armchairGM No. 1 in MLN Sports ranking of Top Sports Social Search Engine Websites

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com - armchairGM.com was tapped as the top website in the sports social search engine (SSE)  category by the editors of MLN Sports today. Ballhype.com was ranked as the second best sports SSE. YardBarker.com rounded the pack at third and the new CNN/SI entry, FanNation.com finished a surprising fourth.

Websites were judged on their ease of use, web design their ability to connect with other people with similar interests, and their friendliness towards minor league and independent professional sports.

"armchairGM is just a great, fun SSE," complimented MLN senior editor Brian Ross. "They use the same engine that runs Wikipedia, without all of the hard, clunky problems that wikis normally have. Being a wiki, it's totally open to the readers to create what they want, and the site hosts add in feature requests regularly. They have games, trivia contests, short takes on the day's news, and awards and digital prizes for users who contribute regularly. Compare that to the battleship on the block, FanNation.com which was built by CNN/SI.  Fan has great connection to the CNN/SI content, but it is harder to use, lacks the fun and games, and still seems more geared at selling SI's site than letting sports fans have a good time."

Ballhype was ranked second because of its general ease of use. The site just recently added minor league sports to its categories of listings, which greatly improved its use for alternative fans of pro sports.

YardBarker, which has one of the best looks of any of the sports SSEs fell behind because of its controlling manner of listing sports news and blog items.

"It will only let you categorize what the YB staff knows about," said Ross. "When Clay Buchholz pitched the Red Sox rookie record no-hitter, you couldn't even tag the article with his name because he wasn't in the YB database. Forget them including data on minor league clubs and leagues.  They could be a contender, if they would set up the ability for readers to add information and help them out." 

The full article can be seen at MLN Sports Zone, the most established magazine in minor league and indy pro sports, by clicking here.