There has been a time where you needed an icon in your work. I don’t know … maybe just as a placeholder or maybe the final graphic element. Well most people believe that besides Google Image Search and some major search engines, there are no other resources for this kind of artwork.

Well the concept of icons search was niche a while ago, but now there are several products on the market to satisfy every need. This fact combined with the repeated release of new icons packs under different licenses were good reasons for developing search engines exclusively for icons.
In this case the search engine covered here is Iconfinder.net. First of all, compared to other search engines of any type, the user interface from Iconfinder is unique and with a very nice design.

With simple yet effective features like background color (black or white), tag system, license info or icon size selection this is a great tool in the development and design process. A big advantage is also the availability of Crystal Project icons pack which is from my point of view the best and most comprehensive icon pack online. Another important factor is the scalability and good response time of the search engine.
Also there is a widget available for Mac users for improved accessibility.

In the end I think that this is a good product and also a very useful one. Kudos for the developer and keep up the good work.

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There are lot of web portals out there. In fact, the main web business idea, up until 2003, was a web portal. Everyone wanted to build one and to showcase big amount of information. Now, things are a little different and with the help of some make-up, we call them COMMUNITIES. But at the core level, this websites are portals of information.

The trend was to have a higher diversity of information displayed in a portal. This idea was causing a certain amount of issues because users don’t want everything and users are usually picky. So, the need to niche website was the reason for people to start websites focused on few domains rather than all.

Part of this category of portals is CGSOCIETY.ORG, a comprehensive but still well focused website. It has a big community and also active. The site is quite dynamic with upcoming events and latest news and other features that keep the user online. Also a big advantage for this community is represented by the visual contests with big and valuable prizes. From books to software licenses, from graphic cards to workstations, the visual challenges from CGSociety are assaulted by cg artists in fame pursuit.

The membership on CGSociety comes in 2 flavors - free and paid which cover a wide variety of features. You can choose to have a free account or for a small amount of money you can benefit from discounts on partner sites.

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