Time's Worst Websites

I recently posted on the Bloggers Awards, which is a popular vote for the best blogs out there.

Well, let's try the worst websites, according to TIME, at least. You can review them here.

But, here is someone who did spend quite a bit of time gleaning through the internet to come up with his yearly list of top the 10, or bottom ten, websites - and why.

He bases his decisions on this list, amongst others:

• Websites meet organization's needs (more sales/ contributions) rather than meeting the needs of visitors.
• It takes longer than four seconds for the man from Mars to understand what the site is about.
• The site doesn't make the organization or individuals look like credible professionals.
• The site's navigation is Flash-based.
• The site uses Mystery Meat Navigation.

Read more of his views, seriously tongue in cheek, here.

Web Humour

"Web publishing is no more about HTML than book publishing is about type fonts."
- Henri de Toulouse-LaTech

"Although art can be created with a chainsaw, this is hardly a justification for giving every would-be artist a chainsaw."
- Vincent van Gui, - commenting on some of the newer "extensions" to HTML

"In a successful advertisement it's the graphics that grab you, but it's the text that does the selling."
- Pablo PigCasso

"Before you put a really dark background on your web page, ask yourself this:
Why is it so much harder to drive at night than in the daytime?"
- Henri de Toulouse-LaTech

"Where were you when the page was blank?"
- Truman Capote

From: Art and the Zen of Websites

Bloggers, Awards, and the Main Stream Media

Bloggers' awards are an important way to validate information available on the internet. But that begs the question. Are blogs the best way to get information?

Yesterday's TVO (TVOntario) guest Andrew Keen doesn't seem to think so. His point is that professional media or Main Stream Media (MSM), like newspapers and television, spend time and research in order to produce their information. Blogs are the product of amateurs and not to be really trusted, is his conclusion.

But, it is interesting that some of the most important stories on the MSM were broken by bloggers. And one of the the US' most unlikely candidates, Ron Paul, is making headways because of the internet.

The 2007 Weblog Awards have given out their prizes according to categories. This shows you just how varied bloggers are, and that they can't really be put in a convenient niche of "amateurs". A gossip blog hardly rates the same as a technology blog.

There is a tendency, I agree, for blogs to be pop-culture oriented. There is no "Arts Blog" category in the Weblog Awards, and the Music Blogs finalists are all pop or rock. But, that just happens to be the choices that the Weblog Awards committee chose. Of course all those blogs are out there, but they now appear on a third tier - MSM, MSB (Main Stream Bloggers) and The Rest. But, unlike CBC or TVO, you don't have to wait for the media channel to bring you your favorite story, you can find them just as well yourself.

Still, like my previous post, video didn't kill radio, and blogs aren't going to replace MSM too soon. They just provide the choice and alternate interaction that makes news, hobbies, businesses, and any subject that you fancy, more interesting.