Rankmill's Tops

What to do with my turkey?

2010-12-15T17:09:00.002Z

Christmas time is arriving, and with it, a nice fat raw turkey.

If as us, at Rankmill, you are not really used to cook a turkey, The Food Network has recently published a very useful post about Top turkey tips.

In a nutshell you cannot improvise when it comes to turkey! Knowing that it takes three days to defrost a 20 pounds animal and that you'll also need at the very least : a perfect knife, trusses, a meat thermometer and aromatic herbs, you'll easily understand that you have to think about it from now on.

Here is the post using Rankmill.com widget :

If you are a dedicated turkey specialist, thank you to add your tips!

What movie shall I watch?

2010-05-18T11:22:00.006+01:00

Friends are often our main source to know what films to watch, what books to read, what restaurants to try. Each one of us, we have our "good sources" : friends that we trust particularly when it comes to recommendations.

Nothing new in that, this the "word of mouth" effect, abundantly described and analyzed. There are many tools available on the Net which enable you to give your friends (and unknown users) your opinions : from very basic star rating systems to more sophisticated dedicated sites. However, we have not found exactly what we think would be a useful tool to let your friends just know what are your
"favorites".

- On most of the sites where it is possible to leave an opinion, these opinions are "permanent", i.e. "I like this film, I give it five stars, for now and ever". But it happens that I want to give 5 stars just now; in a month I would give 5 stars to something else (newer for instance) : my favorites are permanently changing, and I am not going to recommend to my friends something three years old, time is of the essence.

- Moreover, most of the recommendation sites are dedicated to one topic. If I want to give my recent "favorite" restaurants and "favorite" movies, I would have to use different sites.

That is why we have developed a simple app on Facebook, Rankmill "coups de coeur", (my "coup de coeur" in French means more or less my "favorites", my "good tips", my "picks"). You can easily tell your friends your recent favorites for movies, books, music, techno (sites and apps!), ... That will appear on your wall and on their news feed. We are currently developing more functionalities that will make that tool even more useful.

You can access it here :

Rankmill Recommendation on Facebook

Thank you to send us your comment and opinion, it helps!

Some things about VPN's

2010-03-11T14:35:00.005Z

A virtual private network (VPN) is a computer network that is layered on top of an underlying computer network.

The private nature of a VPN means that the data travelling over the VPN is not generally visible, or is encapsulated from, the underlying network traffic. Similarly, the traffic within the VPN appears to the underlying network as just another traffic stream to be passed.

VPN's are convenient for many things as joining private networks with public computers (or from work !), giving access to your personal data. VPN's can also give you access to full anonymity while your connected to the internet.

This week, lifehacker presents a Top of VPN tools to use with your computer, helping you created, managing and joining your VPN's.

Perhaps you may need some already configured VPN ? No problem, a few weeks ago, we presented a list of the top VPN providers :

Please, don't forget to update those Tops if you know other VPN tools or providers ! See you on rankmill.com.

Must-Have Twitter and Facebook Add-Ons

2010-03-11T14:33:00.003Z

Like millions of people on the internet, you probably use Facebook and/or Twitter.

But did you know that you can find add-on scripts for your browser that could enhance your social networking experience ?

PCWorld recently published a "8 Must-Have Twitter and Facebook Add-Ons".

Based on this ranking, you can check and try the proposed scripts, and give your feedback on rankmill, while editing your own top.

Bloggers can also discover how this kind of ranking looks like with our gadget, here it is :

Free troubleshooting tools for Windows

2010-03-11T14:30:00.004Z

There is no computer, no operating system, which lasts forever.

That is why infoworld published an article about the troubleshooting tools for windows, because, one day, on your computer, something WILL go wrong !
We present here the top of the free troubleshooting tools for windows. You can read it here, or on the rankmill website.

Don't hesitate to give your own opinion about those tools, or create, for example, the top troubleshooting tools for linux or for Mac users.

Best dressed actresses Oscar 2010

2010-03-10T09:57:00.001Z

The yearly Oscar night is the most glamourous in Hollywood. It has now become a tradition for magazines and some internet sites to establish a list of best dressed people at the event. The only problem is that there are also lists of worst dressed people and that you can sometimes find the same people in both list! For instance, Sandra Bullock, the Oscar winner this year, is considered as one of the best dressed actresses this evening (number 2 behind the unbeatable Cameron Diaz) by People magazine but as one of the worst dressed actresses by the site moviefone!

Whatever, we love from time to time all this glamour, beautiful ladies, and glitzy mood, it changes us a little bit from HTML and Java Script!

Here is how the list created by moviefone.com appears using our tool.

It is quite easy to insert such a list on your blog : just create the Top list of your choice on Rankmill.com, copy and paste the embedded code and that's done : a nice and polished ranking is on your site, with videos, images, comments and weblinks. How great!

TOP Moments Vancouver 2010

2010-03-09T16:13:00.004Z

Now the Games are over, many bloggers and information sites have created their Top list for the best moments of Vancouver 2010. You can find a lot of them on the Net, here, here or here. According to the nationality of the writer and their readers' tastes, the focus will be more on a special sport or on some competitors. No surprise then if on all Canadian sites the Hockey gold medal appears as number one, which is not the case on American sites!

Bleacherreport.com has an interesting ranking, quite fair, which could satisfy every reader. Its interest is that it does not focus only on pure sport events but also on emotion ( Joannie Rochette's bronze medal) and ceremonies.

