[Side-note: visiting their site without "www", ie. their name, takes you to a blank page with a lame "We have moved Click Here To Visit Us" message. How difficult is it to update a domain record? Or automatically redirect? It's not...]

I'm not familiar with Evolver much (first impression: a try-hard band, and I'm so over Vernon Koekemoer. Nevermind their sell-out to corporate shows. Ok, so I'm feeling cynical...), but I have been frequenting a couple of local online shopping stores (and comparison sites) looking for a good deal on a new compact digicam (I'm 90% decided on the Panasonic Lumix TZ5) so I clicked through their site until I found the relevant product page. (Sorry for all the parentheses.)

I scrolled down to their Customer Reviews, to find 5 reviews posted in the last 4 days - impressive for a local e-commerce site. After reading one or two and seeing the customer names, I became a little suspicious. So I copied some text from one of the reviews and pasted it into a Google Search, to reveal the original source: Amazon.com.

Nowhere on WantItAll's website do they say that these reviews aren't by their own customers - in fact, they state the opposite - "What Our Other Customers Had To Say...". It wouldn't bother me that much if they had the decency to cite the source of the reviews, and not falsely claim them as their own.

Now I'm guessing that Amazon provide these reviews to their partners, or maybe sell them, I don't know. I don't think WantItAll is an Amazon reseller. On WantItAll's Help page (no About page - why?), they briefly explain their business model:

We facilitate the process of purchasing items off the internet on behalf of customers and then shipping the requested items to the customer.

www.wantitall.co.za consolidates orders within the USA in order to reduce shipping costs to South Africa, and a shipment is sent to South Africa on a weekly Basis.

You can read more about them at this MoneyWeb blog post - You want it all?, by Ronnie Apteker (director and co-founder of Internet Solutions). But be sure to check out the juicy comments too.

You can also watch this video which concerns WantItAll's view on the Amazon/SAPO saga that played out a while ago (hopefully their constant and restless rocking back and forth won't annoy you as much as it did me). I'm still not really sure what the outcome of that SAPO incident was, especially since WantItAll were the ones making all the noise about it in the first place. See Muti user ApOc's submission history - specifically post #4, "Amazon.com not shipping to SA?". This post no longer exists on the WantItAll blog.

I also find it very interesting that ApOc's first post to Muti, "Finally South Africans Can Really Shop Online!", is full of user comments that sound totally contrived. Very similar to the comments on the Evolver post.

And then there is The Times' Amazon halts SA Post Office deliveries which reads like a WantItAll PR campaign.

I had no prior opinion of WantItAll. I love what they're doing and I believe they have a solid concept. Maybe I'm wrong, but for now the above trail of discovery around their practice has left a bad taste in my mouth.

And after all of that, I can get the camera from Have2Have for almost a grand cheaper anyway!

In the spirit of Youth Month, 5FM yesterday launched Youngblood 5, an interactive portal allegedly similar to the FaceBook and MySpace online concepts.

More via 5FM.co.za:

Whether listeners prefer to start a blog, podcast their issue or simply just entering the website's forum via e-mail, it's up to each one to decide how they want their thoughts to be headlined.

Going back to last year, I had the following praise for 5FM's online initiatives, during the controversial Ster-Kinekor episode:

Along with their Opinion Polls and 5 Stars features, Podcasts, 5fm Dating, 5fm Chat, they're continously experimenting with new features to build an online community around their brand. They've moved on from the days of pushing wallpaper/ringtone/screen saver downloads, to building real, interactive, engaging applications that attract new users on a daily basis, and keep them coming back.

Today, I feel they've lost the plot.

What constitutes an online social network is debatable. To me Youngblood 5 is more a message board than anything, and the most basic kind. I love the concept and believe it has potential, and the design does have some redeeming qualities, but the overall execution is just horrible.

The interface switches between Flash and HTML, and only after you enter the HTML section ("View all the causes" button) do you realise that you can register and login. Once you've registered, all you can do is start a cause or comment on other member's causes. You can't view other member's profiles or interact with them on a one-to-one basis, so essentially, all you're doing is either shouting into a void or adding further noise to someone else's shouting.

This is hardly an environment promoting action.

The rest of the Flash section, when it works, is quite arbitrary. The poster/wallpaper downloads are all broken links, and your membership profile doesn't carry across from the HTML section so whenever you want to share an item with a friend, you're forced to supply your personal details all over again. Furthermore, there's no membership integration between this site and the 5fm.co.za portal. You have to register separately on both - so their claims about starting a blog and podcast are misleading because you can't do either of those on Youngblood 5.

