Reply to: Critique required: Web page review / suggestions

[wxman]

I agree - it is just a mean of passing away the time until I get me next gig, which I guess will be in the new year now

The UKMO XML forecast feed costs so much money it is not funny > £24,000 year !!!

The GFS feed costs much less, but not many sites are providing the raw xml feed - I have found one that lets me have a few locations for little cost - a few pounds / month. netweather.tv

[d000hg]

I think this would be better as something to show and get a new gig, than to make money from.

[d000hg]

Good Lord!

The BBC weather forecasts are not accurate at best!

I am using GFS data direct from the GFS model - it is the MOST accurate weather forecasting tool that we have for the 7 day period over the UK.

Where do the BBC get their data, don't they have access to the Met Office?


Anyway, maybe BBC data is not great. But what about MetCheck and the horde of other sites which do exactly what you suggest?

[wxman]

Shame really as I have about 95% completed the proof of concept page

http://www.stormtrack.co.uk/Pages/Weather-Forecast.aspx

[wxman]

Damm I am scuppered!

I was planning to use an xml feed from http://www.metcheck.com or http://www.weather2u.com

Turns out there is a small problem with the owner of the site - he is in Jail!

http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/news/y...l/article.html

no wonder my requests were not being responded too

[PRC1964]

I love stats, so I'd like to see the results of each match charted against the rainfall/temperature/wind direction.

I don't know if you can access historical data, but if you can I could see a nice business in doing predictions based on the weather. It's unlikely to be any better/worse than any other prediction system.

[Moscow Mule]

Average football fan simply wants to know if he's going to get wet, or cold and wet. I wouldn't want to pay money for such a service when I can have a quick look on the BBC to see what happening (ish )

That said, a widget sounds like a great idea. iGoogle, vista sidebar thingie, Mac dashboard, iphone, facebook any of these could get a nice bit of ad revenue.

[eyetie]

In the light of the suggestions on getting money out of football clubs, can you think of another audience who might be interested in this info (and who haven't already got it)?

Cricket fans
Horse racing fans
F1 fans (if you can get international weather)
Anyone going to an open-air event e.g. festival or gig

[basshead]

In the light of the suggestions on getting money out of football clubs, can you think of another audience who might be interested in this info (and who haven't already got it)?

There are a lot of football fan sites. If you can produce a widget that could include a small piece of advertising (where you make your money) you could sell the widget as a service to the fan sites, or for fans to include in their signatures on footie forums. If you could incorporate the date/time/location of the next match for the team in question that would be a bonus.

[Sysman]

Agree with the others - too much info. If your audience is the typical footie fan you want to keep it simple (KISS prinicple). I suspect most folks wouldn't have a clue what a dew point is. I'd suggest making rain/sun/mist and temperature/wind prominent; provide the other details by all means, as it will lend to the credibility of the data, but make it easy to read at a glance for those who want to know whether to take waterproofs or sun cream.

In the light of the suggestions on getting money out of football clubs, can you think of another audience who might be interested in this info (and who haven't already got it)?

[eyetie]

• Like Bolshie said, too much info in terms of timings. Can it be aggregated using mean (for the figures) and mode (for the predicted weather condition)?
• Is there a feed you could mashup it up with to get game details (who's playing who where and when)? That would be cool.
• Could you get anyone who supplies travel to games to sponsor you e.g. thetrainline.com?
• Could you generate custom feeds for particular games/teams/venues?

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Selling to football clubs is very difficult, and they almost always want whatever you've got for nothing, based on "you'll get sales if we say we use your service/software" etc.

I tried this a few years ago with a portable in-game player performance application. No joy.

Good luck though.

WHS - I used to (in a previous life) do the ground and some other Insurance for Mansfield Town. Have you seen the credit ratings these clubs have? Luton apparently owes HMRC millions - and they are aren't alone. The only people getting paid are players.

[BolshieBastard]

Eh, if its supposed to be for footie fans, they only want to know the forecast (if at all) at the ground 1 to 2 hours before and after kick off, max. So, you dont need timeshots for 1.00am in the morning or the like.

You'd be better showing forecasts for a 3pm ko at say 1pm, 1.30pm, 2pm, 2.30pm, 3pm, 5pm, 5.30pm, 6pm, 6.30pm, 7pm

[Badger]

Selling to football clubs is very difficult, and they almost always want whatever you've got for nothing, based on "you'll get sales if we say we use your service/software" etc.

I tried this a few years ago with a portable in-game player performance application. No joy.

Good luck though.

[Netraider]

Ah I dont have access to the N.I. data set yet - sorry

Not to worry. It isn't like we have any decent football teams anyway.