They wouldn't lock the doors of their shops ...

... so why lock me out of their online store? I would rate this practice one of the worst in web design.

American discount store Marshalls - or more specifically, their web site developers - have decided that they cannot possibly display or sell their products without the use of the Adobe Flash player 9. What rubbish. Just use the last version that more [potential] customers might have. Or even the version before that. Or just don't use Flash.

I have said this repeatedly elsewhere - but I do not have 'administrator' access at work, so must call in tech support to download new software [so I can go shopping !?].

At home I can download stuff - but if it was my wife rattling at the virtual doors of Marshall's online store, she would not know how to do so.

County-less in Sunderland

I was filling in an online application form and was required to indicate which county I lived in. So I clicked on the drop down menu and got this ...

For those of you that aren't from these parts, Sunderland is in the county of Tyne and Wear - which isn't listed. In itself this would be bad practice - but sadly, the form was on the web site of the UK's post office. Oops.

Bonjour, hallo, hola, ciao ... I'm English

Airlines again, and it's Brussels Airlines again. Do I need to say anything about this email?

Duke of URLs?

I was just checking up on what some of my employer's competitors were up to, and clicked on this ad from the University of Liverpool:
Clicking on the link gave me this landing page:Which is not a good example of a landing page [but that's another subject] - so I checked the URL to see if there had been a mix-up, and this is the URL of that landing page:

http://www.liverpoolonlinedegrees.co.uk/2/prequal2.jsp?&CCID=8554203049143&QTR=ZZf20050707102342Za8554Zg171Zw0Zm0Zc20
3049143Zs3086ZZ&CLK=472080623020320922&ac=003&ai=96FFA7F4C34F96456D2BDD3DCDA37C44438920C9&ad=727690405&sp=&fb
=masters%20degree%20online&redirected=Index&CLK=472080623020320922&CCID=8554203049143&QTR=ZZf200507071023
42Za8554Zg171Zw0Zm0Zc203049143Zs3086ZZ&ZN=ref&ZV=ZZf20050707102342Za8554Zg171Zw0Zm0Zc203049143Zs3086ZZ&KY_T=

Yep - that's an incedible 439 characters. Seems a tad excessive to me.

Not only that, but I didn't want to fill in the form to continue [hello web designers at Liverpool Uni, ever heard of the sales funnel and/or persuasive architecture?] so I deleted everything in the URL with the exception of http://www.liverpoolonlinedegrees.co.uk and pressed 'enter' and was presented with the same page, only with a [mercifully] shorter URL of:

http://www.liverpoolonlinedegrees.co.uk/2/prequal2.jsp;jsessionid=Uy0x5NBHrl2E9EIQOuVLfQ**.app2-all2?redirected=Index&
CLK=0&CCID=&QTR=&ZN=&ZV=&KY_T=

So it would seem that the 'questionnaire' page is actually the 'home' page of Liverpool University's online degree web site. Hmmmmm, nice.

not very professional domain name practice

On the radio this morning I heard an ad for Fiat vans. At its end the voice over advised listeners to go to 'fiatprofessional.co.uk'. OK so far, special mini-site for an ad, that's good. My problem is this:

When I was at school there were certain words that the teachers used in spelling tests because they were tricky. Things like; achieved, successful and ... professional. With this word it is an issue of how many Fs and Ss there are. Naturally, being the smart chap that I am, I can spell 'professional' [thank you, grammar school education], so I typed in the domain and got this page:
However, professional is a tricky word - so I tried the obvious misspellings, and this is what turned up:
So here's the thing: Considering how much this entire ad campaign must have cost, registering these three would have been a drop in the ocean [less than 50 GB pounds]. They could all have been redirected to the 'proper' site so that anyone who did misspell the word found themselves on the right page. That is reason one for registering those domains. Reason two is to stop any nefarious folk registering them and putting other sites on those names - sites that might not be complimentary to the brand.

On the plus side, fiatprofessional.com takes you to a 'global' page where you can select 'your' country [but, oh yes, misspellings on the .com haven't been registered either].

I've got more advice on registering the right domain name on my web site.

KLM : listening?

If you've spent any time on this blog you will have seen a lot of comments aimed at airlines that don't appreciate where I live. Well maybe someone at KLM reads this blog [unlikely, they probably just employed someone who knows what they are doing] because the latest email I received was promoting flights from my local airport.

So, well done KLM, better late than never.

Footnote I : if you're from KLM and you do read this blog ... free flights as a reward for pointing out your errors?

Footnote II: if KLM used consultants to review their email marketing strategy - and one of the recommendations was to tell customers about flights from their local airport [ie relevant to them] - I wonder how much KLM were charged [I bet it would have made giving me a couple of free flights a very cheap option]

Footnote III to self : you're in the wrong business!

they are called domain NAMES for a reason ...

Well done Countax, you registered the .com domain name. Now take a walk to see whoever is responsible for your web presence. Now hit them with a wet haddock. The reason for this assault? Take a look at what appears in your browser location when you are on their web site. There is absolutely no good reason for this - it is an appalling practice.

trust is important ...

... in any affiliate partnership. So would you have faith in these folks? I was researching affiliate management, so I put the term in Google and got the following SERP ...So I clicked on the highest 'organic' listing, and got this ..

Click on the image and you get an email contact form. Hmmm, not an example of how to build online credibility.

you on the right site cobber?

I got an email message from Friends Reunited advising me of a new feature - standard stuff, good marketing. Problem was that when I clicked on the link I was taken to the Australian version of the site [.com.au] - as you see from the email's status bar, below.

Mistake or server/hosting issue? Not sure. On the positive side, the link worked and I could access my profile on the Aussie site. Another thing I liked, but I suppose there are security implications : after I clicked on the email link and arrived on the site I was logged in - which [I assume] meant the site recognized that the email was sent to particular member and it would be that member who clicked on the link, so why make them log in? Not sure I would be so impressed if it were my bank, however.Footnote: The next email in my in-box was from AIRMILES informing me of my points total - and when I clicked on the link to the web site ... I had to log in.

an airline again, I'm afraid ...

Brussels Airline this time. Note the message on the email I received below. Note that I live in Great Britain. Note that they already know that as [a] I completed a registration form, and [b] my email address is that of a UK university - .ac.uk.