5FM should already have damage control on their agenda. A quick search on Facebook reveals the following protest groups: I HATE 5FM!, Bring the rock back to 5fm! and Who cares Elana Afrika! You're ruining 5FM!. And not forgetting to mention that when 5FM comes up in conversation, there's always someone with something negative to say.

If that's not bad enough, I clicked through to their website and found the following posted as a news item on their home page:

Download any MP3 from MySpace
Date Posted: 08/06/2007 05:52:00

MySpaceMP3

Hmmm, 5FM promoting the illegal downloading of copyrighted material and in so doing abusing the artists they claim to support. Now this is news.

Interesting to see that they've used the logo that I reproduced (in my original post below) throughout their document, although when they specifically mention the Official Emblem (Section 2), then they use the Wikipedia/widely distributed version. Weird.

Here's a large version of the logo that I pulled off the PDF, with the nice gradients and drop shadows.

--

When I see the 2010 FIFA World Cup logo online, which is fairly regularly, I'm curious why it's always the version that can be found on Wikipedia, which is unfortunately also the version on which the multitude of criticisms were based when the logo was unveiled last year. Wikipedia list the image with FIFA.com as the source, which I'd be willing to dispute, but you never know.

Is this poor brand management on FIFA's part?

They'd want to protect the identity of the World Cup, obviously - but given the persistent use of this version, and the unofficial vector file in the wild (which if I'm not mistaken, is mostly incorrect), are they not doing more harm by not providing a replacement or making the official version available? Hackers Hawkers will always find a way, so that can't be stopping them?

Take a look at this logo that FIFA are using on their website - notice the colours, gradients in particular, bevel on the outer green swish, etc. For comparative purposes, I roughly attempted to reproduce it using the vector EPS as a base: here's the result. Huge difference.

Switch Design could provide some insight (hey! you guys reading this?). After browsing through their impressive portfolio, I discovered they're also responsible for designing the familiar CI's of Ceres, Clover, Juicy Lucy, SAB, SABC and Steers, to name a few.

Here's another discovery I made, to further put things into perspective. The two logos on the right contained FIFA copyrights dated 2006 and 2002.

Interesting, né.

In January this year they were awarded Best E-Commerce Store in South Africa's first E-Commerce Awards, and also won in the categories "Best Online Bookstore", "Best Home and Garden Store", "Best Movie Store" and "Best Music Store".

I'm hoping their site design (see screenshot) and IA had nothing to do with this achievement - sheesh, what a mess! And it only gets worse as you navigate deeper. As always some (hopefully constructive) thoughts come to mind, which I've decided to list:

• Every single item on the page is competing for the eye's attention with complete disregard for any level of visual hierarchy. It's chaotic, unorganized, and difficult to look at. As a result, navigating around the site takes longer than it should.
• There's no logical grouping of related items within the layout. I count 6 different specials, in 4 different places. User-related actions at the top of the right-hand column are detached from those in the top right of the header, which are grouped with general site links which further adds to the fragmentation and confusion.
• Redundancy! Why 2 "Sign in" links and 2 "Create a Profile" links, just 30 pixels apart?
• Consistency! (my favourite word). I don't want to even begin to count the number of typefaces, their variations and colours that are clashing with each other. Some box headings are bulleted with an arrow, some aren't. Rounded corners, square corners; round buttons, square buttons, beveled buttons; gradients, stripes, dotted lines - pick a style and stick with it!
• Nearly half of the left-hand column is consumed by "Delivery" details. Sure, it's good to know, but not that important when I've just walked through your door and haven't found anything to buy yet? The same can be said for "Payment Options" and "Our Guarantee".
• The page footer, consisting primarily of 3 link lists (one of which is mostly useless until you're logged in), consumes one quarter of the page height. Mad.

Some humour from their FAQ, question 3:

How do I find my way around Kalahari.net?

Wait, that's not the joke. Here's their answer:

The site works like a shop with departments. Your first step is to take the lift to your desired department. So, click on BOOKS, MUSIC, VIDEOS/DVD's etc. and it will take you to the department where you want to buy or browse. Each department has its own products.

Or discover the site dynamically by clicking when your SCREEN MARKER changes into a HAND on links. Simply move your marker/arrow randomly across the screen.

