Those that know me know I like technology and that I try to keep up with the latest gadgets and toys. I visit many technology blogs and web sites to keep up to date. Although I won’t own many of the new toys, I still like to see what is out there.
This week’s review is about technology, although not so much on gadgets and toys, but technology in general. I have read this blog in the past and it is usually one of the most popular in the “Technology” category on Entrecard.
Web Site: Michael Aulia’s Blog
Description: A technology site, featuring updated news and reviews. I’ll also throw around a few non-tech posts once in a while (either it’s my personal life stories, jokes, etc).
Design 
I definitely like the design of the blog, and it has recently been updated (two days ago). The blog features 3 columns, with the content on the left and two sidebars on the right. The two sidebars on the right are joined together at the top but separate below the sponsors.
The content section contains a nice large font for the titles of the posts, with Digg, StumbleUpon and other links below each title. The font for the actual content, however, is a little small and may make it hard for some to read. The font colour is also a dark gray colour instead of black which provides less contrast to the background. The link colours are a nice dark colour so they contrast really well against the white background.
The sidebars contain the subscription links, search bar and the author information at the top. Below those items are the sponsors, which there appears to be quite a few. The “Recent Posts” and “Categories” sections follow the sponsors, and are nicely organized and separated which makes them stand out. Below those sections are ads and “Commentators of the Month”, which is nice to see them below since they aren’t as important as the two previous sections.
One thing that is nice about the design of the blog is the simplicity of the sidebars. The author has chosen to keep the links and information to a minimum and it works nicely as there is less clutter. This makes finding the navigation links much easier than if the author had included more links and information.
I prefer a larger font size for content, however, the design of the blog overall is really well done.
Focus 
The focus is purely on technology. After reading the description provided by Michael, I thought that there may be less posts on technology, however, as I read a few pages of posts I realized that the focus was squarely on technology.
With regards to what is discussed, the author has chosen to provide most topics on blogging, but other topics cover games and other applications. The author provides a clear focus with the blog.
Content
As mentioned previously, the focus is on technology. If you enjoy reading posts about blogging, games and applications then you may want to check out this blog.
The content is well written, and varies in length from short to long. The home page displays a few paragraphs of longer posts and you need to click a link to view the remaining text of the post. For short posts there is no link.
Each post includes an appropriate image which is resized to reduce the download time. The images add some nice colour to the blog as the main colours are black, gray and white.
The posts are also well read as can be seen from the many comments left on some of the posts. The number of comments is a good sign of a well-visited blog with active readers.
The content is well-done and was easy to read. The images are nicely resized and nicely add to each post.
Spelling and Grammar
Each post is well-written with very few spelling and grammar mistakes. There are some occasionally, however, the mistakes don’t take away from the readability of the blog.
Overall
I enjoyed reading Michael Aulia’s Blog, not only because I enjoy technology, but also because it is a well-designed and well-written blog. The layout is nicely done and makes for easy navigation around the blog.
The posts are easy to read and contain few spelling and grammar mistakes. The images chosen are appropriate to the topic of the posts, and are resized nicely to reduce the load time.
I will definitely be visiting the blog more in the future.