Websites come in all shapes and sizes. This is a good thing and a bad thing all in the same. Some sites work very well, and others cause more problems than anything.
Here are some sites I consider good:
1. ESPN.com (http://espn.go.com/) - The worldwide leader in sports has found a way to be a worldwide leader in websites. The website is up to the minute with any breaking sports news. The layout is very easy to understand and operate. There is a scoreboard feature to keep track of all games going on in all sports. With so many contributors, there are links to stories anywhere you turn. I find that to be effective, since I can just roam around the home page and pick and choose what to read up on.
2. Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com/) - Much like ESPN, Yahoo! works as a tool to find anything you need. Yahoo! has a great deal of subsections to click on in a side menu. I find this really helpful when looking for games or business articles, sports or shopping information. This website can cater to almost any online need. The layout of Yahoo! is fantastic in my opinion.
3. Google (https://www.google.com/) - So simple and yet so versatile. This page has more white space than any website I've ever seen. However, anything you type leads you to thousands of search results. When people say that information is at your fingertips, they are referring to your time spent on Google.
4. Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) - Shunned by professors, I contest that Wikipedia saves more student papers than any site on the Internet. Powered by specialized knowledgeable people I find Wikipedia to be very helpful and extremely informative. Wikipedia used to have a great deal of information on a given page that wasn't cited and often times false. I feel as though this has been cut down severely by the Wikipedia staff. I see fewer and fewer pages that are missing citations or have other issues.
5. IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/) - I am not a movie lover. However, anytime I am looking for information on a movie quote, character, release date, or any other information; I head to IMDB. This site has never let me down and I find it very easy to navigate. You can find movies by year, by actor/actress, upcoming films, reviews, biographies; all things movies are found here.
Here are some sites I consider NOT so good:
1. NFL.com (http://www.nfl.com/) - As a football guy it pains me to do this. I cannot stand the layout of NFL.com. I cannot stand how slow it loads no matter what computer I am on. The fact that there is a massive margin on either side of the website annoys me. This makes the site very long vertically, which makes scrolling a constant task.
2. Packers.com (http://www.packers.com/) - I love my Green Bay Packers, but this website needs fixing. It has the same issue with massive margins that I mentioned with NFL.com. There is also an extreme lack of visuals. The text is small in many areas, often hiding the stories from plain view. I have to squint and hunt for daily Packers news. The smallest font on the page has the title "Spotlight". That is just too much of an oxymoron for my blood.
3. Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/) - I have a hard time with large margins, I've decided. This website also contains these dreaded margins to make the page look bigger than it should be. I am also not a fan of the content that is commonly found on the site, although that's not stylistic.
4. Homestar (http://www.homestarrunner.com/main7.html) - Perhaps the worst website I have ever seen. It is childish and very poorly designed. I think the terrible look is somewhat intentional, as the site is intended to be comedic and simple. If you can stomach it, spend five minutes looking around on this site and you'll soon agree with me.
5. Buffalo State (http://www.buffalostate.edu/) - In my time dealing with this site, I have found nothing short of frustration from it. The site is terribly slow. The emailing system was resuscitated by introducing Gmail, but the system was and is still troublesome. When trying to get where I need to go, I find myself going in circles from link to link. Maybe it's just me but I not a fan of the website for the college that I attend.
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