Comments on: “Skip Intro” - Bad bar websites

By: ljclark

ljclark — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:35:48 +0000

Whoa, Adam M. busted me for not double-checking my facts. D’oh! I knew I shoulda looked at that source code. I stand by my underlying point, however, that scrollers DO suck.

By: Frederic

Frederic — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:03:10 +0000

Amen. When I search whether a restaurant has vegetarian meal options or cocktails I might like, I have come upon the same level of frustration.

Same with liquor companies. One recent exception was Blue Coat Gin which has a state by state breakdown of where they distribute to and when you click on Massachusetts it breaks it down by city to specific liquor stores with addresses. Bravo.

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:05:02 +0000

I hate to correct you on your blog, but as an ex-Web developer I feel compelled to point out that the Pho Republique site does not actually use any frames at all. The scroller on that site is delivered thanks to a DIV tag; very different from a frame, and much friendlier in terms of navigation, accessibility, and cutting and pasting text, than an actual frame… Notice, for example, that on the District Restaurant Web site — which does use frames — it is impossible to select text both inside and outside of the scroll area. OTOH, the Pho Republique site does not have that particular issue. Frames do suck, and scrollers might suck too, but let’s be accurate in our verbiage when criticizing…

By: ljclark

ljclark — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:53:08 +0000

Oh, outdated info. How naive of us to expect these websites to be accurate. Adam, don’t be afraid to mention by name the establishments who lead you astray. They need to know.

By: Adam L

Adam L — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:28:14 +0000

You’ve nailed one of my pet peeves too!

Followed, only slightly, by sites that have old and outdated information.

Look at events… and they show you items from last summer.

Menu’s listed (in HTML if your lucky - dead on lauren) - but it’s their “September Specials”.

What are their hours? Well the site says one thing, the voicemail says another and the door says a third. (That’s aimed at one of my favorite watering holes ).

If you’re not going to maintain the info on the site - it’s best not to put it up there in the first place.

By: ljclark

ljclark — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:49:25 +0000

OMG, you are so right, John. I totally forgot to include this huge point. Thanks.

By: John Overholt

John Overholt — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:44:11 +0000

As a librarian, the thing about flash interfaces that drives me crazy is that they make the restaurant much harder to find in Google. Douzo’s website, to take an example that’s driven me crazy in the past, is the 42nd result for “Douzo Boston” because it’s 100% Flash and there’s nothing there that Google can read. You would think at this point restaurants would understand that it’s better to be first in Google than have a slick-looking website.