will find my passion also in his creation. However when I did all the nitty gritty of going through the boring process to set it up I was not getting what I hoped for. The first thing that jumped to the top was if I will be twitters 500 millionth user and a bunch of stuff about social media. This made me feel all lost again in this age that we are buried under information that clutter out lives and get us the spend time on things we not really interested in. Ye social media is cool and all that and I use it to do a bit of marketing but Â
I never told ensemba that I liked that, maybe I clicked the wrong button. So to put it straight, I was totally sold on Brett’s idea but got the wrong first impression straight after the boring process to sign up. I felt like now it is another thing I have to go and study before there will be any benefit. I hate these kind of things in my life and unless it is absolutely crucial and I avoid them completely 🙁
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
I tried finding a company that does it through a couple of key words and none that does the same. I would say facebook is my first choice since everyone is there. Linkin is another, but none who with time can truly zone in on a topic and get people to recommend links. I would say with time ensemba would get there, but that will only be evident in the months to come. My main source of income is network marketing and worldwide there are more that 40 million people involved. It did not show as an option under the interests tab. Was a bit disappointed not to see my passion in life being addressed or even listed 🙁
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
All in all ensemba is a great website that has all the elements to make it succeed. I can with confidence say Brett did an excellent job to bring such a cool concept to life. The first impressions are spot on and got me signed up in the first minute. However the inside needs lot of work and lots of visitors to make it a social mecca to emigrate to. I opted for the facebook sign up and later went to look at my facebook page but could not find ensemba. Maybe it is just me that is blind or do not know where to look. Guess all this can be sorted out.
A couple of suggestions:
I would firstly only focus on one language and not allow other languages to rate their link high or put it as an option at the sign up process cause in my field of network marketing I only found it under multi level marketing and when I clicked on it as an interest a link with a foreign language came up. This put me off cause it did not help me.
I would also suggest to put up a couple of other people video’s and why they like ensemba as with only Bretts reason of autism in his son narrowed the focus on a limited topic. I think ensemba is much wider and people need to know that. Cause I could not find total satisfaction does not say I will not visit again. It just say this website needs to have bigger exposure to like minded people.
I hope my feedback helped and share in Brett’s cause to better understand and manage autism in his son.Â
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
The homepage has a lot of gray space. It is clean but it doesn’t do much to sell your brand. It tries to coerce me to sign up immediately (Get started now). I really would like reasons why to sign up. I assume that I have to watch the video first, but what if I don’t? Then I have no clue as to what you are about.
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
I want to search your content without having to sign up. Then, if I like it, then I can sign up. This is what most people want. Not to waste time signing up for a dud. Why do you make someone select an interest before they can sign up?
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
As I’ve said already. No. I want to test drive the product before signing up then decide for myself if you are worthy to use.
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
You know, how bout I skip the middle man and just use a search engine to find what I want. Your business model hinges on the premise that I need your service. I don’t. I don’t need a more social search of my interests. I just need a search engine to find what I want. If I want news, then I go to a news site and type in my interest. You haven’t proved that your service is needed.
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
1) You at least need a tagline to define your brand. It should be near your logo.
2) You need selling points on your homepage. Straight and to the point. At least 3. No paragraphs, please!
3) You need to fulfill a problem that we have. I don’t see that happening. I’m not convinced.
1)     Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
From the onset of your page the text in the video looks very blurry and it almost made my head start hurting. A person like myself can quickly get a headache from look at busy patterns or things that look to blurry and you homepage did it for me. That being said I like when sites have videos for user to look at, giving them a personal touch on what your site has to offer. Your tagline as to what your site is about was very well said and easy to understand. There seems to be too much white space on your site. I know that white can be used to make things stand out but in your case there are no contrasting colors to dull down the bright effect it has. I did not like the tabs at the bottom of the page. Some of them I could be barely and when clicked on they took the page over and I was unable to get back to the homepage. That was a little weird. I had to keep going back to the startuplift page and opening your site from there. If you are going to have tabs then put those most important at the top of the page and leave the rest at the bottom. The text on your page needs to darken to offset the white and I would like to see those colors used in the emblem on your site. I think that your homepage lacks content making me feel I have to sign up to see if I like it. That being said I have not yet looked at the video, your content backup may be there. Your site looks trustworthy meaning that your product is not one that is asking personal information so it would seem safe.
