Portals, Potholes, Black Holes, And Quality Web Sites
By Bob Kaehms
Simple Web metrics expose and quantify certain aspects of users, sites, and traffic while traditional investigative reporting answers the W5 questions -- the who, what, when, where, and why of any good story. While preparing for this month's editorial I did some investigative reporting at the Spring Internet World conference in Los Angeles.
I asked everyone I met there to define -- in terms of the Web -- a portal, a pothole, and a black hole, and to give at least one example of each. This was cause for laughter and deep insight. Everyone agreed that a portal got you somewhere else fast, and a pothole was a broken Web site that left you weary after running across it. Most said that their Web site was a portal, and their competition's site a pothole.
A black hole in Web terms had two meanings. Most thought that it was a site that put too much of a drain on resources, either in terms of budget or support. One individual described it somewhat differently. To him a Web black hole is a sticky site that keeps you there, no matter how hard you try to escape. "You know, those porn sites that keep opening new browser windows until you finally reboot," he explained.
If clicks were all that mattered, Web developers could learn a lot from porn sites. Luckily, there's still some integrity left to the Web.
Statistics should be simple and to the point. There are many Web-rating sites and tools, but my favorite is still Alexa's toolbar.
