I work the help desk at a dial-up Internet provider in Sacramento. After "why is my modem so slow," the question I get most is "how do I put a counter on my page," and right behind it, "which free guestbook should I use." I used to just tell people the one I had. Then my own guestbook lost eight months of entries overnight, and I decided to do this properly.

How I tested. From February 1 through August 31, 1999, I kept a test page with five free counters and five free guestbooks on it, plus the ones that come with GeoCities.us Page Builder. Every morning before work and every night before bed I loaded the page over my 56K modem at home and wrote down which ones showed up, which ones didn't, and how long each one took. That's 424 checks. I signed every guestbook once a week and checked that the entry arrived and stayed. My wife says this was the nerdiest spring of my life, and she knew me in college.

What I graded. Four things, the four people ask me about:

• Up: was it there when I loaded the page?
• Speed: how long before it showed up?
• Ads: how much advertising does it put on your page, or in your visitor's face?
• Sense: is it easy to set up, and does it do what it says?

I don't take money or free anything from any of these outfits, and I never told them I was testing. Grades are like school: A is great, F is don't.

Five things I tell everybody who calls.

1. Write down your count every Sunday. Free services close. When they do, your number goes with them. BeanCounter taught me that.
2. Anything that lives on somebody else's computer slows your page down, because the browser has to go knock on a second door. Put it at the bottom of the page, where the waiting doesn't hold up your words.
3. Read the part about ads before you sign up. A little text link under a counter is fair. A window that pops open in your visitor's face is not.
4. Counters that let you start at any number you like are fine, but you should know that everybody else's counter might have started at 10,000 too. Don't feel bad about yours.
5. Save your guestbook. Once a month, open it and choose File, Save As. It takes ten seconds, and it's the only copy you control.

Full reviews: the counters and the guestbooks.

That's the plain Page Builder counter, started at zero in October 1998. I promise.

Know a free service I should test in round two? Had one eat your guestbook?
[email protected] · Jerry Dietz
Last updated Sunday, September 19, 1999