1. What's the advantage of using this one-step form rather than
going
to www.anybirthday.com directly?
www.anybirthday.com | one-step search form | |
search on parts of name (beginning, middle, end) | no | yes |
number of hits per page | 5 | variable |
sex | not displayed | displayed on results page |
search on specific birthdate (month, day, and year) | no | yes |
search on range of birthdates | no | yes |
search on specific birthday (month and day) | no | yes |
sort the results |
no |
can sort by zipcode or by date
of birth |
starting record | beginning of database only | any position in database so you can resume a previous search |
Of course this form uses the anybirthday.com data and still drives
traffic
to that site.
2. Where was all this birthday information collected from?
I have no idea where anybirthday.com obtained their information
from.
But I have found it to be a rather extensive database. On the
average,
about half the people that I have attempted to find birthdays for were
actually in the database. I consider that to be a very
substantial
hit rate, considering the type of data they are displaying.
3. Was there some reason (other than esthetics) that you recently added the ability to sort the results by zipcode?
Sorting by zipcode gives a very powerful method for finding
couples. Suppose you are looking for a couple named John and Mary
Smith. Of course those are common names and you'll get more Johns
and Marys than you can handle. But if you sort the Johns by
zipcode and the Marys by zipcode, and then scan the two lists to see if
there is a John and a Mary in the same zipcode, you'll have a good
chance of finding the couple John and Mary.
-- Steve Morse