segunda-feira, março 07, 2005: Diferenças Transatlanticas nos Sites Web ?

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have been playing a game this week. Looking at corporate websites from several feet away, and seeing if I can guess which country they come from. Seven times out of 10 I can - which leads to me to the conclusion that the worldwide web is not that worldwide after all. It reflects the character of a country, just as interior decoration, car style or dress sense do.

Inevitably this is most obvious when looking at the transatlantic gap, and I will start with a sweeping generalisation. Americans put practicality above looks; Europeans put looks above practicality.
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But before you think I am yet another anti-American zealot, let me point out the flip side of all this. I reckon the Americans have stopped paying much attention to the look of their websites because they have come to see them as working tools rather than ornaments. Or to use the interior decoration analogy, as workshops rather than drawing rooms.
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But as I have said, the Europeans are giving much less thought than Americans to what they should actually be doing with their websites. Most of their sites are giant electronic brochures. Brochures have their use - good ones attract customers, investors and recruits - but there come a point when the finance director will want to see a rather harder return on investment.

What should happen is that European sites become more useful, while American sites get better-looking. But I am not sure they will. Even though the web is the only medium that has no recognition of borders, and what is done here can so easily be copied and followed there, I suspect the gap will remain, and perhaps widen. I don’t care if it does. Vive la différence, godammit.
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FT.com - David Bowen: The online transatlantic gap

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