City
MyCityToronto a Joke?
Is it April Fool's Day? If not, how else to explain what I just clicked over to at MyCityToronto.com? Either these people know something about web site design that the rest of the world doesn't or....
To be honest, I'm not sure where to begin with this. Whoever is behind it they definitely have some money to play with as I recently noticed a billboard ad next to the Gardiner and Jerrold mentioned he thought he heard some advertising on 680 News.
I could probably write a screenplay on the creation of this thing, but for now I'll just highlight some of the more interesting aspects.
1. Gotta love the slogan - Toronto's Favourite Default Home Page. That has a Webby Award for copywriting (if there was one) written all over it.
2. The logo - What did they do? Hire the team behind Toronto Unlimited?
3. The advertising claims - They claim 1 million visitors per month. Well, that's a really nice, convenient round number. Too bad Alexa tells a different story.
4. Video slide show - Do I even need to write anything about this?
Oh. I could go on....The icons, the totally useless pages, the link to CNN as a local news source....
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It's derogatory, offensive, and if published in any other medium would have been censored. I hope Beyond Robson doesn't support these types of racist stances.
@Kelly - you're right. That needs to be updated! Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
definitely a "what not to do" case study in any web design class.
hey people, stop letting your little nephew design your site!
But on the positive side, it's got this, oh I don't know, sort of retro late '90s look to it, dontcha thing?
<a href="http://mycitytoronto.com/media/adv_Rates2.html";>http://mycitytoronto.com/media/adv_Rates2.html<;/a>
I forsee these guys getting hit with a lot of angry complaints regarding their apparent "S.M.A.R.T. Touch Screen Business Directory. I mean, I tapped my screen for 20 minutes, and the only thing I got was a sore finger...
Oh, and anyone who hasn't read the "Info" page yet should do so. Apparently, the site authors decided that linking together a bunch of marketing terms in a meaningless jumble was the way to go here.
"With each of the 200 MyCity sites fully populated with its limit of only 16 featured businesses in each of its 384 business categories, revenues can reach over $11,000,000.00 per City and the potential of the company bearing a value in the Billion dollar figure within the next 5 years is not an impossibility."
"With the low cost of advertising and high online traffic levels, the first City (Toronto) is expected to be sold out by the end of the year.
Businesses wishing to take advantage of advertising should consider acting quickly as placements are limited and sold on a first come first serve basis!"
"Each MyCity website employs Search Method Accelerated Response Time, also known as "S.M.A.R.T"; an interface enabling online users to navigate the MyCity website by simply pointing and clicking their mouse. There is little or no input from a keyboard required to find information on the MyCity websites."
And later in that paragraph...
"This point and click interface provides an entertaining interactive experience allowing the user to access the required information in a manner similar to playing video game."
The link you provide does not work. It leads to a
"404". Can you fix, perhaps?
"A spectacular technological design merged with a sophisticated logic for Category Search Engine Optimization to over 380 business categories, this allows MyCityToronto.Com to be an effective "Organic Traffic Driven" local community business directory. This new internet medium is revolutionary due to its simplicity of use and innovative design."
Just... wow.
http://www.mycitytoronto.com/media/signs.html
The news release is here:
http://www.mycitydesigns.com/media/News.html
(There was a colon attached before, hence the 404)
I think this guy would have had a better ROI putting his money into the Lehmann Brothers or Merrill Lynch.
i just spent an hour clicking through mycitytoronto.com and i was actually very impressed, i think its about time someone came up with something like this. i love it and it has my vote. my new default home page it is!
My honest opinion. i like it
1) "<i>With over 1,000,000.00 <b>visitors</b> per month...<i>" has been changed to hits (which I suspect is also incorrect by a lot).
2) The "news release" has been removed.
On another note, it would be far less obvious that the recent endorsing comments above were "manufactured" if all four weren't all dropped within a few minutes of another, from common IPs. Lame!
<p>Looks like they're also trying to get into the social networking game as well: http://mycitytoronto.com/media/Social.htm
<a href="http://www.torontounlimited.ca/images/logo.gif";>Toronto Unlimited Logo</a>
Looks like someone was inspired by the "Million Dollar Home Page" and is trying to cash in on (mostly) small business owners lack of discretion when it comes to online advertising.
Can you post said IP so we can all DoS it and keep this crap clear of the net? hah.
*Graphics can be changed but a bad reputation cant!
Lay off! this blog is discusting and intentional!
If you really want to know its not MyCity thats proving to be the Joke! The jealousy is not necessary and becoming very very obvious!
Wake up people!!!!!!!!!! this blog is fixed!
"it looks to me like a half descent site, but with respect to manufacturing posts, i think they are doing it and so is blogTO. after reviewing i came to the realization, that your both direct competitors, but they got money to advertise and you don't. and i don't know that as a fact, but that's what it seems like. and if we are going to talk about ip addresses, why don't you post everybody's"
http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/wrg/850205934.html