2)Â Â Â Â Â Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
I tried to create an account and I was unable to get past the next step because it said my password was weak. Even when I added more characters it would not let me proceed. I guess it needs a few minutes to set up my account. I also don’t understand why I would need to click on one of the featured items to get the most of your website, especially when those topics might not be relevant to a user. I don’t understand what it means to build your topic reputation. I was easy to find into but I was unsure to how much content I was going to receive at a time. I would like to be able to limit the link number on each given topic.
3)Â Â Â Â Â Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
I like that I could just create and an account and immediately use your site. I also liked that I could sign up through one of the social networking sites.
4)Â Â Â Â Â Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which one do you prefer? Why?
I was unable to find a site like yours. I need to see and know what makes your site as beneficial as to why not to use a simple search engine. I was still given a ton of information to look through and using the voting as a tool is only relative to the user. What one user finds okay may not be to another user. I need to see how your site will maximize my search query and give me the most important data and so far your site does not show me how you do that. I don’t info based on what others like because you might be leaving off information that pertains to me.
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
I really loved the personal touch when it came to the video as to why this site was built. You could really feel the compassion in his voice. I think that your site needs to showcase how it actually works because I don’t understand that at all. I get that you’re voting on links content to assure that you get the best information suited to yourself but the process in and of itself is a mystery. Your first video at the top of the page didn’t really give me the push I needed to show me why your site is so great and innovative. I think that’s where you might lose users. I love the idea of making searching more tailored and personalized but I need more info as to how you achieve that. How does your site deal with users looking up violent, pornographic and abusive content? Can I assume that users are not chatting back and forth with each other jus voting on content? In your video you put “build your reputation,†what does that mean?
Â
When I scrolled across the icons at the bottom of the links the email link seemed to be above the content. I think that you should leave the icons visible instead of making them visible when scrolled over.
Â
Under the manage tab there seemed to be a levels, new to me and so on. What does that mean?
I loved the little humor under the “my details†tab. Nice.
1)     Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy? The site look very trustworthy very plain serves the purpose of connecting with people.The video aspect ands a whole new twist to the site.Not to much that detracts from the eye the entire layout is pleasnt on the eye.You not left wandering what to do.Everything you need is on one page which is good you not left to search link for link to get the relevant pages the site is overall very user friendly.
2)Â Â Â Â Â Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?No I want to just search the site I hate having to open an account to do that.If I am forced to open an account I do not like to respond to a site.I did not find what I was looking for.The process is straight forward to sign up but I might not always like to sign up that I find is a big problem.
3)Â Â Â Â Â Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?No like I said I hate being forced to open up an account.If you use the force element then that for me is a no-no.It like those ads that you sign up for but when you want to unsubscribe you cannot do It its exactly the same feel I getting here.If a site forces me to sign up already the trust factor for me drops to 0.I do not like as a consumer to be pressured into signing up unless I want to.
4)Â Â Â Â Â Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which one do you prefer? Why?I did not find any alternative company so this company could become like facebook/twitter the concept is very good I uses operator tags (related:ensemba)yet could not find an alternative site.This is a very good concept that could grow enormously.
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
Overall I would rate this site a 7 the force of signing up puts me off if this site was marketed more I would sign up unfortunately it being a new site it just not have the calibre of other sites.I however feel one should just watch this site the concept is unique and if it works the will be many clones like this.Ingeniuty and creativity I like though very much with concept formation.
Using Mac OS 10.7.3 with Safari and Firefox
Â
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
Â
First impressions is that the home page feels a bit sparse, but in a good way. It is easy to take everything in. The Login/Sign In section could be better displayed or highlighted (top right corner).Â
Â
The ‘pitch’ video on the homepage is well done, but demands a lot of attention, as everything goes through quickly. It feels that if you blink, or are only paying half attention, you are going to miss a lot.
Â
The ‘Explanation’ sections (Why You Will Like It, Why We Do It, How You Use It) are all good, and do much to explain the ‘What’ ‘Why’ and ‘How’ of the website-especially the ‘Why We Do It’ video. However, there could be a more extensive ‘example’ of how it works.
Â
With the ‘How You Use It’ section, I was expecting a tutorial, not a sign up. I was hoping to learn a bit more about the site, its appearance / layout, general functions, before making any commitments to it. Maybe have a few screen shots of the user profile page, user network page, etc. that can be viewed by those interested in the site.
