I've never been one of the brigade that takes a swipe at Microsoft simply because it's Microsoft - the company that shapes our world as much as any other on the planet. But I sure got frustrated with their bloody web site today - and there's a lesson or two for all of us who have responsiblities to advise our clients on managing their web sites. ..
I had a client call me and ask if he should install this Silverlight thing the MS site wanted him to install. I said I knew what it was and didnt think there would be any reason why not but since he'd asked me, i went and took a look at the site for myself. Click on the little "Silverlight" icon on the home page - I thought that would take me to where i could see what it's about.. The 'Install" popup's design seemed to give only one option - install Silverlight. The "no thanks" is almost invisible in my browser. I navigated about and eventually got to the SIlverlight page, to see what i could point my client to so he'd know what it does. What is silverlight? Try to find out. YOU CANT! When you go the SIlverlight page, the first thing (and presumably the most important in Microsoft's view) is a large page of unreadable legal gobbldegook called the "Privacy Policy". After studying that policy carefully (yeah right!) I clicked on "Overview" to see the page i could point my client to. Instead of giving me an overview, it gives me an Install button again. Oh wait, there's another "Overview" link. Click on it and there's a whole host of alleged benefits of SIlverlight - not one of which tells me anything. They're all motherhood statements that make Silverlight sound exactly like everything between Windows3.1 and SQLServer2008. What a weak selling effort. Lots of effort put into the graphics of this section but about 30 seconds into the words, And nary a word that actually explains what Silverlight does in terms a novice might understand. And not one reason .why the customer should go ahead and download it. If you dont know anything about Silverlight, and you're one of the great many people like most of my family and clients, there's nothing understandable on the Microsoft site about SIlverlight. The argument boils down to "dont be a cry-baby - go ahead and download it we're Microsoft - how bad can it be for you??" This whole thing is common in Microsoft's web site. Just try to find out, for example, what's actually in the XPPro Service Pack 3. There's bug fixes and security updates, and "some feature improvements" but there's no link anywhere to find out what those feature improvements might be. Apparently Microsoft doesnt think we deserve to know what they are. We're expected to manage our systems, but just blindly install anything Microsoft says we should. The point of all this is not to bash Microsoft, because they're far from alone in this. But we all have an obligation to our own site owners to make sure we dont fall inlto the same mistake. We must always remember that while we are intimately involved with whatever we are selling or promoting on our web site, many of our site visitors arent. For example, for every piece of software, the site should have aomething that answers the queston 'WHAT THE HELL IS IT?? - WHY DO I WANT IT??" [/rant] Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia Adobe Certified Advanced ColdFusion Developer AFP Webworks http://afpwebworks.com ColdFusion, PHP, ASP, ASP.NET hosting from AUD$15/month --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "cfaussie" group. To post to this group, send email to cfaussie@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cfaussie?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
