Start.com: What a waste of a great domain name
One of Microsoft’s latest ventures is their Start.com portal site. This is an easy target for this series, but I felt the need to write about it because I can’t stop seeing links on how cool the site is with its AJAX featureset. Going to the site you will see this statement in the footer:
this site is not an officially supported site. it is an incubation experiment and doesn’t represent any particular strategy or policy.
I am going to try and keep this in mind when I go over the site, but seeing how it’s Microsoft and they control more money than the Roman Empire I find it hard to believe that even non-official sites have to be this crappy.
Design/Aesthetics
Quite possibly the most frustrating thing for me about Microsoft is that they have yet to understand the value of quality design. It might be hard justifying putting effort into something aesthetically pleasing when you can drive a million people to it a day without any effort, but what is the last well-designed website from Microsoft that you can think of? Our world has transformed from one where you simply can rely on your ability to generate massive amounts of traffic to one where you must create an emotional connection with your user.
Compare Start.com’s portal design to that of our 9rules homepage. If 9rules and Microsoft were the same sizedcompany with the same capability of drawing traffic I strongly believe that simply based on aesthetics our site would win in the long term due to the emotional value it creates (you either hate it or love it). Sidenote: the 9rules homepage is working on having some of the features found on Start’s page, but hopefully we can execute them a bit better.
What can Micrsoft do to improve the emotional appeal of the site? Better color choices in my opinion would go a long way here. Being a major international corporation I understand that their color options are limited (blue is recognized as the best color to use internationally due to its neutral appeal in different cultures), but that does not mean you should stick with light blue and light grey.
What makes matters worse is that the site supposedly looks totally different in IE than it does Firefox (which I am using to view it now) so it’s possible that there are more colors to the site and a bit more flair than what I am seeing.
User Interface
What many people are finding so “cool” about this website is that you can customize it without a single page reload. It is filled with AJAX love, but it seems AJAX is being used simply because it can. I will quickly point out two major flaws in the design of the UI.
And then there was none…
On the Start page you have the ability to add and remove boxes with ease. Let me rephrase that. You have the ability to remove boxes with ease and add them again if you can figure out how to get the add list to show.
Here is a screenshot of a Start page with no feeds being used.
Now I am supposed to figure out that clicking on the double-down arrow brings up a popup menu that allows me to select the feeds and once I am done with the menu I am supposed to know that I need to click on the double-up arrow to close it. It’s just not intuitive at all. I know it’s not as cool, but maybe having just a “add news sources” link would work better?
They are hiring, but I can’t prove it
So after reading this you might be thinking that you are obviously the person to help Microsoft out. I am happy to report that the Start team is hiring, but I have absolutely no way to show you. I can only tell you to go to the Start.com page and click on the we’re hiring link that might be on the bottom, top, or side of the page and wait for the popup to load.
AJAX is meant to rid sites of page reloads, but not if you need to link to a certain piece of information.
Overhyped
I know Microsoft is supposed to be the hated corporation, but I really do care about their view of design because I believe if they actually put some thought into it they could have a great impact on the world. As it stands now they seem to always be playing a game of catchup with inferior products (eg. MSN Space).
The Start.com page is nothing special and can be done by anyone who understands a tiny bit of AJAX and Magpie RSS. And I would like to think that everyone reading this entry could do a better job with the design of the site as well. It’s frustrating to see a site like this get so much attention when you know you could create something better, but are unwilling to because it won’t get the attention.
Tomorrow: Technorati.
Is it just me or are there no AJAX-y features or links for that matter, when viewing the site in Safari?
By scott on August 8, 2005 11:41 am
Very dull - both in terms of functionality and implementation.
You know, I’d thought we’d seen the back of these ‘portals’ back in the nineties. They weren’t successful then, so what’s changed? AJAX? Come on!
Just because we can do it, doesn’t mean we should.
By Mark Boulton on August 8, 2005 12:01 pm
Add on that it doesn’t work in Opera. All I see when I visit the site is the words “Start” at the top and a search box.
By francey on August 8, 2005 12:18 pm
By the way, why is it that I can’t open a link on start.com in a new tab by clicking it with the scrollwheel? That’s terrible.
By Geert on August 8, 2005 12:21 pm
No, you’re right, it doesn’t work in Safari, atleast from what I see in 10.4.2.
Thank goodness someone frowned on this, I didn’t see what the hype was — visually unattractive and unexcited. I can’t see myself living in it day in and day out…
By Brady J. Frey on August 8, 2005 12:21 pm
My IE hung up while trying to open “We’re hiring” link… 8-\
By Andrew C. Kovalev on August 8, 2005 12:22 pm
This is worse than I thought…
And dammit I am going to fix this comment box so it remembers information.
By Scrivs on August 8, 2005 12:46 pm
I still can’t believe you lost your archives with no possible way to get them back. There has to be SOME way.
btw - it remembers my information.
By Bryan on August 8, 2005 1:31 pm
If you have the stock ticker “box” on your page, try removing a ticker item. In Firefox on Windows it is nearly impossible. It’s almost like a really lame “Catch me if you can” game with that little “X” delete button.
By Justin P on August 8, 2005 3:30 pm
Good pick for this series. This site (start, not whitespace) is truly terrible. I started decreasing columns and then adding them, and it went crazy on me. If people are linking to it and saying it’s anything other than terrible, they clearly haven’t been spoiled by AJAX done well applications like we have.