This ranking, using our tools, appears like this :

You can easily create your own ranking, adding comments, images, videos, and share it with others.

Best Music Streaming Services

2010-03-01T16:09:00.000Z

Nowadays, it is easily possible to find and listen music using the internet. Some methods are illegal and prohibited, but some are not, and free too !
The website lifehacker has recently published a Top 5 best music streaming services

Here is their ranking, presented using the rankmill technology. You also can give your own opinion, just click here.

Top Winter Resorts

2010-02-23T16:42:00.002Z

It's ski time! If you think that Vancouver is a little bit to crowdy by now, Askmen.com has a good Top 10 Winter Resorts to help you pick a nice ski holiday destination. Their choice is partly European, partly American and Canadian, but; for sure, all the resorts they have selected are Top notch places for ski lovers.

Here is their ranking. Using our tools on Rankmill.com you can create your own ranking or update this one, add comments, images, video and Google maps!

TOP past moments Olympic Winter Games

2010-02-19T15:49:00.004Z

The Guardian has recently published a nice TOP moments of the past winter Olympics games. Here is how it appears using our widget (that you can find here).

Quite nice to remember Eddie the Eagle, the incredible story between Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, and the spectacular (and safe) fall of Hermann Maier...

TOP most expensive sculptures

2010-02-18T08:19:00.005Z

"Most-expensive.net" has an interesting post following the recent sale of one Giocametti's sculpture which has reached the record level of USD 104,3 millions ( £ 65 millions). According to Sotheby's it is the most expensive work of art ever sold at an auction. If you are in the mood of buying a sculpture, they give a TOP 5 most expensive sculptures ever sold, at leats you will have an idea of prices!

Here is how this TOP looks using our widget :

How to create a Top list?

2010-02-09T16:25:00.041Z

Rankings are very popular on the Net : easy access to information, sorting of elements, synthesis, all these reasons explain their popularity. However, there is still one thing to be improved, the way they are displayed.

There are three main elements in a ranking (or Top list) :
1) The list of ranked elements and their position on the "ladder",
2 ) Comments on each item (why this item has such a position),
3 ) Added elements which make the Top list more attractive (pictures, videos, music, etc.).
It is difficult to balance these three elements, and according to the kind of Top list you have, you will use different patterns. We have identifies three kinds of rankings, none of them is really satisfactory.

- Top List Category 1 : the position of the items is the most important

In this kind of Top list, the aim is to give the user a fast access to the ranking itself. As simply as possible, the user has to be able to "look" at the full Top list and see what is on the top, what is on the bottom. Comments and added elements are then less visible. The "column" shape is usually the best one for this kind of Top.

Two examples :

TOP Best movies on IMDB :

TOP Best restaurants in the world by "San Pellegrino"

Pros : Easy reading
Cons : Difficulty to access added information for any item (a click on one item leads to a new page). No visual elements, the ranking is a bit dull.

- Top list Category 2 : the comments are the most important

The important thing of this kind of Tops is the opinion of the author. Comments will then be privileged. They will appear immediately after the item. Such an organization makes the Top to look like a classical article, in which the items would be headers. This kind of ranking, no surprise, is often present on media sites.

Two examples :

TOP best food in the world by "The Guardian".

TOP best hotels in the world by "Le Point"

Pros : possibility to read easily both the item and the comment.

Cons : No global view of the ranking. Difficulty to go from one item to another. Difficulty to insert added elements.

- Top list category 3 : added elements are the most important.

In these rankings, more than long explanations, pictures or video explain the different positions of the items. The best organization of the Top list is then something similar to a slideshow, you navigate from one "slide" to the other to discover the ranking.

Two examples :

TOP 2010 trends by "l'Express style"

Pros : Good visual impact

Cons : No visibility of the global ranking, no possibility for the user to act on the ranking (you can just click to go forward or backward), problem of circulation in the Top.

At Rankmill.com, we have tried to find a way to "design" a ranking which would be adaptable, whatever the categoryhttp://www.rankmill.com/top.php?tid=372&user=2215&account=1. We have now two designs :

- Top list used on our site Rankmill.com

This kind of Top is not active on this blog, of course (to see in action go to Rankmill!), but we think that it has the advantage of being quite balanced between items, comments and added elements (pictures, videos, weblinks, Google maps).

Top technologies that will rock the world in 2010

The other Top we have developped is especially devoted to bloggers. By creating a Top on our site and inserting an embedded code in a blog or web page, they will have the possibility to integrate a Top like this :

The user has a full view of the Top, he can easily go from one item to the other, and just by clicking on an item he can have more information, without refreshing the page (in the present case it is a video but we could have added a comment for instance). If you want to try it, it's here.

Thank you to give us your opinion, it helps. It's here !

TOP novels

2010-02-09T10:56:00.009Z

Out of the of the tens of thousands novels ever published in english (more than 40 000 new "fiction" books each year according to Industry Statistics ), which ones are worth reading? From opinions given by your english teacher when you were at school, recommandations made by friends or booksellers and critics read, we have all our own sources of information. However at Rankmill we were looking for a good ranking made wether by critics (they are profesionnal readers after all) or wether by wisdom of crowd. We have found an interesting TOP at Modern Library ( owned by the publisher Random House) which compares two TOP 100 best novels (english novels), one created by a "board" and one created by readers.

We have "recreated" that Top below in what is our new widget.

