I’ve decided to do a short experiment.  For the next seven days I will review one web site, afterwards I’ll analyze my reviews for common points and create a matrix which I will use to review more web sites, though I won’t make the promise/commitment of doing one per day after my initial seven.

First up, is Project Guttenburg. 

Summary:  As far as web sites are concerned, if you fall into the camp that content is king then this web site is right up your alley.  With over 28,000 downloadable classic novels and many off the ordinary beat books you can easily get your high class reading material here, for free.

Pros: 

• Many classical authors that you’ve always wanted to read, yet didn’t want to pay for
• There are roughly 1,000 audio books, again many of the classics… so if you don’t want to read, you could potentially listen to your next reading assignment
• Quick loading site with little to no fluff
• Volunteers transcribe books and proof read, so a life skill can also be acquired through the site
• Typical information is provided about the project via the About Us heading, though I wish it were a separate page so it would get indexed higher in search rankings

Cons:

• Not every book is available in the format you’d like to have it.  Not many PDFs, though many are text only, or a combination of HTML and images.
• Not sure who’s funding the site as it appears to be a donation only web site… I’m curious about the stability of the site and ownership continuity.
• Search is rather minimal.  Most searches are done via author or Title (or words int hat title)
• Left hand only navigation is very old school