As many people have proclaimed, the dot-com bubble has burst. Well there's a lot that I could say about this and that, but today I'm going to talk about stupid e-business. That is, web sites that sell crap and don't have a clue. This is more or less a hodge-podge of stuff that annoys me.
1) Pop up windows. If you are a retail site don't use a pop up window for ANYTHING. I just can't believe how stupid sites are that do this. Case in point: Time magazine. I go to their site and a pop up window shows up when the page is loading - advertising none other than Time magazine. WTF? Do they really think this stupid window will convince me to buy the damn magazine? They're spamming themselves! Originally I was looking for something, but after being so perplexed by the idiot pop-up, I just hit the back button.
2) Encryption. I like encryption. Encryption is your friend. I like https. What I don't like are web sites that give you an order form for everything but your blood type (including credit card number), but don't use an encrypted form. Why oh why can't these guys use an encrypted form? It's not like it's hard either. Red Hat Linux does https right out of the box. The only trick is getting a certificate from some place like Verisign. Hundreds of thousands of businesses have done it so I'm sure it's a pretty streamlined process.
3) Dumb searches. Do any of these businesses actually CHECK to see if their little search feature is useful? You type something in and get the most useless pile of garbage imaginable. Just take it off if it sucks.
4) A picture is worth a thousand words. So I'm looking for parts for my decrepid bass guitar. I need various parts, some of which I don't even know the name for. Mainly I need the electronic gizmos, but I also want stuff like a cool scratch guard, and chrome knobs. I go to one site that seems to have quite a selection of scratch guards. So I go through the section click a link. "Description: black scratch guard, buy now [button]" - NO PICTURE. Try another link, the same. How in the hell do I know what I want unless I can see it? I don't even know if it would fit unless I could see the shape. One scratch guard was "black and white" Black and white HOW? Does it have a black backdrop, with white strokes that form the sentence "I am a ho!"? It would be pretty easy to tell if I could see the damn thing!
5) BUTT UGLY: If a web site meets this criteria, then your sales are probably going to suffer, it's basically that simple. I'm not saying that a business needs to have an extremely expensive design team work on their site. All I'm saying is that if your site uses a color scheme that you wouldn't wear with clothing, then you need to change it. Another thing is that sites need to realize that bigger fonts don't make your site more appealing either. If it's really that important I'll probably read it eventually anyway. No need to stuff this huge font all over the place in bold. If for some reason a business should have a really ugly picture pertaining to their business but serves no purpose, then I would hope that they would resist temptation, and save the rest of us an eyesore - that apparently seems to be a lot to ask for though... And finally animated gifs: DON'T DO IT!
6) Then there's the organization. I mean I really can't believe some of these sites that were just slapped together in such a fashion that eventually you don't know where the hell you are, or even if your on the same site anymore. Trying to find your way back to the main page is a big ordeal on some of these sites. A commercial web site should be like a regular store. You have an entrance, and you should be able to figure out where to go, and what is in which isle. When you are done, the checkout should be easy to find. If regular stores were set up the way some of these online stores were, you'd have to run around the store 4 times, hop on one foot through the bathroom, then dive through a flaming hoop and into the parking lot where a senile old guy takes your money and stuffs it in a shoe box.
And another thing, having a link to the top of the page after each paragraph - we don't need it. I mean if I REALLY need to go to the top of the page, I'll either use ctrl-home or maybe just use the f'ing scroll bar perhaps? Who started that idea anyway. I recall seeing it as long as I can remember on the internet, and I still see it today - which is surprising that something that essentially has no point would be perpetuated for so long...
7) spell check your page. SERIOUSLY. My spelling is so pathetic that you'd think English isn't even my first language. People used to come to my page and EVERYONE would say "your page [is okay | sucks], but you need to learn how to spell". After about 4 months strait of being harassed about my spelling, I would cut and paste back and forth between Word Perfect and what I was using to make web pages. Now days I use a text editor that does spell checking. There really isn't any excuse not to spell check.
With all of the above being somewhat commonplace on the Internet, I have a hard time feeling sorry for online businesses that go under. I can't even count the number of times that I've been at a site where I was planning on making a purchase, then decided "I'm not ordering from these guys", because their web site was so badly implemented. In one instance of "badly implemented" I mean that many buisnesses have order forms that DON'T WORK when you try to order! I'm sure that isn't helping sales much now is it? . In many cases it's like common sense went out the window when they decided to go online. That in itself isn't so unusual I guess. It's like many people who use the computer. Generally smart people who have no problems with most things, suddenly throw up their hands when you sit them in front of a computer - like someone just beat their ass with an idiot stick. The internet is global, there is nothing to distinguish your business from the other one at the next url. A website is essentially your storefront. The only thing between you and them is probably how good your web site is (and perhaps your selection). Taking that in to consideration, I wonder why so many commercial web sites are screwed up. It's not like they couldn't hire some of the punk 14 year old kids who think their "web designers" because they have a web page that's decent. Oh well, it's their dime not mine. Or maybe it's better to say it's my dime that they're not getting. Just as well, I need to save money anyway.