Â
Some of the links at the bottom of the page do not work, including the ‘About’ link. The ‘About’ section, or the lack thereof, is usually the go-to section that explains the purpose, vision, and progression of your site, and not having that (and having a few other missing links at the bottom of your site) makes things feel incomplete (though it is understandable, as you are still in development).
Â
Like the ‘Meet Our Team’ section. The Blog opened in a new window, but took forever to load.
Â
Overall, the site seems trustworthy–mostly because the intentions behind the site seem honest and focused on a worthy purpose.
Â
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
In using the website, navigation was fairly easy. As noted, the homepage is fairly simple and easy to preview.
Â
The user profile page is also simple and easy to move around.
Â
In searching for topics on the site (both while setting up a new account and listing your interesting, and in searching for interests / topics ) after setting up an account, I found the search result suggestions that came up (the ‘category thread’ — i.e.: ‘society > Issues >Economics’ )Â helpful, letting me see more specifically what the results were for (i.e.: looking up currency, there were a fair number of regional results shown). However, I found the word search a bit to broad and hard to work with in narrowing down to something specific.
Â
The ‘work down’ for topic level searches is interesting, being able to start with Top Level Topics and via those Topics work your way down to more specific topics and interests. I did find that when selecting a Topic that has a larger number of results (or that I assume would have) that it is slower to load. It also allowed me to ‘Add’ topic interests to my profile.
Â
In noting that, there is nothing yet on your sit that explains how to add new topics to your interest list. I originally tried to do so by clicking on my ‘Interests’ tab (and the ‘see all’ and ‘manage’ links).Â
Â
Also, it wasn’t until I accidentally clicked on the “…” on the search box that I knew that it was there, and that the ability to view ‘Topics’ and work down from Top level topics to more defined ones was available. Do more to highlight this feature– maybe have a separate ‘Topics’ link that brings up the Topics tabs instead of the not-so-obvious ” … ” on the Search bar.
Â
Â
Once I found out how to vote on links and add links (on Safari… the Firefox tab was easy to use), I found those tasks easy to do… though sorting through the links to find ones that are worth while to vote on (or off) felt rather tedious. But hey, it must be done, so that others may have easier, faster, browsing.
Â
Â
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
I actually like the concept and purpose behind the Ensamba site. There is actually a serious and meaningful purpose behind it that is becoming harder to find in new websites, and a fair bit of originality. I signed up (and actually used Facebook to sign up, something that I rarely do).
Â
Â
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
In doing a search I tried a fair number of work combinations of ‘link building networks’ ‘social link networks’, ‘site link networks.’ Most of these turned up results for social sites like LinkedIn, etc, that have nothing to do with internet search profiling, etc., or on link building solutions
Â
It seems that most searched did not produce any immediate (first two pages) results that have a ‘link sharing’ network on them, which means that unless one knows exactly what they are looking for, social link sharing sites similar to ensemba are hard to find.Â
Â
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
Â
I like the ‘link’ tab for FireFox (found under ‘tools’), though I am not a fan of the FireFox web browser (almost never use it). It would be nice (though unlikely) to have a similar tab for Safari and other browsers available in the future.
Â
In the ‘Benefits’ link on the ‘Get social’ part of the user profile page, there is bad grammar in the pop-up window. “share your discoveries to the people in your network” should be “Share your discoveries with the people…”
You also mention ‘Reputation Points’ in that section, but in looking around the site, there is nothing that I found that explains what those reputation points are, how they are gained, and what they are for.
Â
Again, in not having anything that really shows how your site works on your homepage (no screen shots, walk-thru), I was at a bit of a loss at first on how to pick and choose sites. Of course, selecting a topic from your interests brings up a list of links that you can thumbs up or thumbs down–but at the moment one has to ‘click and discover’ on ones own.
Â
The ‘Share A Link’ tab needs to be more noticeable. Again, lacking a FAQ on how to share links, and sometimes looking in other places where you would think a ‘Share link’ option would be, combined with many sites having the top left corner reserved for links to the users information, log in/log out options… it may not be the first place people look.
Â
Your Help section is a ’email question’ link. Maybe develop a FAQ link for the more common help inquiries.
