I’m always interested in how other companies approach website development and what content they place, and where. As a small project, I visited the ASX, and collated the URL’s for the top 50 Australian public companies. I mean, if anyone would get their sites right it’d be those companies with nearly endless resources and money…right?

So here’s some trivia that I learnt…

70% of these sites had a .com.au extension for their primary domain name
20% used Macromedia Flash on their front page
68% had an obvious link to a privacy policy
68% had a sitemap linked from their front page
72% had a search facility, accessible from the front page
12% showed either a phone number or email address for general enquiries on front page
56% of the sites had evidence of at least basic search engine optimisation
64% of sites had commented code for the developers benefit

22 of these 50 websites didn’t list a date next to the copyright footer on their front pages – with good reason too – although 15 other sites got it as 2006, a further 9 websites were stuck in 2005 (that’s like, so 3 months ago!), three even thought it was still 2004 and one of them even showed it as 2002!

On more technical issues, it was also interesting to note that the web servers these sites were running off were:

22% Apache
20% IIS 6.0
16% IIS 5.0
12% IIS (no version detail)
10% Lotus Domino
6% Sun ONE Web Server
The remaining 14% shared IBM HTTPD, Netscape Server, IIS 4.0 and even IIS3.0!

As far as Operating systems, they used:

30% on Windows 2000
22% Windows 2003
18% were using Linux (Red Hat and Debian)
10% on NT4.0
10% Solaris
The remaining 10% were unknown

Whilst looking through the code, I found quite a few references to traffic stats packages, a few developer names thrown in comments, some really weird formatting and a few sites with hundreds of lines of Javascript and CSS, all in the head of their front page.

What have I learnt? If anything, it shows that no matter how big your company or client is, they can still get it wrong.

Photo: Swan Valley Roof & Sky

Port80 are very pleased to announce that our latest event has just opened for ticket sales.

Ideas3 will be held on April 11th (that’s next month, folks!) and features two world class speakers, John Allsopp from Sydney and Mark Boulton from the UK. They’ll be speaking on Web Standards, Typography and more.

This is a not to be missed night of education and networking – for more information and to buy tickets (get in quick!), please visit http://www.port80.asn.au/events/view/ideas3/

For only $20 (members), you get to hear from two amazing speakers, network with peers, enjoy cocktail food and a cash bar, all in the conference facilities at the Melbourne Hotel, Perth.

Your support for this event is appreciated – as a not for profit, Port 80 relies on ticket sales to events such as these to raise much needed money – I hope to see you on the night!

Photo: Stop Sign Vandalism, Stop Sign, Perth.

So, Monday afternoon about 3pm, I left a meeting in Subiaco and zipped on down to Margaret River. Dinner at the Settlers Tavern (Great ‘Joy Burger’ and beer, amusing location!) followed by a night in front of the laptop, and I spent Tuesday meeting with folk down south, before returning home to Perth by 5pm.

Result? 26 hours, 640km, five coffees, four meetings (Margaret River and Busselton), three meals, two beers and a bootload of wine. :)

Photo: Bootload of wine, near Margaret River sign, Bussell Highway, Margaret River.