"Screen Marker". How quaint.

"Simply move your marker/arrow randomly across the screen". And voila! The items of your dreams will magically appear in your basket.

Online shopping is an adventure of discovery with Kalahari.net. If you're not convinced, look at their logo. Look deeepp into their loooggooo... your muscless are feeeling relaxedd, your eyes are becoming heavyy...

Laugh at the marketing spew. Laugh at the priceless before and after comparison! Gasp for a breath of air, and then laugh some more at the rest of the marketing spew. Honestly, every time I read about Ananzi's efforts I have to wonder why they even bother.

a fresher, less cluttered and more cutting-edge homepage

How is replacing bright yellows with grays (sic) and whites "fresher"? And I want to vomit when I see the superficial phrase "cutting-edge", whether it's use is deserved or not - and if it were, you shouldn't be the judge to make that call. Using it to describe your design implies you had no clear objectives or goals in mind, if "cutting-edge" is the most appropriate way you can conceive to describe the result.

The new Ananzi homepage, with the striking logo which stands out more so than before, consists of a myriad of value-added features including a sophisticated search bar, a condensed navigation bar and personalised info options.

Do you mean the logo (it's not particularly striking) stands out above the 5 flashing banner ads surrounding it (make that six, including the inline popup and excluding the pop-under window), or from the new gray and white colour scheme?

A sophisticated search bar? Maybe if it used AJAX technology to update dynamically, it would be sophisticated. Maybe if it didn't reload a new page in an iframe each time you choose a section, while forcing vertical and horizontal scrollbars at random, it would be sophisticated.

The backend running this site must be frightfully ugly. Notice how the "News" item in the "sophisticated" search bar occasionally falls out of vertical alignment with the rest of the items as you click through them. I'm guessing that list of items is unique to each page.. what a maintenance nightmare!

But fear not, for I have the answer that will solve all of these issues. Ananzi's new URL as of now is http://ananzi.co.za/searchbar/. Aaah, so fresh and clean and clutter-free. Sharp lines. Love the white space.

UPDATE [17/02]: Nice one guys, I should have guessed!

Read more about the redesign on Jeffrey Zeldman's blog post, and continue through the comments. There are quite a lot but that number I assume includes the trackback stuff. Here's one I read with interest:

This is a trainwreck. What's with all the recent web design accolades for sites following the unspoken WordPress/MT/etc. visual "stylebook"? I'm all for standards-based design, but this is aesthetically painful. I know this circle of congratulation is easy to perpetuate, but can someone please think about the visual aspect of web design instead of slapping a country typographer's theme on a well thought out site blueprint and then blogging their brains out about the result? I hate to be so harsh, but dear god... it pains me to see such back patting over something that looks so bad.

Zeldman's response?

Peel me another grape.

Excluding A List Apart, I've never been a big fan of their style (note not design) and this redesign is no exception. It doesn't engage or entice me enough to click past the home page. I don't like the italicized headers which fade into the background too much, disserving their purpose on the page. And then something about the press testimonial holding so much weight - maybe it would be more relevant if "Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann" (the particular one that loaded at random) rang a bell? Or maybe it's just that my past experiences with those kinds of testimonials begin with an e-mail to clients:

Hi, we're redesigning our site, please write something nice about us for our home page?

But overall it's clean and conservative and I can't fault that.

News24.com, along with other Media24 brands (Finance24.com for example), went down yesterday evening citing "technical difficulties". As I write this, it's now over 24 hours later and nothing has changed. In that amount of time, in response to this intensifying disaster, this broken page is the best response they could manage. Aside from the fact that the page is borrowed from a template for a "Newsletter subscribtion (sic) confirmation" (see the page title), the irony of the message they're sending to their 50,000 daily visitors, is that it's now old news. Over 24 hours old.

I just visited Eskom's site who, after this morning's nationwide power cuts, are redirecting their home page traffic to this Load Shedding page which contains links to regional information and their latest press release. A timely and competent response to what could potentially have resulted in innumerous support e-mails and phone calls from irate customers - although this most likely happened regardless but to a lesser degree. I get the impression they (well, their web team at least) are learning from their mistakes which for me is one of the biggest reassurances.

I realise the two can't be compared, but you get my point. News24.com should be doing more. Maybe their hands are tied, I don't know. We'll have to wait for the insider info to surface or headlines to appear once they manage to restore their site to normal operating levels.