Â
The site, when in your profile and looking at links, feels a bit ‘blah’…. the dull orange link titles and ‘Interest’ title are not overly attractive (it may be me, though… I am not really a fan of orange, especially when it is dull).
Â
Â
Overall, an interesting site. Hopefully I will be able to revisit and participate in it as it develops.
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy? The site looks small scale and put together hastily. I would think it needs something to make it pop to the eye. When you first look you have no real def idea as to what its about.
Â
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward? There was an issue. I tried to click inside the box under Interest Search and it wouldn’t let me. Which I found very disturbing.
Â
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)? I did create an account as I am curious due to having my own websites. If I had not had my own websites I wouldn’t have thought it had anything that would be along my interest
Â
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why? In this case I have to say the other page pops more and shows to be more interesting for me. It also allows me to type in the field.
Â
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have. Although this site does have some interesting areas of development I also has some issues that need to be fixed. The Interest search spot needs to be fixed. It isn’t allowing us to type inside of it. Other than that the site did capture my attention, but as I stated it wouldn’t have if I didn’t have my own websites.
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?Â
Frankly speaking but i could not get the meaning of the site and it’s logo. For the normal user it would be difficult to find what this site really meant for until he will see the video and understand it thoroughly. The site look does not appeal me at first and also could not find it trust worthy. Home page should be more informative and interactive and clearly grab the user attention and tell him why he is here. This seems like more research level project at university level to take it to normal used it should be more user friendly and you have to work a lot on usability issues.
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
I was finding about some information e.g. startup business but could not find it. Progress was ok but not satisfactory.
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
I have created an account to know about this website. But not encouraged to do so as could not find the much information and also found less interactive
Â
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
I have gone for facebook and find some meaningful community e.g startup business and i easily got the information and people around the same subject which i could not found here on ensemba.
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
Homepage should be more interactive. Proper help guide should be given for the user so that he can use it more effectively and find meaningful information. The site should have some different and unique features which differs it from other social networking and search sites
Â
1. I find that the website is very easy to navigate and it is very trustworthy to me. I believe people can view websites easily and share interests on the ensemba website easily with no hassles.
2. Not very easy to search on this website.
3. I would get an account with this website if it were given more features and lots of information about the website.
4. I think facebook and google has more information to be found than ensemba.
5. Needs to be more user friendly and given more information about the website itself.Â
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
“.First impression is a best impression. ”
Its perfectly designed as a user friendly website and quick navigation links.Need to be displayed more content and it should be more attractive.
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
Its working perfectly and sort out all things what iam looking for.Great and awesome website for searching.Â
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
I signed up for a free trial to know more about the website and its functionality.Â
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
Compared with twitter,facebook and other social network sites..its in developing stage and need more functionality to compete others.But first step is to get designed in that case its superb.
Â
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
Need to add all functionality from all websites and to give a best combination of all in function wise.
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
Â
I like ensemba since the first visit. The design looks simple but modern, and the introductory video was professionally made. All that adds up making the website looks trustworthy.
But initially the words “Get a steady stream of great links….” made me think that this would be another “SEO type” site where bloggers and website owners would be able to get incoming links to their own blogs/websites to rank better in search engines. Only after watching all the video clips and the presentation provided (especially the one depicting what the website founder Brett Strauss had gone through that have inspired him to make this website. A good and touching video!) I came to a full realization that ensemba was in fact meant to serve as information sharing center: by everyone for everybody’s benefits.
Â
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
Â
I see that ensemba is still new, so I don’t think I can expect much from it. In the footer I also saw that many of the menu there are still greyed out.
When I clicked the sub-menu About|Team, it brought me a page filled with photographs of five individuals who are behind this project, together with the subjects they are interested in in ensemba. It is good, at least I can have a glimpse about what I will find inside without having to create an account first and signing in.
But when I clicked on their names, instead of bringing me a more detailed info about them, the site popped the introductory presentation that I had viewed before on the homepage. This is rather unpleasant as I do not think I would ever need to watch that short simple presentation again and again as if I were not intelligent enough to understand its message in one go.
Why don’t you give some more details about the persons instead? Just a brief info on what ensemba means for them and what had motivated them to be involved in this project or what vision they have for ensemba. Or, if you are still unable to provide such more intimate info, why don’t you just make their names unclickable instead? I think letting visitors know in what subjects they are interested in is more than enough, no need to give them some more hope just to disappoint them shortly after.
