Useful places for researching websites

I have received a number of emails about the choice of website to analyse as part of the assessment for Internet Marketing. Sometimes the fact that I am not constraining you in any way appears to make the assessment harder when in fact it is really an opportunity to research something from a practical business sense as well as the standard academic perspective. HAVE SOME FUN!

The following sites may assist your analysis.

1. http://www.Alexa.com also try http://trends.google.com and http://www.netcraft.co.uk

A great place to find out about the popularity of certain sites. Ever wondered which sites a re visited the most or who visits, how fast a site is to load etc then this may help. Be aware that it probably won’t load using Internet Explorer due to the university policy although it usually works fine with Firefox.

2. http://browsershots.org/

Ever wondered what a website looks like in different browsers. Probably not as long as it works with your however now you have to think about this. This site will take a screen shot for you from different browser perspectives without you having to install them.

3. http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

There are so many browsers now, how do you know which ones are the most popular. Would you really try and write a site that works perfectly with all. Use the above to see which ones are the most popular, as well as the size of monitor and the operating system.

4. Screengrab

As part of any assessment into a website it is not unreasonable to expect to see some piccies of the site concerned (it is amazing how often people forget to show me the site in question). Some people with windows may be familiar with the “print screen” button the keyboard or “Grab” for the mac but what if the site scroll down the page. This is where screen grab comes in and allows you so save the whole lot (even the bit you can initially see) as a single jpg. It is an add on for firefox so no need to move to a different application or retype the web address.

5. Webby Awards

What is good and what is a bad site. There are lots of books and opinion. Have a look at the Webby awards to see what others think of marketing on the web.

6. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.port.ac.uk

How has your chosen website changed or adapted compared to competitors and the external environment. This site has loads of historical information, the link above is for portsmouth, but easy for you change to your own site choice.

7. http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/adtoolkit/learningcentre/ and http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/adtoolkit/resources/successstories/

A great source of material relating to companies and the integration of Google technologies.