Biggest website in South Africa falls over, technicians spend a day in vain trying to restore

I doubt they're that courageous.

Dont miss this opportunity to learn from the cream of the South African online industry.

Are you kidding me? No offence to those involved, but I didn't know Frontpage was still used to design web pages. What's the deal with that gigantic yellow button all over the place, that just reloads the page with an added anchor? And could they not source better photos of the speakers? Poor Joanne Scholtz, she looks like she was resized from a 10x10 px thumbnail. The sponsor logos aren't any better either. I also love how the only linked logo is TrafficSynergy's.

That aside, there are some experienced faces in the "Eminent Panel", so if you don't mind parting with R8310.60 (what a random figure) then go ahead and register. Just don't mistake that Reset button for Submit, I also didn't know those were still around these days. For that price, they couldn't afford to hire the services of a designer and actually give the impression that they at least know a thing about what their whole summit is about? I can't justify that price even before accounting a flight and accommodation. Bring on Bar Camp '07 and Tech4frica!

UPDATE [18/01]: For the record, this is what a conference website should look like: Future of Web Design 07 (London, UK). It makes magenta look like the new pink. Almost.

Check out the TrafficSynergy blog while you're at it. Look at the previous posts. Mmm - blog spam - just what the doctor ordered.

Anyway, I'd sooner party with R8310.60. So my resolution to attend more gigs has gotten off to a good start, I got into my car this afternoon to fetch tickets for The Parlotones tomorrow and found 7 stray shot glasses lying on my passenger seat. Nice, I think I need another resolution. Caught The Sleepers last night, they played with Velve (who lost the audience a bit, and didn't market themselves so I don't have a link). It was nice to see The Parlotones boys at the gig too. The Sleepers, via their MusoSpace page, sound like:

The wind blowing through your medial longitudinal fissure.

Sweet. Pick up a free glossy Playground guide next time you're out in Cape Town - "the pocket dynamo of the music & dance scene" - they're great!

Via Mango: Ananzi searches more than just fruit:

Online marketing company Acceleration have partnered with the airline to flight online interactive advertisements on Ananzi.co.za. Since the launch of the online campaign, the keyword "mango" and derivatives thereof yielded 1,942 searches in total last month. The keyword "mango" produced 692 searches and "mango airlines" produced 486 searches within the month of November alone.

I don't know about you, but when I search for "mango" on Ananzi, the airline don't appear on the first page of 10 results. Or the second page. Or the third page. Or the fourth page... and I get the same poor result when I search for "mango airlines".

Keyword searches for "mango" and the like have skyrocketed since the beginning on November, making www.flymango.co.za one of the most sought after websites in South Africa. [...] The keyword "mango" averages 65 searches per day by Ananzi.co.za users, and this is expected to increase as visitors search for cost-effective flights to their holiday destinations.

Unfortunately for Ananzi, those visitors will very quickly turn to a different search engine. As if searching on Ananzi wasn't difficult enough to begin with!

UPDATE: Mango's vrot eMarketing at GottaQuirk.

South Africa's largest Internet portal, 24.com, today announced the arrival of TwoFour, a robotic walking, talking and somewhat cheeky search engine. The innovative attention-seeking device will be catapulted in celebritydom as the central character in a marketing campaign urging local consumers to make 24.com their homepage.

TwoFour makes his debut today in television adverts on the MNET and DSTV channels and on national radio stations, 5FM as well as Metro FM. The new face of 24.com will also make appearances on select outdoor advertising as well as promotions inside Vida e Caffe outlets, nationwide.

The press release continues:

The idea was for TwoFour to bring a certain "cool" factor to search engines, ensuring widespread appeal to the local online market.

Darren over at GottaQuirk has this to say in his post, When did corny become the new cool?

We've had SABC's "Dub", Amore Vitone, the Vodacom rodent and now this. Maize is our staple food source and corn the staple of our entertainment diet.

And Rich of Jo'blog asks Are you a hot web freak-a-zoid?

Personally I think that Ogilvy Cape Town have successfully created a mangled, bastardized rip of Short Circuit's Johnny-Five. Check it out on Flickr or view this blog's picture attachment. Ok, so they changed the treads colour and stuck on a weird mic and satellite dish thing, whoopee.

Bah bah baah baah ba wheeeeeee-eeeee-eeeee!