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Intelisys Electronic Commerce provides a cradle-to-grave service for those companies and organizations wishing to meet the challenges of buying or selling non-production goods using internet technology.
The Intelisys site is, on the whole, well-designed and utilitarian. It loads quickly and easily, and the homepage features "news and events" concerning the company and its products.
Navigation is facilitated through legible buttons located in the left-hand frame, which also featured a button to enable visitors to disable Javascript - an option we liked.
The section "About Intelisys" we found a mite verbose and jargon-laden. Perhaps the company could consider hiring a copywriter to give the text that needed "distance"...
We could also quibble about the extensive use of photographs of the management team - no one looked like Sophia Loren, as far as we could discern.
All in all, a satisfying and well-designed site. Well worth checking out if you're serious about e-commerce, or simply as an example of good design and architecture.
Regular readers of this column will be aware that we are great fans of ClickZ in both its Web and eMail manifestations.
We have also remarked upon - and recommended - the sage advice dispensed by the venerable Charles Sayers' site, Who's Marketing Online, which provides "hands-on tips, reviews, and resource listings for
professionals new to online marketing".
Now the two have joined together through the acquisition of WMO by ClickZ.
"Our goal is to establish ClickZ as the ultimate resource
for anyone interested in doing business on the Internet."
said Andy Bourland, Publisher and CEO of the ClickZ
Network, "We are building a business to business network of
online resources focused on internet advertising, marketing
and commerce. WMO's substantial content archive, written
with attitude, from an 'in-the-trenches' point of view is
a perfect fit."
Who's Marketing Online has also redefined its editorial
focus, offering five daily tracks for online marketing
professionals: Media Buying, Media Selling, International
Online Marketing, E-Commerce and Site Publishing. "Each
track will have it's own base of subscribers" said Ann
Handley, Editor in Chief of the ClickZ Network. "These are
the topics our readers are most hungry for greater
information on. We hope to be the source they turn to for
the information they need."
Charles Sayers, the former publisher and content developer
for Who's Marketing Online, will join ClickZ as the
company's VP Marketing and will continue to create content
for the publication as well as for several other ClickZ
publications focusing on electronic marketing,
advertising, and e-commerce.
Should be good. We hope so...
Pericom is a UK-based producer of connectivity software. Pericom Jobs-IT is the division which functions as the company's recruitment arm.
The recruitment site is worth a look, as it is a fine example of the triumph of form over function. Here's why:
The substitution of graphics for text elements also renders the page all but invisible to search engine spiders, despite and excessive number of "keywords" in the page's METAtags.
The page also contains the rubrick:
Which strikes us as rude to say the least, and is potentially off-putting to a significant section of the site's presumed audience.
And this is where things get confusing. Hitting the button marked "Pericom PLC" tansports the visitor to a "splash" page, which in turn, takes one to yet another page - which contains what precious little information that is provided in the form of yet another textual graphic.
And there's no way to return whence one came....
We suspect that this site will not be amongst the most well-trafficked in the recruitment arena.
Which is rather a shame, because, despite its annoying rotating icons, it's really quite attractive. But totally inappropriate for its function...
Courtesy of the inestimable Hal Pawluk, we receive this dispatch:
"ASPs did Cleopatra in and may be doing the same thing to your Web site when
it comes to search engines.
In this case, though, ASPs are Active Server Pages. If you're using them
to publish information on the fly, you should know this means there's
nothing for the search engines to index because the pages are created on
demand for each visitor. And if a search engine does happen to catch one
of these ephemeral pages, it won't be able to follow links to the rest of
your site since ASP applications require cookies which the search engines
don't use.
One solution is make certain that your web wonk sets up your sever to store
static pages (keywords only or full pages) for search engines to index.
Another is to use the ASP caching filter available for IIS 4.0 which does
the job automatically.
For more info, check out Infoworld's
'Client/Server - Test Center RX' by Laura Wonnacott."
Within a newsgroup to which we subscribe, a fierce debate rages between the "Purists" and the "Pragmatists". Although to dignify some of the exchanges with the word "debate" is a misnomer at best...
The significance of the exchange, however, overlays current notions of web design, use of HTML as a layout tool, and the whole idea of "viewability".
We plant ourselves firmly in the "Pragmatist" camp.
In one way or another, we have been associated with the revival of Italian Futurist Theatre.
IFT was instigated by a the son of a Milanese millionaire called FT
Marinetti between about 1910 and 1920.
Marinetti saw it as an act of rebellion against the standard, three-act,
proscenium arch theatre of the time. It comprised series of vignettes
which reflected, he and his collaborators felt, the reactions of people
to an increasingly mechanized world.
It also demanded a certain level of participation by the audience.
It was, of course, a total failure during its brief existence. Audiences
were unable to conceive of a theatre which did not invite them to enter
a (literally) fantastic world. Critics frowned upon the movement.
Theatre, they declared, should not be used to reflect the REAL world;
rather it should comfort the viewer by positing a world of "what ifs".
The critics were purists - in much the same way that the critics at the
Paris salon at the end of the last century rejected Impressionism as
impure and an improper use of the medium.
Theatre and painting are media for the expression of ideas. The use to
which the media are put are sometimes shocking, sometimes frightening.
And if some brave souls overstep the bounds of what is "acceptable",
what is an "appropriate use" of the medium, some poor souls will get
upset.
Jackson Pollock, we're sure, was roundly castigated for his technique.
Doubtless, some critic implied that he wasn't supposed to use canvas in
that way.
The canvas, the paint, the stage - all are tools. As such, they can be
used in any way anyone who takes the time to learn how to use them
wishes to use them.
Usually the result of a different - or radical - use of tools is abject
failure. But, occasionally, the results open our eyes to a new way of
seeing mundane artefacts (cf: Warhol).
HTML is a tool. To slavishly follow the directives of "standards" is to
be a Sunni Moslem - forever locked into Mohammed's interpretation of the
word of god, as expressed in the Koran.
Some of us can be said to follow the principles of 'Shia Islam. We
recognize the essential tenets of our "Koran", but feel the need to
interpret those tenets in terms of the world we see around us.
The level of "discussion" which has evolved in the "Schlake vs The
Purists" "debate" is perhaps indicative of the passions which are
aroused when a convention is challenged in uncompromising terms.
If it works for you, use it. Damn those who say you're not allowed to!
Take a look at the Archives. We've indexed all the past issues with topic pointers.
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