Corporate sites "wallowing in mediocrity"
FTSE-100 websites are "wallowing in mediocrity" according to a report out yesterday from Interactive Bureau (London). Based on research conducted by Porter Research, the survey looks at the websites of the UK's top 100 companies, considering home page design, navigation, content and performance, and follows on from a similar survey last year.

Although ICM report standards to be on the rise, more than half the sites have problems that need fixing, while sixteen sites were thought to be so bad that the research company recommended taking the site down and starting again. In total, 72 sites "vary from needing some substantial attention in one area or another, to needing a lot of urgent attention, to being irredeemably bad and in a state where they should be thrown away".

A third of the websites have undergone a redesign during the last year, according to ICM, but the results are not always an improvement: eight are considered to be worse than they were before. These included Schroder, Severn Trent, Granada, Friends Provident, HSBC, Reuters and Standard Chartered.

Faults found included not giving the company's share price, not indicating on the home page what the company does, not providing an investor area or information for the media, and not providing any search facility.

The top five sites, said ICM, were National Grid, Six Continents, Kingfisher, Sainsbury and Pearson, while at ther bottom of the pile came Man Group, Severn Trent, Schroder, Alliance UniChem and Next.