Motley Fool Embraces the New Web

by George on April 22, 2009

The fool.co.uk quietly launched their lovemoney.com site in December last year.

Fool.co.uk
fool.co.uk screenshot

LoveMoney.com
LoveMoney

The fool have always been fairly forward thinking and have embraced newer technologies with the build of the new comparison site. They managed their build via 37s Basecamp and started a blog detailing the development.

How have they embraced new technology?

  • JQuery for site usability
  • Use of Social Media (including a twitter account)
  • A Community area (comments, forums etc.) to encourage UGC
  • Video (integration of blip.tv)
  • Google Analytics – free and largely effective stats
  • address HTML tags for good semantic markup
  • OpenX for a an open standards Advertising platform
  • Coders with a sense of humour: Thankyou for using: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
  • Collaborative coding: Comment: Colin, we need to add the zone name dynamilcally to the and of the archivce link so we jump to the correct area on the page

Keep Going (a few things they could work on)

  • Headers – Where is your h1? fixed!
  • META Tags – improve your descriptions and keywords
  • Semantic HTML – change those ugly ASP generated variable names
  • List Nesting – You have to dig down 11 levels before the h2 content starts
  • Add an expires header for your content
  • Enable Gzip
  • Tons of Secret Stuff – you’ll have to hire us for what will really make a difference(!)

We’re going to be doing some more site analysis – if you would like to be featured, contact us.

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Rick the Flick April 22, 2009 at 8:27 pm

“Hire you to find the secret stuff?”

LMAO!!

Adrianflux ranks nowhere!!

I’ll pay you NOT to give me some tips!!

ernest April 22, 2009 at 9:23 pm

Hahaha! George, it seems that Mason’s mud has stuck ;) Miles off the mark but we enjoy the guesses that come in – kind of shows we do know what we’re doing!!!

Carl April 23, 2009 at 3:51 pm

Hi,

Thanks for the post – we really appreciate the feedback.

We’re trying hard to be contemporary in our approach to web development both in the way we go about our work and what we release. We believe that’s what our users expect. Social media, video and clever interface design elements all help consumers engage with their own personal money management goals.

If you follow the site developments over the coming weeks you’ll see how it improves. We’ve still got much more to come so please keep visiting!

Carl
(Product Director, lovemoney.com)

Rick the Flick April 23, 2009 at 10:10 pm

Fellas, who do you think your kidding; its the worst kept secret in the industry!

Though we do love the fluxbabes.

ernest April 24, 2009 at 9:04 am

@Carl, good to hear you approach. Putting the customer at the centre of everything …that’s almost revolutionary in personal finance!! We’ll check in and see how you guys get on over the coming months. Looking goog so far.

@Rick the Flick, unfortunately many people have tried to ‘out’ us with forceful claims whilst going under a number of different guises themselves. People have claimed we’re Latitude, Money Expert, GoCompare, Fool.co.uk …even Money Extra! Trust me, we know that no-one knows who we are and we’re definitely not Adrian Flux. Those guys have their own thing going on and best of luck to them. But that’s not us.

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