Â
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
Â
Yes, I am. The vision you explained to us about ensemba is very enthralling. If we really can have selected, high quality information we’ll ever need about the things we really care about in one place, that would be very convenient. Until now I still use Google to find the information I need, adjusting the keywords used if I did not find the information I require. So far Google works for me pretty well. But I hope when ensemba has matured, it will be able to fulfill its goal so that we would not have to look for the info we need somewhere else.
Â
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
Â
When I first grasped what ensemba is all about, I think that it is similar with some other websites that are commonly used as social bookmarking sites such as Newsvine, StumbleUpon, Digg, etc. where people submit links and the others vote. But now I see (I hope I am not wrong here) that ensemba has greater vision than that. It seems to me that ensemba aims to be the pool of selected, high-quality and well-organized information about all subject of interests.
Â
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
There are still no clear guide about how to operate inside ensemba. Because I did not choose my interests right when I registered, I wanted to change it when I logged in but unfortunately I could not easily find how to do that. I tried to click the “manage” button in my interests tab, but there is no way there for me to change my interests to something else. That “manage” menu only gives me way to remove, not to add new interests. Luckily I found it when I tried to use the search facility placed on top of the page.
The “manage” menu also displayed scroll-boxes with the choices from “new to me” to “expert” which I have no idea what and how it would be useful for me. I guess it is to choose whether I deem myself new to the field of interest I chose or expert in it…. but I still don’t know what difference they would give me in ensemba.
From what I have seen inside, ensemba has every potential to be the site it was designed to be. But I think, unless you have clear, workable plans on how to deal with spammy submissions that will flood your site sooner or later, ensemba may end up instead as nothing more then huge collection of trashy links just like so many unmoderated social bookmark sites nowadays.
My initial impression of the website is that it is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. It is simple, streamlined and user friendly. My one concern is that the logo is colorful and playful but the website itself is missing the same playfulness. In my opinion the site absolutely looks trustworthy, and professional. Â
I was most excited to find out what the user interface would look like. It was particularly easy to figure out how to go about seeing it, but I was not interested in signing up for an account just to see what the user interface would look like.Â
I really liked that signing up was as easy as a single button click to link through facebook or twitter. After milling it over I did decide to sign up mostly because of the inspiring video posted by the creator of the site. I am glad that I signed up I wish that the home page had as much pizazz as the user interface.Â
I did not find another service that provides the same personalized search responses as the site, but I will say I don’t think this is really for the average person, who like myself would probably just go straight to the mega search engines like Google or Yahoo just because they are so easily accessible. I think this is definitely niche product for someone like the creator who would be seraching for such sensitive and important information like Autism.
The name Ensemba doesn’t provide much information as to the purpose of the company so my initial query was to find out what kind of website I was viewing and how it could be useful in my life. While the video on the site provided some explanation I think the “Why you’ll love it” demo went a long why in giving me a clear picture as to how this site could be integrated into my life. I would argue that it could even be highlighted maybe even more so than the video at the top of the page.Â
1) Its brief and professional looking and it looks trust worthy to me because it doesn’t have a bunch of little ads all up and down the sides of the page.
2) Â The process was fairly easy, however I didn’t like having been made to choose a popular trending topic just so the sites search engine could get me started. What are the guidelines used to determine how you sort knowledge levels? And how are they organized?Â
3) Possibly! I think the more precise the words used in a search, AND if it returns the type of content for that particular interest, I may keep using it. Â For now, since I just started up, I’m getting a really broad range of search results.
4) Â Similar, but Ensemba is a bit easier to navigate with the way the page and content are laid out/displayed. Â
5) I say its a good looking and easy to navigate website. To me it feels like a sort of like a Twitter and Pinterest hybrid.  I do have a suggestion to maybe change or rearrange the drop down menu for knowledge levels.  I’d rather just see a prompt/pop up about adjusting skill levels and where you can adjust them, along with a little sentence describing why its important(it that same box), and then be able to just click on that link/section and be able to read about how the levels for knowledge are assessed, which would help me decide which level might be best for me.  Great website and idea! 😀
1) The home page is clean and simple. The short explanatory video makes it easy to understand what ensemba is all about. The fact that the site was built to help parents of children with autism adds a high level of credibility. As a parent of a child with autism I can see how useful this could be.
