The Daily Sucker

In the previous post I mentioned that the Charles program discovered Microsoft’s home page is larger than reported by other services. Well, there are two other interesting facts.

1. Microsoft’s home page was running a 1×1 GIF image-based, ad tracking beacon from DoubleClick and DoubleClick competes with Microsoft’s ad offerings.
2. Microsoft, at least on the home page, is using WebTrends for their web analysis program — not Gastineau or whatever MS is calling their analytics offering.

Andrew King wrote a great book called Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization, which is now out of print. Well, he has a new book coming out called, Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine, & Conversion Rate Secrets. You have to love the title.

Andrew has an interesting article on his site called Average Web Page Size Triples Since 2003, which is something that shouldn’t surprise any of us. Here’s a summary of the article:

Within the last five years, the size of the average web page has more than tripled, and the number of external objects has nearly doubled. While broadband users have experienced somewhat faster response times, dial-up users have been left behind.

Actually, I think the situation is worse than the research indicates. There’s a popular web site that calculates page size, makeup of the page (HTML graphics, HTML, multimedia, CSS, CSS graphics), and download times. I wanted to see how large Microsoft’s home page was and received an answer of 149, 655 bytes. Then I ran Charles, a program I’ve discussed before and it said the total page size of Microsoft’s home page was 654.54 KB (or roughly 670, 248 bytes). Hmm, math isn’t my strong point, but I think this means Microsoft’s home page something like 4.5x as large as commonly believed.

Yikes.

Average Web Page Size Triples Since 2003

Submitter comments: Check this site out… it has most of the elements from Does My Web Site Suck? Checklist 1.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: The most interesting issue with the site is that I can’t figure out what the home page is about. I think it’s some sort of online newspaper. Once of the most important aspects of web design is making sure your visitors can easily figure out what your site is about.

Mullet Wrapper

Submitter comments: This site is cluttered and it can be confusing to find what you are looking for, even when using the search function. Also, the text on some pages is difficult to read. Apparently the site is very popular anyway, so perhaps people who use the site often already know where everything is.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: They claim to have over “5000 pages of information, pool & spa supplies and parts” and I think at least a thousand of them are listed on the home page.

I will give them credit for keeping the top navigation consistent across the pages I visited. I thought the search navigation on the left side was going to be on all pages, but the second page I selected didn’t have a search engine box.

The home page is very busy — like Amazon.com, but worse.

poolsandspas.com

Submitter comments: Every time I am forced to use this site, I think of yours!

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I know my site sucks, but not as much as this library site. Hasn’t anybody with some authority looked at this site? Oh. Maybe they did look at it and said, “Damn, that’s hot.”

Oh, this library is in my wife’s hometown and that’s where she used to go get books. It’s a small world.

Bartholomew County Public Library

Submitter comments: Here is another example of Mystery Meat Navigation (MMN).

Vincent Flanders’ comments: And it’s a really good example, too. My first problem is the message under the “HOW TO NAVIGATE” heading that says, “Click anywhere. Drag and Release.” OK. That’s what I do and guess what? Nothing happens. I look around and finally see the {ENTER} button. I click, drag, and release and it just moves planets around. I mouse over some of the planets and get scientific trivia. Other planets, are incredibly bizarre MMN and open up other pages like “Contact.”

I’m sure somebody likes it, but it’s a waste of time.

Petrosains

Submitter comments: Vincent, Castlewood Stables’ web site has several things about it that suck:

1. Animated GIFs of horses racing. Animated GIFs are so nineties!
2. Several of the links, especially at the top of the page, link to PDF files — and they don’t tell you this!
3. The photos down the left side of the page don’t do anything but add visual clutter.
4. Some of the text is centered.
5. I’m not sure on this one, but it seems like the text and background colors may not pass your contrast test.
6. Oh, and “must-see” should be hyphenated.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Yesterday brought back memories of final exams and today brings back memories of when my sister and I took equestrian lessons. Yes, it’s true. Vincent rode a horse — English style. It’s an incredible feeling when you and a horse go over a jump and it’s pretty interesting when the horse goes over and you go under the jump. Of course, I was young and stupid and the two most terrifying words in equestrian circles (Christopher Reeve) were years away.

In addition to the comments above (#5 is accurate. There are some contrast issues, but the regular text is OK), I’ll mention the navigation is below the fold and navigation is missing on some of the sub-pages (unless you consider the BACK button as navigation).

Kill the background image and organize the information into separate pages.

Castlewood Stables