Bloggers, soon you'll be able to create (very easily) a Top on Rankmill.com and with a simple embedded code insert it in your posts! Stay tuned. If you want to be part of our Beta testers or give us your opinion : it's here !

Why on the Net a good Top list is always better than long explanations.

2010-02-05T12:44:00.011Z

Posts and articles containing rankings (or Top lists) are usually very popular and part of the most read items of many sites and blogs. Some media sites, Time.Com for instance, have even created dedicated places for their Top lists. Rankings are in fact very convenient for the net and here is why.

1 – Hierarchy of information

From the reader’s point of view, to read a ranking is having access to a personalised hierarchy of information, which is generally not the case on the Net : there is a real added value. From the blogger’s point of view, creating a ranking is a way to show his credentials.

From the reader’s point of view : a Top list means things are simpler and more direct.

With the huge quantity of information available on line, the problem today is much more to find which information are really valuable than to find the information itself. Let ‘s imagine, for instance, that I want to find information about « films noirs » movies. The page results for « films noir movies » is the following on Google :

The first link is the Wikipedia article about the movie genre « film noir » . There, I will find encyclopedic information about « film noir », and as often with Wikipedia, the information will be quite accurate and meaningful. Moreover using the links and references of the article I will have access to other interesting pages. The other links on the page are a French site about a films noirs movie posters exhibition, a site about a rock band named « film noir » and a specialized site, apparently updated for the last time in 2004. Google has done a correct job, I have access to many sources devoted to « film noir ». However I have no special information about what is really good, whats is worth being seen or read. I will have to sort things by myself, it will take time.But If I search for « best films noir » movies, the answers are the following :

I have the choice between four Top lists. With them, very clearly, I will know what is the best according to their authors, and often why. The information is of course different from what I will find on Wikipedia but the hierarchy created by these Top lists gives me a real added value : a first sorting has been done. In a glance, I can judge the quality of the post, and I have direct information to qualitative information.

From the blogger’s point of view : a Top list gives evidence of competence

Rankings enable bloggers to show users, very rapidly, if what they say about a matter is relevant or not, and if there is a real added value in the treated information. By analyzing all the information available, with his experience and knowledge, the blogger will have organized and sort things and will give the user a kind of synthesis. With the example of « best film noir », the first two links on Google are links to well known and trustful sites : IMDB, the biggest movie database, and epinions. The fourth link sends to Eddie Muller’s page. Personally, I don’t know who Eddie Muller is, but at least I know that Eddie Muller has created a Top 25 film noir movies, with comments. It indicates a minima that Eddie Muller has a certain knowledge about that genre and that it could be worth paying a visit to his page if I am in search of information on film noir movies.

This is even more obvious when a blog is dedicated to a specific topic and is written by an « expert ». As a reader, if I am looking for a blog dedicated to the Iphone for instance, I will be much more attracted if I know that on that blog, I can find the TOP 2009 Iphone, the TOP Iphone games and the TOP free Iphone application. These Top lists will be clear indications of the knowledge of the blogger and of the work he has done to give me information with added value.

2 – Top lists give immediate information about the blogger.

To create a Top list is quite a good and efficient way to tell who we are. Give me your Top best cities, music, novels or movies, and I will have quite a precise idea of who you are. Equally, on professionnal (say "entrepreneurship") or personal matters (say "good restaurants in Paris"), give me your rankings and I can tell immediately if what you say is relevant for me or not.

From the reader’s point of view : aTop list indicates the quality of the source.

As a user, I have absolutely no idea of the seriousness of 99,99% (low estimation) of the available sources. A ranking enables me to judge immediately if the blogger has something for me. If we take the two previous examples, one professional, the other one personal, here are two rankings you can find on the Net :

Top 10 mistakes people make when starting a business

« Mistake # 1, not enough money». I have been trough that, I know the problem, I do also think it is the danger number one in a start up. My first impression is quite good. Time to read : two seconds.

« Mistake #2, not thinking survival ». That would not have been my choice, but the comment is intelligent and meaningful. My first impression is confirmed, I’ll read the blog, I’ll add it to my bookmarks, I’ll probably come back. Total time to read : five seconds.

Now about more personnal matters :

Top traditional French cuisine restaurants in Paris.

« # 1 – Beauvilliers ». Beauvilliers is a very good brasserie, what you eat is quite good but not so traditional. I would not say that this is THE restaurant for traditional French cuisine in Paris. Moreover it is quite expensive, you also pay for the name and the place. I would certainly not take it as my number 1. Time to read : one second.

« #2 – Bofinger ». The restaurant has more traditional recipes, but once again the adress is not exceptional and you have many more interesting places. I am not convinced, I know that I will not find the real best addresses in that ranking. (By the way, if you come to Paris, drop me a mail, I’ll send you my very personal and very secret Top list!). Total time to read : four seconds.

Thanks to the rankings, I do not only have an organized and synthetized information, I have also a clear view of who is the source. And by "who", I mean if the source corresponds to what I am looking for. It does not have to be always about quality of the information. I can also judge if what is written will amuse me, or if we have common tastes, or if it inspirational, etc.

From the blogger’s point of view : a Top list says who I am and what I want to achieve.

If the creation of a Top list gives the blogger a clear image of competence ( again "competence" here means "achieving what the blogger wants to do", it could be information, tastes, fun, ...), the elements of his ranking will show users who he is, in a dynamic way, not as in the « who I am » section.

The following "Top list movies of the decade" tell us many things about their authors.

