The interwebs: friend or foe

by Garry Clark

Information is what i feed on. Im a master of useless knowledge, I know all sorts of crap that astounds my friends and colleagues, from amazingly diverse subjects too. And most of it comes from the net. I spend quite a few hours a day (mostly at home i hasten to add (in the case the boss is reading this!)) trawling the internet, reading articles on my newsfeeds, chasing down product info on wines and vintages, getting opinions on certain wines, producers and vineyards and sometimes sourcing new products. I have a fairly extensive collection of wine reference books and a backlog of about three years worth of wine magazines from across the world, but I still turn to the net for information.

But i find myself increasingly frustrated by the crappy web design and contempt that is shown to the general public by the big companies. Websites that are inaccessable, poorly designed, loaded with over the top garbage that bloats the browser and takes forever to load. To coin a web term - SRSLY WTF!!! Can anyone tell me why i need to be 18 or 21 to access a website about alcohol? Can it get me drunk just by looking at it? Dont get me wrong, Im all for encouraging responsable drinking and changing our attitude towards alcohol, but that is only going to happen through education, and locking the information up behind a stupid age barrier (and seriously, who is going to admit they are underage online anyway!!) isnt the answer.

So what am i looking for in a website? Well its quite simple really. I want to be able to access the information quickly, without having to wait 10 minutes for the flash to load. I want to find the information that i want quickly - winemaker, vintage details, winemaking information, tasting notes, winemaker notes, geography information on the vineyard and so on. If i can download those in handy pdf files then better. The best example of this is the ridge vineyards website, where you can access product information files in pdf of each of the wines, including a label, vineyard notes and some background info from Dr Paul Draper about the wine. If its a bit fun or quirky I dont mind, but put a trade access page where i can get this information out promptly.

Im going to start a campaign to name and shame bad websites, the wine equivalent of the Razzies - perhaps i could call it the corkies - and just perhaps we can get them to tidy up their websites and make them more accessable and useful. Knowledge is power and all that. Besides the less time i have to navigate through crappy websites looking for the information that i need, the more time i will have for lolcats!! 

; )