Good and Bad Web Services - Need Examples

July 15, 2008 11:35 AM

I need some examples on Best Web Service, Worst Web Service and Why. I can think of a couple good ones, but I need a few more. I'm at a lost for worst web service.

Example of a good website:

Site: Newegg.com
Status: Good
Why: Easy to navigate, advance search allows you to narrow your product decision, customer rating and review, short checkout procedures.

Appreciate it!!

posted by bleucube to computers & internet (14 comments total)

Facebook is the worst (widely used) website I know of.
Why: poorly designed, difficult to use, constant errors esp. with 3rd party applications. The app to add more than one photo to my profile has crashed every single time I've tried to use it. Makes myspace look good by comparison.
posted by drjimmy11 at 12:06 PM on July 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

What do you mean by "web service," all commercial websites?
posted by rhizome at 12:07 PM on July 15, 2008

Twitter also takes a lot of beating for downtime, but at least when it's up it does what it's supposed to.
posted by drjimmy11 at 12:07 PM on July 15, 2008

oh maybe you meant "customer service?" Oops.
posted by drjimmy11 at 12:08 PM on July 15, 2008

You would need an account to see how dreadful the control panel is but 123-reg.co.uk takes some beating in the "absolute worst" category.
posted by ceri richard at 12:09 PM on July 15, 2008

Uncov was a blog about terrible web services.
posted by disillusioned at 12:16 PM on July 15, 2008

>Facebook is the worst (widely used) website I know of. [...] Makes myspace look good by comparison.

Funny, I was going to switch your two examples. Crappy third-party apps aren't really Facebook's fault.

Site: Facebook
Status: Good
Why: Consistent look and feel between pages; minimal downtime, especially considering the number of users; well-moderated

Site: Myspace
Status: Bad
Why: Broken and/or browser-dependent features; inconsistent look and feel (for both company- and user-created content); administrators slow to remove e.g., spam accounts
posted by xbonesgt at 12:25 PM on July 15, 2008 [3 favorites]

Alot of domain registrars are really lousy. Godaddy comes to mind. I think their interface could be alot easier to use.
posted by meta87 at 12:28 PM on July 15, 2008

LukeW's Functioning Form blog had a brief article about MySpace's crappy registration form last month. I find any notification email sent by MySpace to be totally useless at getting me to the content it's supposed to be notifying me about.
posted by junkbox at 12:33 PM on July 15, 2008

Allow me to point out two of the worst commercial sites ever: Reunion.com, which forces you to pay to view other people's complete profiles after you register (note, not to communicate, just to LOOK); when you register, it tells you it's going to import your contacts from (insert mail service provider here) and instead it spams everyone in all of your address books repeatedly with invitations that are supposedly from you when they definitely are not. It also auto-renews without telling you (your credit card will get billed indefinitely) and will never issue a refund if you complain and don't want to use the full amount of time you paid for or are trying to delete your account.

True.com, which is a paid online dating web site, claims to run background checks on every person who registers (myself and some friends tested this by registering a person who was in prison in California for raping and killing little girls, and is on death row, and he was accepted. Nice, huh?). Also, once you're registered, even if you NEVER post a profile or photo, you will get "winks" and "introduction requests" from "girls in your area" stating they are intrigued by how much your profiles match up and what you look like. They're obviously fake emails to force people into using the site. Also, their ads are sleazy and misleading.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 12:43 PM on July 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

Thanks everyone so far! I need a three more good ones and two more bad.

@Unicorn on the cob - Wow
posted by bleucube at 2:36 PM on July 15, 2008

not a consumer app, but salesforce crm rocks.

declaration: I work for salesforce.com. however, 94% of our surveyed users agree.
posted by superfurry at 3:04 PM on July 15, 2008

Bad: GoDaddy
Good: Dreamhost
posted by blue_beetle at 3:29 PM on July 15, 2008

Good: Flickr
Why: Does what it is supposed to (facilitates sharing). Good feature set. Easy to use. Consistent, minimalist design. Almost always up.

Good: Facebook
Why: Clean interface. Not a spam magnate. Nice feature set. Good uptime.

Bad: Classmates.com
Why: Expensive and ugly. Will be rendered completely irrelevant by Facebook any day now.

Bad: Any web host running CPanel. It just sucks. Trust me.
posted by wheat at 6:49 PM on July 15, 2008