Top list n°1
# 1 - The Squid and the whale
# 2 – Synecdoche
# 3 – Children of men
# 4 – The life aquatic
# 5 – There will be blood
# 6 – The barbarians invasion
# 7 – The diving bell and the butterfly
# 8 – After the wedding
…

Top list n°2
# 1 – The aviator
# 2 – Whale rider
# 3 – Gangs of New York
# 4 – Memento
# 5 – Slumdog millioniare
# 6 – Sin city
# 7 – Charlie Wilson’s war
# 8 – Mystic river
…

To create the ranking n°1 is to tell users « I am a cinephile, with sharp, international, and eclectic tastes», creating the ranking n°2 is to tell users « I am a movie lover, loving Hollywood big budget films with famous actors ». In both cases users will know immediately what to expect and if what you say is relevant to them. According to what they expect they'll chose one blog, or the other.

It is then perfecly understandable to see more and more Top lists on the Net and even more and more «professional » sites using them (The Times , The NYT , Askmen, Le Figaro, The Guardian, …). They perfectly answer the need for users to sort the information, to go straight to the point and to know who is the source of this information.

TOP fitness sites

2010-01-26T15:26:00.002Z

Internet is not only about our digital lives it can also have direct consequences on our "physical" lives. Especially with the sites aimed at improving our shapes, tracking our performances, following our work-out routine! We have created on Rankmill.com, a TOP 10 fitness sites based on the ranking created by The Times.

The #1 selected by The Times' team is the very innovative nikeplus.com (put a computer and a spy in your shoes). The interest of that site is that - provided you have the equipped shoes - everything is done automatically to give you information about your runs. It is also a kind of "social tools" to compare your performances with others. Probably one of the better way to have a clear view on what will be intelligent objects in the near future.

The only problem is that is still works only for running. If you prefer to bike or to swim you can find more or less the same services on bikely.com (#2) and wildswimming.co.uk (#10), but you will have to enter the data manually. However, I guess it should not take so long to see built-in technologies for all kind of sports. For instance, it is just beginning for gym with gymtechnik.com (#10) : provided your gym has wifi, you can now follow your progress with your iphone, BB or Android phone.

You can also find more classical fitness sites in this Top list :

- community of interest (gimme20.com #6, dailyburn.com #5),

-tutorials (excellent ones on menshealth.co.uk #3)

- and even music for your work out sessions (djsteveboy.com/podrunner.html #4)!

You can of course create very easily your own Top list, add more items, some comments, videos and images!

TOP musical biopics

2010-01-21T12:53:00.002Z

Hollywood has always loved to make films from biographies of famous people, and since early on : the film generally considered as the first biopic is "Disraeli", released in 1927. Since the beginning of the 80's the movement is however bigger and bigger. To the point that a sous-genre has even emerged : the musical biopic.

With their classical script : rise from poverty, success, excess, fall, death or comeback; musical biopics tend to easily fell in common traps. However, when the director has a real empathy and understanding of the musician, when the script is a little bit more original than usually, some musical biopics are pure masterworks and could be included in Top movie lists, whatever the genre. Moreover, their soundtracks are unbeatable : it is hard to compete with Mozart, Dylan, Charlie Parker or Johnny Cash!

We have created a Top 12 Musical Biopics list on Rankmill.com, from "Amadeus" our number 1 to "The Rose" our number 12. You can, of course, eaisly create your own ranking, add more items, include video, comments and images. And when it is done, why not to share it?

TOP Places to go in 2010

2010-01-20T15:48:00.003Z

The New York Times published a dream list of places where to go in 2010. With excellent comments from their journalists, 31 destinations all over the world are scrutinized. Big cities ( #3 Seoul, #11 Los Angeles, #12 Shangai, # 13 Mumbai, #19 Istanbul), ski resorts (#23 Breckenridge, #27 Kitzbuhel), beaches (#8 Cesme, #14 Minorca, #18 Bahia), small european towns (#5 Copenhagen, #10 Leipzig) or even entire regions or countries (#1 Sri Lanka, # 2 Patagonia Wine Country, #9 Antartica, #30 South Africa), whatever your kind of holidays you should find your happiness in this Top list. Our preference goes to the "hidden gems", these wonderful destinations, often small, not so known yet : especially #24 Montenegro and #29 Gargano.

In order for you to create your own ranking and to add places not included in this precious TOP, we have created the TOP places where to in 2010 on Rankmill.com. You can then easily have a full view of the Top, add comments, add destinations and above all share with others! There is also a Google map which will show you how far you will have to travel to reach them!

TOP 10 Worst album cover 2009

2010-01-14T12:13:00.001Z

Rankings and Tops are not only made for positive things, i.e. "best" so and so. It also works perfectly for "worst" things. At Rankmill we even wonder if Tops of "worst" are not a better way to define oneself and to find true soul brothers. Prefixmag.com has created a very funny example of such a worst list : The TOP worst album covers of 2009. Based on their list, we created our own, in order for you to have the possibility to make your own list and to share it. You can even add other covers if you think the choice is too limited and that a masterpiece of that category is missing!

We already created a list of Top best album covers, and most of the times these great covers also correspond to great albums. As we haven't had the opportunity to listen all the albums mentionned by Prefixmag, we do not know if that rule works both ways. Apparently no reading their comments, they consider some albums mentionned in their list as great albums. Whatever, their choice is particularly sharp. Where the hell were A.D. of these record companies when the final decision for covers was made? Perhaps, after all, that these covers were imposed by the artists and that you can be a great and accomplished musician, and still have a incredible lack of taste for design and images? Or that our tastes, at rankmill.com and prefixmag.com, are quite standard and classical. In such a case perhaps will we find these covers wonderful in 3 years... Be your own judge and create your Top!