By Scott on August 8, 2005 4:10 pm
I actually thought the double-down and double-up arrors were easy to understand. They were the first thing that I clicked. Just saying…
By John on August 8, 2005 4:35 pm
I like the irony of having a stock ticker on a MSFT-powered site that has GOOG above MSFT and YHOO being the only one in the green…
Other than that: it’s kinda nifty, but it does have a very heavy proof-of-concept taste to it. Not something I’d use on a daily basis, simply because I already have a RSS reader, thankyouverymuch.
By Max Roeleveld on August 8, 2005 6:00 pm
Scrivs, that’s pretty gutsy saying that 9rules would win against Microsoft in an all-factors-equal comparison. I have to agree though, I think Start.com is looking pretty weak thus far. It does have AJAX up and running though, so that’s one thing in its favor. Much like the screenshots of Longhorn (excuse me, Vista) Start.com seems to be focused first on functionality and secondly on aesthetics.
By Nathan Smith on August 8, 2005 7:33 pm
While I agree with you it shouldn’t be this crappy, consider also that Microsoft is a big company. Big company’s often have small projects that don’t get a lot of funding but still have to meet certain measures of production in order to keep their piddly funding each year.
This may be one of those projects. I have no clue, but it is a possibility. Show that you can make it work, then make it pretty. Actually, I think that is a good method to follow. Beats the other way around.
But I still agree, a few extra hours of coding could have come up with a design that would rival the throw-aways of what was done before the 9rules we have now. ;)
By Matthew Oliphant on August 8, 2005 9:49 pm
OMG this has never been done before ever! How innovative! http://www.google.com/ig
By Clint on August 9, 2005 12:21 am
It’ll be interesting to see if anyone from Microsoft can shed light on why this page is the way it is.
By Jack on August 9, 2005 2:11 am
This looks very much like Google’s AJAX implementation of customizing its start page. Anyone who has done this should be able to immediately spot the similarities. I wonder which one came first though? :o)
http://www.google.com/ig
By Evagoras on August 9, 2005 4:16 am
I’d rather see this kind of ‘get it out there’ and see what works than another massive corporate brand ruled overdesigned nightmare.
Google in the beginning was no more visually interesting than this, except for the logo.
I think a lot of people get hung up on making things look better (including me, as a web designer), but the usability testing I’ve been involved in has shown me that a lot of people have very low standards for design, and are happy to use an ugly site that does what they want.
Functionality issues are more important, as you have pointed out here.
So basically, I’d be more interested in seeing the results that come out of this than worrying about how it works and looks at this early stage.
By Mathew Patterson on August 9, 2005 4:28 am
I didn’t even know that there were AJAX features until I read this article. Never bothered to try it in any browser besides Safari, so apparently I can’t access the features that might have made it interesting to me.
But keep in mind: the start.com-team (afaik) consists of only two people, and they are apparently doing this on their own. start.com imo should be more considered like a Google labs beta than a real product.
By mardoen on August 9, 2005 6:48 am
I don’t care if it’s 1 or 30 people working on it. As I mentioned in the entry what they are trying to do isn’t that hard and this is the 3rd version!
How many of us create sites on our very own that look better and function across almost all browsers?
By Scrivs on August 9, 2005 7:52 am
Two words: Corporate Culture.
A few more words: When “good enough” is good enough.
By Ryan on August 9, 2005 8:59 am
How many of us create sites on our very own that look better and function across almost all browsers?
Probably a lot, but most of us also don’t have as many second chances as a Microsoft backed site will have to impress. They can afford to progress it slowly - it’s the Microsoft way, after all!
By Mathew Patterson on August 9, 2005 9:00 am
Ryan: I don’t think using Corporate Culture as an excuse works anymore. Apple has a corporate culture. Yahoo does as well and they have been kicking major ass on the design front.
Matthew: Well if you don’t get many second chances don’t you think the third iteration of this site should be better?
By Scrivs on August 9, 2005 9:09 am
Well if you don’t get many second chances don’t you think the third iteration of this site should be better?
Normally you don’t get many second chances, but Microsoft can afford a lot more, is my point.
Not making excuses for them, but we are not their likely target audience, and it is a test. The ‘normal’ people who see it next year or whenever will not have seen the first few iterations.
By Mathew Patterson on August 9, 2005 9:57 am
Yeah, yahoo has been kickin some names and taking some ass lately, but why? They copied google (remember, imitation is the best form of flattery). Microsoft knows that they too are being dominated by google, so they also have resorted to copying. I think its good news. Microsoft pushing Ajax will only force some good competition. It will just be interesting to see what google comes up with next.
Oh, and I think that for the 3rd iteration, the Ajax should work a little better. Maybe someone should tell them that its easier to develop on Firefox, and *then* debug IE, instead of vice-versa.
By Kyle Posey on August 9, 2005 10:10 am
fyi, your “nofollow” attribute is being duplicated for each comment it encounters.
By Kyle Posey on August 9, 2005 10:56 am
Scrivs, while Mike’s first iteration of 9rules didn’t suck ass like start.com does, we did go through some live iterating (and continue to do so).
If they have no intention of making it look better, then they are dumb. If they want to get things working right and are running “everyone have at it” testing, so be it. I can see value in that.
However, I can also see value in creating something that people will want to come back and use, not just see what’s up with a non-supported site from Microsoft. I don’t see anything here I want to come back to.
Especially since I don’t see much at all but the word Start, and text field, and a search button. ;)
By Matthew Oliphant on August 9, 2005 11:22 am