2. The search process was very straightforward. I was able to find every topic I was looking for. My one concern is that the 10 links returned weren’t always the most current. For example, I chose Apple as a topic and the #1 link was for the announcement of the iPhone 4s, which happened last October.
3)I was encouraged to create a new account because it was free, I could login with Facebook, and it looked interesting as a concept. I was eager to see how the site worked. What I find particularly appealing is the combination of technology and human interaction. I found it very interesting that the company chose to use the word “curated” when describing the human content component. Good choice of words to differentiate the site from potential competitors.
4) I compared Trap.it with ensemba, and noticed that the big difference is the emphasis on human vs. technological interaction. Trap.it touts its artificial intelligence engine, while ensemba emphasizes the human component. Obviously there is a strong technological component to ensemba, but it is melded with human interaction which makes the experience warmer. I found Trap.it cold, and I saw no reason to look into it very much. Brett’s personal video in which he talks about his autistic son builds warmth and humanity into the ensemba site and experience.
5)I think this is a great concept. It’s kind of like a mash-up of Facebook and Wikipedia. I would be interested in knowing what the revenue model is for keeping membership free. I didn’t notice any ads…
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
It has a single aspect, which gives me confidence in the site, but does not attract too much for its simplicity. It has many categories within the site, the truth Nose understands the objective of the site by looking.
Â
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
The truth in my opinion, at first glance not really understand that the site is not very explanatory at first glanceÂ
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
It attracts me creating me account because as a new user, it is unclear what kind of site is about.Â
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
After joining, I can say that it could not compare this site with another search engine similar, but is oriented to other publicÂ
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
It seems to me to enter a site that did not know that it was, but I found it while browsing a web service quite interesting and simple, which quickly attracts the end user. It is seen that is a social network rather more evolved for other users a bit more intellectual and olderÂ
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
 My initial impression is positive. It looks professional. The site does look trustworthy.
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
I did find what I was looking for. I would suggest though that the sub- categories be simplified. It seems that there are a lot of areas that might lead to confusion. The search process was straight forward.
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)? Â
Yes. It seems that this site can provide access to a large amount of content on varied topics.
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which one do you prefer? Why?
I prefer Emsemba easier to navigate.
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.Â
I like the website the content and the possibilities of access to information on a large variety of subjects. I do feel that there should be a explanation that is easily accessible for the Badges and points system.
 Â
 Â
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
My first impression of the website was that I like the crisp, clean colors and the logo is gorgeous; however I could not really tell exactly what the website offered. Although there was a video there that I am sure will explain everything when I watch it, it is always nice to have the option of reading it for myself and that one-line explanation did not do it for me. Everyone likes to have options and no one likes to be told what to do. It feels like I am being forced to watch the video just to see what the site is all about. It is the opposite of too much information (TMI); rather too little information (TLI). After watching the third video, I finally got a grasp of just what this website was all about. I should not have to look that hard. What I am trying to say is that the initial introduction needs some work.
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
This question brings me to my next point. I did not look for something on the website because I did not want to sign up just to use it. It is always nice to have a choice whether I register for a website or not. The fact that I cannot use the site without being forced to sign up for it diminishes my trust because I feel like you are going to try and sell me something or harass me with emails once I give you my information. Again, no one likes to be told what to do. I get it from a marketing perspective, but from a consumer’s perspective, not cool! Â
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
No. See 1 and 2.
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which one do you prefer? Why?
The competitor’s site that I found was: pearltrees.com
Honestly, I liked the latter because they gave me sample’s on the home page. I knew exactly what they did, and I was not forced to sign up before seeing what they were about. Also, they seemed to be free, though I did not complete the registration because it seemed like they wanted to install something on my computer.
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
When I watched the owner’s video; I was immediately interested because I have a nephew that is autistic and I am very involved with the autistic community; however, my other reservations over-shadowed the heart strings that was pulled during the footage.Â
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy? As soon as the site loaded on my screen I clicked off of it. The image on the video hurt my eyes. When I went back to the site and scrolled the video off the screen yes it did look some what trust worthy.
Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward   . I wanted to know right away. How this could benefit me and the site had 5 seconds to hook me and it did not. The How to use it link wanted me to give you personal infomation first. For most people today that means A. I have to commit to something or B. If I don’t like your product I will get flooded with solicitation.