Our definite #1 is "Walking on a dream" by Empire of the Sun : the cover would be perfect for an add for "Holiday on Ice meets Siegfried and Roy", the Las Vegas magicians. It will be hard to beat it in 2010!

TOP biggest financials scandals of 2009

2010-01-12T17:25:00.000Z

2009 was probably a exceptionnal year for many things, including financial scandals. Forbes.com has then decided to end this bitter year on a bitter note with the creation of a Top biggest financial scandals of the year. The # 1 is obviously, and by far, the Madoff scandal. It could even be the biggest financial scandal of ever. Its scale is so big that even the #2, the Stanford Financial fallout, with 8 billions dollars of vanished money, seems "small" in comparison. #3 is the classical insider trading case, the Galleon scandal.

We could wonder why in that Top appears the name of Tiger Woods. As far as we know nobody was crooked by that affair.

As our knowledge is not that big for financial scandals, you can easily add items to this Top, with comments and pictures!

TOP Xbox 360 games of 2009

2010-01-11T16:36:00.001Z

The global market of the game industry has now reached almost 50% of the movie industry market. It is not surprising to see, as for movies, rankings of the best new products of the year. The blog testfreaks.com has recently created its Top 11 best of 2009 Xbox360. You have now the possibility to give your own ranking on Rankmill.com and to share it with other fans!

Top Technologies that will rock 2010

2010-01-05T10:10:00.006Z

After a look at the past with our TOP 10 products, services and technologies of the decade, let's focus on the future! The internet site globalthougtz.com has published their forecast for the Top 10 trends of 2010. Their prediction is a very interesting mix of usage, devices, and infrastructure : it covers all the aspects of our digital life. According to who you are : average techno user, geek, company, your ranking may vary quite a bit. You can create your own Top and share it with others here.

Top devices :

Apple Tablet (#1): expected by many, feared by competitors, this brand new product could rock 2010 if it brings as many novelties as the Iphone. It could create a new category of devices which would enable us to have a better usage of the Internet and more mobility.

Netphone (#2) : The Iphone has deeply changed the way we use both the Internet and our mobile phones. However, it is still a very low share of the total mobile phones market and it is expensive for most people. With the new Google phone and other competitors' products we could see a very significant increase of smartphones if we have the possibility to easily access VOIP with them.

Top usages :

Online TV (#6) and Mobile transaction (#10). These trends confirm that, more and more, we do things with our mobile and on our PC that we used to do somewhere else or with other devices. For TV, if it is really easy to have access to it on the Internet, it is still difficult to have the same quality and richness of programs. Many broadcasters are still reluctant to give access to their images on something else than the good old TV set. With the success of Hulu and Youtube, globalthougtz.com predicts that all these broadcasters will soon increase their offer and then create a much wilder usage of online TV.

For mobile transaction, there are so many new applications and possibilities that we could expect the beginning of the end of credit cards in 2010, if security matters are definitely solved.

Infrastructure and "hard technology":

Virtualization (#5) and Cloud Computing (#7). These "new" technologies are certainly less visible for users on a day to day basis. But the merit of this Top is to remind us that with the possibilities they create of a better management of hardware ressources and increase of flexibility, companies can benefit from the Internet on a much bigger scale. The more they do it, the more competitive and agile they will be and the more wealth they will create.

What is your own ranking?

Find other related techno Tops here.

TOP romantic comedies

2009-12-22T17:57:00.004Z

Now that it is Christmas time, more than ever we want love and happiness, including on screens! Romantic comedies are one of the most successful genre of the movie History. What are then the best romantic comedies? We have created our own ranking and after many, many discussions, we come to that TOP.

As the genre is very popular, you'll find a lot of different TOP romantic comedies : here, here or here for instance. All these lists are meaningful and with interesting choices. But the interest of our Top is that you can very easily create yours, add some movies we may have forgotten, change the ranking, add comments, and share it with your loved one!

Whatever, in all of our TOP 25 romantic comedies, we have identified three regular problems preventing full expression of love and creating the situation for a comedy.

- The difference of social backgrounds between the protagonists, as in "Roman Holiday "(our #1) : she is a princess, he is a newsman. As in "Pretty Woman" : he is a successful businessman, she is a prostitute. Or as in "My big fat Greek wedding": she is from a Greek family, he is not.

- The character of one of the"lovers", generally the male. In "About a boy", "As good as it gets" or "High fidelity", the male character is so weird, or childish, or lunatic, that he does not see Love knocking at his door. It will take him 90 minutes to understand how to proceed.

- The "unavailibity" of one of the "lovers". In that case, unavailibility means preciseley "married" but to someone else, or "married very soon to someone else". That's the case, for instance, in "Four weddings and a funeral", "The seven year itch" and "The Philadelphia story".

Go and vote!

-

TOP Products, services and Technologies of the decade

2009-12-15T15:37:00.002Z

Ten years ago life was not as easy as today, more precisely daily life. I am not sure that with all the new great services & products which have been created since ten years, we are more happy now, but I am sure that many things are easier. If you look at the Top published by Pcmag.com, you realize that 100 times per day we use these products and services, that most of us would not have even imagined ten years ago.

