Examples of Bad Websites

Psychic Eye - sounds as though we're being watched.  Are you spooked?  You WILL be, when you look at this hard-to-read website.  White and gold on a bright purple background?  Who foretold that to be a good idea?  An EYE DOCTOR, that's who.

For a website called Psychic Eye Book Shops, there aren't a lot of books on it, or for sale.  Oh, there are some, such as The American Atlas and The International Atlas.  Not sure what either of these have to do with Psychic material - but wait!  There is also a book for sale titled "The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need."   Huh.  Then why have any of the other books for sale on this site?   Mystery.  Most interesting product?  Cauldrons.  Alas, they are 'coming soon.'

You can also arrange for an In-Person Psychic Reading if you're in their local area.  The rest of us will have to make do with a telephone reading, done by metaphysical practitioners ranging from Lady Loreena to Joyce SpiritEyes.

Let's pretend for a minute that your company unfortunately went out of business.  Show of hands - who votes to tie up loose ends by taking down your website and terminating your hosting agreement?  Ok - most of you.   This latest bad website is a victim of what happens when you don't.

This website used to be for a bakery that was well-known in its area.  Genuine Italian pastries and wedding cakes, all made with recipes from 'the old country.'  Unfortunately, when it closed, no one thought to take down the website - and now it seems to belong to the Japanese.  Thanks to Google Translate, we're able to discern that the site now promotes (in Japanese) Roofing Contractors and Painting.

What good this is to the Japanese is a mystery.  Going to a website titled ninnisbakery.com to look for roofing and painting (in Japan?) seems to be a hard way to go about finding a contractor for your project. 

This cannot be a real website.  It simply can't, especially if the images of what look to be nuclear power plant cooling towers have ANYTHING to do with this company.  If Power Chemicals does something as simple as selling products to power companies, you'd still think/hope/imagine that a professional image for such a serious business would be important to both seller and buyer.

In this case - Frontpage (6!!) is no way to go about portraying a professional image.  Who knew there were any living Frontpage websites still alive out there? 

We double-dog dare you to click on some of the microbiological problem Gallery images, but only if you're nowhere near eating lunch.  Another treat is the Paper Specialties page, entirely in Japanese.

Most of the site is unreadable, having colored text on a patterned background.  Another example of bad website design that could have been avoided by applying some common sense.

Often, bad websites are submitted for to us that turn out to be very small one or two-person companies.  We won't use those, it's not fair to point out website shortcomings of a company that may not have the funds to do any better.

Today's boogersite seemed to be one of those situations.  Surely.  The site is small, nearly bereft of content, and has a Flash element (how outdated!) on the landing page.  Checking a popular business directory that shows earnings gave us a shock - this company makes a LOT of money.  So what's with the crummy website?

Sometimes, a company doesn't want to portray themselves as too successful, or consumers think they already have it made, and they'll spend elsewhere.  The website actually says this company employs 550 people, which might be the most interesting piece of information we see.  Eh - maybe we're nitpicking.  If the company is doing well, and hasn't seen the need (obviously!) for a newer, more informative website...we'll just stand by for the next truly bad website.

This latest website is shockingly bad.  Just hover over the header, and you'll see.

There is so much wrong with this website, it's hard to know where to begin.  There's an ad crawl for completely irrelevant websites (50 Reasons Not To Vote for Bush, BadAssChick magazine, ENBI IS NOT DEAD); flashing animated gifs, outdated landing page content - a film premiere announcement from 2006 - and hundreds of links to interesting articles.  Seriously - they are horrid visually, but contain some fascinating information.

A very telling reminder of this website's age is the subscribe page.  You're to print out the form, fill it out, then mail it with a check.  A check!!  The 'webmaster' also has a prodigy.net email address.

Thanks for submitting it, alert internet user.  Keep 'em coming!