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?    At this point I would say no, I am A busy mother of 4 I don’t have time to watch videos to find out how this is going to make my life easier. There needs to be some type of written information.
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which one do you prefer? Why?    I located linklive.com and yes they also had video that I did not watch. However I was able to get information about WIFM (what’s in it for me) all over the web site without me ever feeling like I made a major decision.Â
Although I feel you are on to something I don’t think it is yet complete. The site is nice but no one is going to stick around for 3 videos in today’s microwave society
 Â
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy? The site looks well organized and interesting. I would think it’s very trustworthy and can’t wait to explore it more.Â
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward? I am trying to find the creators/workers of this website. Â I found it with ease under team. Â
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)? Yes, this site allows you to track any topic that fits your personality, Â This website allows you to customize your favorite topics and read links that relate to the topics you pick.
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why? I would prefer Google personally. Â Google is a well-known website that I have trusted over time. Â Your website is new and will only have a few links per each topic. Â Google will give its customers a wider range of links.
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have. Â All in all it’s a very neat website. Â I may sign up since the homepage is attractive and looks like you guys are on the verge of starting something good.
1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
The site looks trustworthy, but it’s no what I’d expect this type of site to look like. My first thought was of a company offering a service to businesses. The home page doesn’t show me anything about how the content will be presented or how easy it will be to find what I’m looking for – at least not until I click the “play” button on the video, and if I wasn’t doing this review I probably wouldn’t have done that.
2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
It was easy to find once I picked something from the drop down menu when I typed in a search query. It didn’t find much when I just typed and pressed “enter”
Â
3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
No. As I said, it looks like a site for business people to connect, not for people who just want to relax and check out some interesting sites. I wish there had been a way to check out how the site works before giving my information to yet another site.
4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
I prefer stumbleupon. It gives me sites based on my interests, but it’s a lot more fun than sifting through a newspaper or blog (which is the impression I get from ensemba). You just keep pushing the button and instantly getting more interesting sites, and you can vote the same way you do on ensemba to get better content.
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
 I can see a lot of people liking the newspaper/blog article style of the site, but it’s not for me. It’s too tedious, not fun enough, and whether I liked that format or not I normally wouldn’t have signed up without being able to test drive it first.Â
1. Home page was really drape dull colors. Appearance was not warm or inviting. Site appeared trustworthy. 2. I did not find my interests, limited information. Lots of information about news and current events. Acessing pages easily but little confusing. Always had a big heading for ensemble with starting information at bottom of page. Also had a news page insert but did nothing. Pictures were big and beautiful. I didn’t understand points and badges. Still dont know what they were for or their purpose. 3. Started account out of courosity not presentation. 4. I compared with facebook. The sign up page was shorter and faster. Facebnook had more content available to me concerning my interest. Their page banners were smaller. More space for what I really wanted to see. I prefer facebook neater presentation and more content. No badges or points. So facebook felt for me and not a competition. 5. Use better colors,smaller ensemble banners on pages, need more interesting content, explain points and badges clearly or get rid of them and make it easier to return to ensemble.
Â
1)     Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see? Does the site look trustworthy?
Â
Overall I believe this webpage presents a very professional and trustworthy appearance. It takes a lot of cues from other legitimate web page layouts such as Corbis, or twitter. My only complaint is that I have no idea what this company provides. I cannot tell if this is business, pleasure, social, or media services.
Â
2)Â Â Â Â Â Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
Â
I want to find a definition of the services this company provides. Those should be the first thing you see. A tag under Ensemba!, like “provider of ……†would be helpful. No one knows who you are, so you should probably introduce yourself.
Â
3)Â Â Â Â Â Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
Â
I believe this webpage is clean. If I knew what it was, and I wanted to sign up, I would do so trusting this webpage. I think a free trial is your best bet of bringing people in, because you are relatively unknown.
Â
4)Â Â Â Â Â Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
Â
The closest provider of services is either facebook or linkedin. However, facebook is more social and less business related and linkedin is more strict and business oriented. This site provides a more integrated cross of the two. I think it could do quite well if it was able to create its own unique niche, and then spread the word. Â
Â
Â
Â
     5)     Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
           Needs two things: a more basic explanation of the service it offers and more advertising.
Â
taskbee has received an award.
greatfeedback4u has received an award.
Lostness has received an award.
workwithfrancois has received an award.
 librarynz has received an award.