Among this 10 great services, product and technologies, there are three kind of improvements and innovation :

1 - Things you did before but that you can do now more easily or more practically.

Ths is the case for the Ipod, Tivo and the Imac. Before them you had the possibility to record music and to listen to it wherever you want, you had the possibility to record TV program, and you had computers. But each of these objects make things deeper and smarter. Now you can have almost all the music you want in a very thin product, you can skip adds and record long in advance, you can surf the internet, edit photos and videos, even if you are totally techno averse. These products enable you to do more in an easier way : that should always be the case with technological innovation!

2 - Things with which other major innovations would be useless.

This is the case of Google, Wifi and broadband internet access. With them you can use fully all the resources of the internet, in all kind of situation. Without them the Internet would still be what it was 10 years ago and not that ubiquitous technology we know : a kind of car without gas.

3 - Things totally new and whose usage was totally unpredictable 10 years ago.

This is the case of Facebook and the GPS. Ten years ago, nobody could have forecast them. Will there be so disruptive innovation in the next ten years?

You have the possibility to create your own ranking very easily and add more innovation if you think PC mag has missed a major breakthrough : here!

Top Best Album Covers

2009-12-08T18:09:00.000Z

Now that you can easily create your Top Best Album of All Times, let's have a look at the covers. Rolling Stones Magazine has created a list of their Best album covers of all time. It dates back a little bit as it was published in the 90's : you should probably add a few more recent covers. However, what can we learn from that ranking?

When you're good, you're good!

Sergeant Pepper is the #1, the cover is fabulous. But Sergeant Pepper is also ranked best Rock album of all times. Obviously, there was a incredible gathering of talents around that album. The very well known cover was created by Peter Blake and his wife Jan Hawortt. It is a big collage of life size models including more than 70 famous people of all kind : Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Oscar Wilde, Simon Burroughs, Jesus, Gandhi, etc...

This cover won a Grammy award in 1967, the year the album was released. According to the legend, Paul Mc Cartney selected another cover and the final choice was only due to the insistance of his friend the Art dealer Robert Fraser.

Once again, with the "white album" ranking #3, two albums f the Beatles are among the Top 10. The rule is : whatever the ranking concerning music may be, The Beatles are several times in the Top 10!

1967/1977 : The glorious decade.

Most of the best covers are ranging from 1967 to 1977 : the Top 13 is only made of album released during this decade. To be fair, it is easier to reach a beautiful result with a vinyl size cover than with a CD size. Moreover a lot of the selected covers are covers of great albums which also appear in the Top Rock album of all times.

What to put on a cover?

The best thing to do is to avoid the classic picture of the performers. Out of the Top 20, 16 covers are pure work of art, wether graphic (#2, "Never mind the bollocks", no picture or drawing at all, just the title), wether paintings ( #10, "The Velvet Underground ands Nico" a painting by Andy Warhol!), wether pictures of totally unexpected things (#19, "Nothing's shocking", two naked ladies with their hair in fire!), wether nothing at all ( #3, "The white album").

What is your ranking? Create it easily and share it with friends!

TOP Christmas tradition

2009-12-07T18:03:00.001Z

Is everything ready for Christmas? The Christmas tree finely decorated, the turkey already ordered, presents bought, and carols rehearsed? We have now so many Christmas traditions that it becomes difficult to know from where they come.

From where does it come?
Heritage key.com has published a list of these traditions with their origins. It appears a lot of them come from ancient Rome and Egypt and as many Christian traditions were re-adapted : wether it be Christmas tree, feasting, or Yule log. Some, as Christmas cards, are even said to come from old chinese traditions. Only two of them, Christmas crackers and attending "the Nutcracker", are quite "modern".

Which one is your favourite?
With so many traditions, it appears to us that we add to create a TOP Christmas tradition full of explanations and with, of course, the possibility to create your own TOP. We will finally know if we can, at last, change the menu and save some cute turkeys!

I could not live without it!

2009-12-03T13:41:00.002Z

Some inventions are now so much part of our lives that we could not even imagine living without them. The Telegraph has published a TOP 10 inventions that changed the world established by scientists from the British Science Association. About.com has also published a list on the same topic but completely different. Paradoxically, the scientists' list focuses much more on inventions that changed our daily lives (electronic money, trainers, and even social networking ...), while About.com focuses on inventions that changed the society ( automobile, steam engine,...).

At Rankmill we have wondered what would be the invention that changed the world we cannot live without. Here is our list.

Our #1 is Penicilline : we realised that without it most of us would have had already died! In fact we had all diseases which are considered totally benigned today, and which could be mortal before the invention of penicilline. To be dead or alive, that's a difference! So no question for the first. And thank you very much, mister Fleming!

And you? What is your TOP 10 inventions that changed the world? Penicilline too, or computers, the Internet, television, camera, electronic money, steam engine, automobile, trainers, Tv dinners or something else?

TOP 21 books about New York

2009-11-27T18:03:00.003Z

From which list to chose a book?

Each big city has its great writers. Dickens, Amis, Waugh for London; Proust and Balzac for Paris. In their books, it is possible to find the essence of their city. For New York the choice is rather difficult as there exists so many wonderful books about it and as there is so much to say.

