Top 20 Disney Websites

[Tenten]

That's cool that MGMStudios.org made it. A good friend of mine is the administrator.

 

[Sleeping~Beauty]

Thank you for all the great websites. I visit a number of them, but there are some new ones that I hadn't tried out yet.

 

[timned88]

My pleasure, Tim. Your new gallery skin really has a nice look & feel. And I really like being able to leave comments. I left a comment for a Cirque du Soleil picture at:
http://www.themagicinpixels.com/gallery/DOWNTOWN DISNEY/West Side/slides/WS.php#remarksheader

Hi Steve,
Just wanted to let everyone know that I have added a small desktop wallpaper section to my site after several people asked me to do so. There are a few there for now, but I am sure it will continue to grow. So........everyone, go check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks for your continued support.

 

[BamaTigger]

Great thread that deserves a BUMP!

 

[baldegle78]

subbing.

 

[SteveN73]

BamaTigger: Did you mean to say that every great thread deserves a "bounce"? Thanks for your comments.

No major changes occured in the Top 20 Disney sites this week, with Disboards remaining as the #1 yet again.
http://www.thedisneyportal.com/tdp/AllTopDisneySites.asp

Some interesting things occured in the Tributes category with the discovery of a new site called 20KRide. We also corrected an error in that DisneylandPostcards was not properly included in this category.
http://www.thedisneyportal.com/tdp/show.asp?DisneySites=Tribute
http://www.disneylandpostcards.com/

The biggest mover overall this week was a brand new site called MouseVids.com, which moved up from #296 to #88. This site is in beta mode and as the name implies focuses on online Disney videos. It's now the #3 Disney video site.
http://www.thedisneyportal.com/tdp/show.asp?DisneySites=Videos
http://www.mousevids.com/mv/home.asp

Finally, for your viewing convenience, we now feature an alphabetical listing of all the 320+ Disney sites we track on The Disney Portal. This should help many of you be able to track your favorite sites better We apologize for taking so long to deliver this convenient feature.
http://www.thedisneyportal.com/tdp/Alphabetical.asp

That's a wrap. Have a happy and safe Halloween!

Steve

 

[jcs_goog]

Wow, I can't believe The Disney Portal now ranks 361 websites. When I first discovered it, they only ranking just a tad more than 100 Disney websites.

I also like their latest touch of including a guest video from MouseVids.com.
http://www.thedisneyportal.com/tdp/portal.asp

 

[timned88]

hopefully my site will be able to rebound from the beating i took last week. i did some revamping and added some new content today so hopefully i will bounce back in the rankings. this is a great thread and the disney portal is a really neat idea. keep up the good work, steve.

 

[ChairborneRangr]

I don't understand the rating system. What causes a site like the Magic in Pixels to drop significantly and then rebound quite a few spaces in the span of just a few weeks - especially without a major change in google rating. Is it all related to the "rate a site" function?

 

[Eeyore in Texas]

But, I thought that DIS was the only best Disney site...

 

[SteveN73]

Thanks for the comments Tim and thanks for the insightful question Stephen. Just updated the rankings today and Tim's TheMagicInPixels.com did indeed recover, moving up 48 places to #114 (and #92 in the "combined" ranking). Almost all drastic changes like this can be attributed to changes in traffic that are picked up by Alexa. For a technical discussion, see this link:
http://awis.blogspot.com/2006/11/traffic-on-long-long-tail.html

Also, since The Disney Portal ranks nearly 400 sites, many of whom get roughly the same traffic, this makes the rankings all that more sensitive.

If you've never been to The Disney Portal, here are a few links that will help:
Homepage: http://www.thedisneyportal.com/tdp/portal.asp
Complete ranking (all 361 sites): http://www.thedisneyportal.com/tdp/AllTopDisneySites.asp
Combined ranking: http://www.thedisneyportal.com/tdp/combined.asp
Alphabetical: http://www.thedisneyportal.com/tdp/Alphabetical.asp
Photography: http://www.thedisneyportal.com/tdp/show.asp?DisneySites=Photos
In total, we currently have 27 categories.

While the drastic changes are largely due to Alexa, I need to restate that the ranking system is based on a combination of Google PageRank, Alexa traffic rank, and users votes collected here. Google releases their updated PageRank data about 2-3 times per year so that is stable week to week. Alexa updates their rankings every few days and thus is the most volatile measure. User votes collected here are entered about once per week on a cumulative basis and are fairly stable given that most voters say the same thing.

