Unfortunately, due to a total lack of time and dwindling user-contributions
I've had to bump the "Lighten Up" section from today's edition -- but it will
be back next week.
In the meantime, NZ's
Netguide Magazine
announced its annual web awards last night.
The list of winners
can be found on the Netguide site and is worth a browse.
I have absolutely no doubt that the judges decisions will be hotly debated by
many Net users -- but it's been my experience that judging a website is a very
subjective affair and one man's meat is another's poison as they say.
I agreed with almost all the judges decisions, except perhaps....
Best Corporate Site: INL
Hmmm... I'm not sure I'm totally chuffed with this site. The front page requires
you to scroll your browser sideways unless your window size is set to at least
1011 pixels across. I also found the constantly changing strip of images to
be a distraction -- but hey, as I said -- this is very subjective stuff.
Navigation is fine -- but I bet they get lots of junk-email with all those
email addresses published with no form of protection from spambots.
I'd like to have checked out the "Best Individual homepage" but as of 8am
the link actually points to the "Best Finance site" -- oops!
I have no doubt that by the time many Aardvark readers get around to checking
out the Netguide site they will have fixed the hiccups -- but here are
a few more I found:
The "Best non-profit organisation" link gives a "Not Found" error -- oops!
Trying to use the link to soundsnz.com on
this page
from the Netguide awards site gives a DNS lookup error -- oops!
This last problem is partly the fault both Netguides and SoundsNZ. The link
is actually given as http://soundsnz.com but the site only responds to
http://www.soundsnz.com.
Hmm... Nige -- maybe you should adopt Aardvark's golden rule -- always get
your site (or new parts thereof) reviewed by a third party before going public :-)
(Although I can't talk -- due usually to a lack of time, this site inevitably
ends up with even worse problems than the few tiny "oopses" I've pointed out here --
so don't bother emailing me to say "hypocrite" :-)
One bitch I have with the SoundsNZ site (apart from their crappy DNS setup) is probably
that they've restricted the streaming content to Apple QuickTime. Hello??? I know
that many web designers just love Apple Macs and the associated protocols but
there are a hell of a lot more users with the MS Media and Real players installed
on their computers. Remember -- websites are supposed to provide a service,
not try to enforce a gospel.
One has to remember that the judges for this year's awards are looking
from an overseas perspective -- something which probably means their
choices may not necessarily use the same criteria as locals might.
Never the less, I think most of the decisions were pretty fair and in
many categories it must have been very difficult because you'd almost have
to toss a coin go chose the winner from amongst some excellent finalists.
The Weekly
Yes, I know the first edition of the weekly has yet to appear -- but I'm
still working on it.
Hopefully (if current leads pan out) it will include a very interesting expose'
into the astoundingly bad behaviour of a group of local "new economy" company
directors (some of who are also on the board of a public company). Just how
competent and ethical are the managers of some of our hi-tech public companies?
If you want to receive the "all new" Aardvark Weekly in PDF format by email
then please use
the contact form to leave your email address.
You'll get a confirmation email within a day or two and you won't receive anything else
unless you respond to that email to confirm your opt-in status.
As always, email addresses submitted for the purposes of receiving the Weekly
will not be given away, sold, bent, spindled, mutilated or otherwise abused
and you will not receive anything other than the weekly as a result of signing
up.
As always, your feedback is welcomed.