For some, New York was really New York during the 20's : their choice for the best book about New York would probably be "The Great Gatsby". For others, nothing is comparable to the crazyness and greed of the New York of the 80's & 90's : they would probably select "The Bonfire of Vanities" as their book number one. Some will consider the best thing to read about New York is non fiction, others that nothing matches a good thick novel. It is then not suprising that when you find different lists of "TOP Books about New York" they are completely different. The New York Times published a TOP 10 books about New York in 1995 ( you have to be registered to read it). This list has only one title in common with a recent list of TOP 13 New York novels published by Huffington Post. You can also find Top Lists created by users on Amazon : "New York, New York", "New York City Favorites", or a Time Out Best non fiction Books about New York.

All different, all interesting.

An average list and individual lists on Rankmill.com

On Rankmill.com, everyone has the possibility to create its own list with comments. From these lists we create an average list, the average being calculated according to frequency of an item in different lists and the rank of the item. If you are looking for best books about New York you can look at the average list : you have immediately the "wisdom of crowd" with all the comments book by book. If you consider that this list does not correspond to your taste, you have the possibility to look at individual ones and select books from the one you consider the best.

Here is our list! Go and create your own, it'll help everyone!

TOP bars in movies vs TOP real legendary bars

2009-11-25T16:20:00.004Z

Time for a beer? In which bar shall we go?

A movie bar?

Movieretriever.com has published a very informative list of best movie bar. Had we the opportunity to go in such places, which one would you chose?
The nice thing with movie bars is that they offer unbeatable advantages, such as ordering Champagne to Humphrey Bogart at Rick's Café ( in "Casablanca", 1942) , or meeting Faye Dunaway at the Golden Horn (in "Barfly", 1987). The problematic thing is that it often comes often with some downsides : the Champagne delivered to your table by Bogart has to be drunk surrounded by Nazis. Or if you try to talk to Faye Dunaway, now your lovely bar neighbour, a drunk and unpleasant Mickey Rourke could rapidly enter the picture. The biggest problem is that the beverages are probably fake : tea instead of whisky, water instead of gin, grape juice instead of wine, that's Hollywood! Whatever, here is a TOP best movie bars that you can increase, rearrange and comment.

Or a real bar ?

If now you prefer the real thing, we still have the choice between several legendary bars as gathered by Travelpicks.com. From "The Long Bar in Singapore", to the "Harry's New York Bar" in Paris, these bars are not only legendary for their cocktails but also for their famous customers. Some of these famous customers even died at the counter creating instantly the legend, such as the actor Oliver Reed at The Pub in Malta.

Here is the TOP World's legendary bars, you can create your own list, it will help other booze lovers!

The best albums of all times

2009-11-24T08:44:00.003Z

What is your best rock album of all times? The magazine Rolling Stones has published an impressive list of "500 greatest albums of all times" in a special issue in 2003.

I guess the list would be more or less the same today as I do not see any recent album which could join at least the Top 20. Some interesting things :

Best years : 1965/1967

For Rolling Stones, the Top 5 albums were released during these four years : Sergeant Pepper (1967), Pet Sounds (1966) , Revolver (1966), Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Rubber Soul (1965). 8 of their Top 10 albums were made before 1970. Even more compelling, there is only one album in tehir TOP 20 which was made after 1990 ("Never mind" by Nirvana)

Best band by far : The Beatles

The Beatles made 13 "official albums" between 1963 and 1970. 3 of them are part of the Top 5, 4 of them part of the Top 20, 7 of them part of the Top 100. I fully agree with this ranking and I can only see one comparison for such incredible achievements in such a short period of time, Mozart and a Top list of best operas ever written! Bob Dylan has 3 albums in the Top 20.

When you're good, you're good !

Almost all the bands or artist in the the Top 100 have several albums in the list, wether it be The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and the Experience, The Clash, U2, etc.

Give your top list here!

TOP 10 legendary film guns

2009-11-20T16:36:00.003Z

Some films are remembered for quotes ( "Play it again Sam", " ... Bond, James Bond", "You talkin' to me? you talkin' to me?"), others for their unforgettable guns! Askmen.com has recently published a very funny Top10 legendary films guns. From the guitar case gun of "Desperado", to the incredibly kitsch "phaser" of Star Trek, a full access to the Hollywood Gun Store.

It is worth to be noted that at least one movie could appear in both "Top Famous Quotes" and "Top films guns", the faultless "Sudden Impact".
" -Well, we're not just gonna let you walk out of here.
-Who'se we sucka?
- Smith and Wesson... and me"
The gun being of course Dirty Haryy's scary Magum 44.
Learn more and give your opinion here.

TOP beaches in the world

2009-11-17T09:33:00.005Z

Imagine while planning your vacations you would like to know what are the best beaches in the world. A quick search on Google would lead you to several sites and blogs where you would find some beautiful beaches listed. You would then need to spend a few minutes to understand which kind of information appears on the site and how the ranking is displayed (within an article, in a slideshow, are there some comments ?, are there some Google maps?).

And immediately the same question would arise :

Whose opinion is it ? Is it a poll? A journalist's opinion? The wisdom of crowds? What is considered as a beautiful beach? A desert one or a "sea and be scene"?

How valuable is this ranking for me? If this ranking is the opinion of retired senior citizens or young party goers, the list is probably not that meaningful for me as our expections are probably quite different!

This is the problem we want to solve with Rankmill.com. On Rankmill.com you will have the possibility to find immediately this kind of information, to look at the average ranking, and to check individual rankings. You also have the possibility to read comments and of course to create and share your own Top list.

Back to our initial question!

According to Trifter : #1 is Clifton Beach in South Africa

According to the Guardian : #1 is Las Islas Cies in Spain.