For TheMagicInPixels.com, all voters typically give Tim's site a "9" or "10". These same people also make comments that there is no Disney photography site as good as Tim's.

The Disney Portal rankings are updated on a weekly basis. This includes ranking the 361 sites and placing them into 27 categories. Obviously, we've been fortunate enough to automate this process otherwise it would take us forever!

Finally, to Eeyore in Texas, indeed, Disboards is in a class by itself!

There's an important issue and question I need to bring up to the community here, but I don't want it buried in this long explanation. So I will continue this on a new message...

Steve

 

[SteveN73]

As I mentioned, there's an important question I need to pose to the community here. In a recent post, I explained that Google PageRank is a component of The Disney Portal rankings. The problem is that updated rankings are only made public by Google about 2-3 times per year. Thus, great news sites like Tim's TheMagicInPixels.com are left without a Google PageRank until the Google guys are kind enough to release new data. Obviously, this is not fair which brings me to the question:

Which would you prefer:

A) The current system which doesn't give a PageRank to new sites until Google releases this data (might be a delay of up to 6 months).

-or-

B) Avoid this mess by using a fair estimate of Google PageRank.


There are a few other sites like MouseVids.com that this would apply to. That sight launched less than a month ago but actually already has a ton of traffic. Given it has no Google PageRank, it has an artificially low "DisneyRank" just like Tim's TheMagicInPixels.com.

Thanks again Tim and Stephen for bringing up excellent questions. I've made a number of changes due to comments from the Disboards community, such as creating a "Combined" ranking that groups together sister/partner sites where appropriate. I'll definitely listen to what you have to say.

Which of the options would you prefer?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[ChairborneRangr]

I hope my question did not come across as a criticism. You've had so many new sites added in such a short period of time that I figured this would cause significant adjustments before a more standard ranking pattern established itself. The rather rapid changes from week to week just piqued my curiosity.

As for the Google ranking – I’m inclined to leave that as a ranking factor. The list has seen a lot of additions since this thread started but, theoretically, that will slow and having a stable measure in the equation is a good thing.

 

[SteveN73]

I hope my question did not come across as a criticism.

Of course not Stephen! Your comment actually shows you've taken the time to ponder the benefits and shortcomings of the ranking system. So I must thank you!

Steve

 

[alfredromero1975]

As the webmaster of the brand new site MouseVids.com ( http://www.mousevids.com ), I vote for. . .

B) Avoid this mess by using a fair estimate of Google PageRank.

I agree that it's unfair that new sites might have to wait for 6 months until Google releases new data figures. I trust you'll come up with a good and fair fix for this.

 

[timned88]

agreed!

 

[°O°Joe]

Hi Steve, great job on your website, The Disney Portal! I noticed a couple of my favorites missing from the list though...

On the podcast list, Inside The Magic is missing. As far as I know, Inside The Magic has more listeners than any other disney related podcast out there. It's host, Ricky Brigante's website is on there, DistantCreations - but DistantCreations isn't really related to Disney, other than the fact that it links to Inside The Magic... Hopefully that makes sense.

The other one is a great torrent website that has loads of various disney related media (audio and video). You have to register to use (free registration), and you need to know how to work torrents, but there is a lot of good stuff on there. It is called MouseBits. It probably won't make the top 100 because I don't think many people know about it, however, as it is Disney related, it would be great to see it on the overall list...

Again, I really enjoy your website, keep up the great work!

--Joe

 

[ChairborneRangr]

I second Inside the Magic, although I believe MouseTunes actually has more listeners. The production of ITM is fantastic.

 

[SteveN73]

Joe, thanks for the correction on ************** and thanks for the suggestion on MouseBits. I'd never heard of that site so thanks! I'll include both in the next update (within a few weeks).

Cheers,
Steve

 

[SteveN73]

Regarding Stephen's comment about MouseTunes being the most popular Disney podcast, I'd like to point out that The Disney Portal ranks MoustTunes as the #1 Disney podcast site:
http://www.thedisneyportal.com/tdp/show.asp?DisneySites=Podcasts

This is because many people listen to the podcast directly from the website and as such are picked up by our Alexa traffic ranking measure. Makes me feel better that these results have some validity.

Steve