According to Forbes : # 1 is Bondi Beach in Australia

Give your opinion here!

TOP 100 films of the decade

2009-11-12T14:08:00.017Z

The Times has just published a TOP 100 films of the decade. #1 is "Hidden (Caché)" by Michael Haneke and # 100, "The devil wears Prada" by David Frankel.

Some interesting elements:

1 - In this list, 90% of the selected films are wether from the US, wether from Europe. Some great nations of cinema were not very "active" this decade (only 3 Italian films in the TOP 100), other nations begin to appear on the movie world stage ( China with 2 films for instance)

Out of a hundred movies :

46 from the United States

15 from Great Britain

11 from France

4 From Spain (2 by Almodovar!)

3 from Germany ( and within the TOP 15!)

3 from Italy

2 from Australia

2 from Japan

2 from Mexico

2 from China

1 from Korea, Turkey, Israel, Belgium, Brazil, Romania,Taiwan, India

2 - There is a good share of documentaries with 9 films (the first one being # 4 "Grizzly man" by Werner Herzog) and of cartoon movies with 7 films (the first one being #5 " Team America : World Police")

3 - Some directors are especially gifted : several of their movies are in the Top 100 list !

Paul Greengrass with three films (#2 "The Bourne supremacy" and "The Bourne ultimatum", and #19 "United 93"). Thus, according to The Times, that director is responsible for 15% of the 20 best films of the decade!

Michael Haneke ( #1"Hidden" and #85 "The piano teacher"),

Kevin Mac Donald (#7 "The last king of Scotland" and #45 "Touching the void")

Danny Boyle (#6 "Slumdog millionaire" and #24 "28 days later"),

Stephen Frears ( #8 "The Queen" and #92 "Dirty pretty things"),

Alfonso Cuaron (#35 "Y tu Mamà Tambien" and #41 "Children of men"),

Christopher Nolan (#43 "The dark knight" and #68 "Memento")

Fernando Mereilles ( #52 "The constant gardener" and #66 "City of God"),

Pedro Almodovar ( #56 "Volver" and #75 "Talk to her")

4 - Only one man is part of the Top list both as an actor (#21 "Goodnight and Goodluck" and #40 "Syriana" ), as a director (#21 "Goodnight and Goodluck") and as a producer ( #40 "Syriana") : Georges Clooney.

5 - The choices of the Times critics are rather different from the choices of the Oscars : out of the last 10 Oscar winners, 6 are not part of the TOP 100 films of the decade : "American Beauty", "A beautiful mind", "Chicago", "Million dollar baby", "Crash", "The Departed". Equally, 2 Golden Palm of the Cannes Festival are not included in the TOP 100 "Farenheit 9/11" and "Elephant".

6 - And the most stunning element : only 7 women directed films within this list! I guess there is a slight problem of sexism in this profession....

This list is very popular on the Times site. During two days following the publication, it has been the most read article. It has also generated more than 200 long comments. The only problem is that, as a reader, the only way to give your own list is to write it in the Comments section. It would have been nice to have a tool to create easily and rapidly a list and to have the possibility to compare the average readers' lists to the Times' one. Create your list here ( with one film or a hundred, you decide!).

Top 10 Flickr Stock figures in Peril

2009-09-01T17:17:00.007+01:00

On Flickr you have groups gathering people with a common interest : they have the possibility to share pictures about what interest them. Beside the quite expected groups about Paris, Women or Mountains, you can find groups related to very specific topics such as Asian blue/green eyes, or mixing two topics without obvious relations, such as wine and bicycle. You can even find very funny groups such as the pearl mentioned by Barb Dydwab on Mashable : Top 10 Flickr Stick Figures in Peril. In this group you'll find signs, from literally all over the world, trying to warn us about possible dangers, as simply as possible. The result is sometimes so

abstruse that you wonder what is the warning about. Barb has created a Top List for all these signs. This is how this list would appear using our widget :

Top 10 obnoxious things to say to a pregnant woman

2009-08-25T15:00:00.008+01:00

Tracy Moore from Heartless Doll has created a very funny "Top 10 obnoxious things to say to a pregnant woman". Based on our own experience (or to be completely honest based on our wives' experiences) it is very relevant. From "What size bra are you wearing now?" to "Wow, you're pregnant, I'm stunned!", you will learn what NOT to say to pregnant women. At Heartles Doll, they do love Top lists : you could also find a sad "Top 10 actual quotes from actual dates I've actually been on", and a very accurate "Top 10 most ridiculous undergaments worn by women in video games" ( at Rankmill we do now expect, from Heartless Doll, the same Top for men).
Here is how this Heartless Doll'sTop appears using our widget.

What you'll find here!

2009-08-24T12:45:00.004+01:00

Rankmill is a site that we have just recently, and very proudly, launched. Its aim is quite simple : there you can find and create rankings (or Tops) on whatever the sujects. Best rock bands from the 70's? Top italien islands? Top worst dressed celebrities? Best French novels? We do hope that all these rankings will soon be created and available on our site!

With this blog, we intend to show you all the tools we have developed : filters, average Top, automatic search of images and video to add to your ranking, and many more.We will also inform you about the new functionalities. As here, at Rankmill, we are all mad about Tops, we will also give you our selection of funny, interesting, surprising Tops that we will find all over the web.

We have been working on our site for quite a long time but we know, for sure, that it could be improved a lot. Do not hesitate to give us your opinion and ideas! Here