Citation
(2009), "What's on the web", Strategic Direction, Vol. 25 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/sd.2009.05625eag.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
What's on the web
Article Type: What's on the web From: Strategic Direction, Volume 25, Issue 5
Watch this
This business site is published by Dow Jones & Company, tracks the “pulse of markets” for investors and claims a hit rate of more than 16 million visitors per month.
Whilst complex (in terms of the depth of information provided) it is easy to navigate and robustly designed. The site offers business news, personal finance information, real-time commentary and investment tools and data, more than 1,400 headlines, stories and market briefs a day from 10 bureaus in the USA, London and Hong Kong. In addition, MarketWatch offers subscription products for individual investors.
It tells it like it is without hype or sensationalism. A must for anyone who invests or is thinking of doing so.
All the news…
This is an online source for the analysis of world business and current affairs, providing insight and opinion on international news, world politics, business, finance, science and technology, as well as overviews of cultural trends and regular industry, business and country special reports.
The site is very well designed (as you might expect from one that is the child of a print publication) and is particularly good at linking the world of business with that of politics.
Economist.com publishes all articles from The Economist print edition (including those printed only in British copies) plus a searchable archive of all The Economist’s articles back to June 1997. Links to other articles and to relevant sources on the web are included with many of the stories.
This is a massive resource, try it out sometime soon.
Good for business
This is a very good American small business site concentrating on strategy in a number of areas.
There is lots of free material, news and tools. A free e-book offers to let you discover the ten things you need to know to make any business site compliant with new laws and regulations. There are links to at least a dozen other interesting-looking small business sites so they are not in any way insular or exclusive.
Loading of any information or links is very fast – according to the stats 93 per cent of sites are slower. If you are in the small business world in the USA then this site is a must. Those located elsewhere will still find a lot of useful material.
Brogan’s run
How can businesses access information on and understand how to use social media tools like blogging, social networks, community platforms, and more to build business value for marketers, sales organizations, and internal collaboration in general.
Well, they could start by taking a look at the site run by Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency, as well as the home of the New Marketing Summit conferences and New Marketing Bootcamp educational events.
This is a nice fast, clear site with plenty of humour. The links are informative and good and the advertising, such as it is, is unobtrusive. There are some gems to be found – you will not agree with all of the comments but it is worth a look.
All you need
An offshoot of CIO magazine, CIO’s website provides technology and business leaders with insight and analysis on information technology trends and an understanding of IT’s role in achieving business goals. The magazine and website have received more than 160 awards apparently and it is a good site though mainly aimed at the “teccie” end of the market, information officers, IT professional and the like. It is relatively jargon-free however and well worth senior executives’ in other fields attention – if only to understand a bit more about the mysterious IT world.
Information and, just as importantly, informed opinion, on software and hardware, mobiles and smart-phones, search engines and ISPs – it is all here. There are white papers, blogs and a comprehensive news section. Good stuff.
And finally
According to www.buzzfeed.com/buzz, user generated content is all the rage but “most of it totally sucks”. That is why sites like YouTube, MySpace, CNN, and HuffPost are all embracing the mullet strategy. They let users party, argue, and vent on the secondary pages, but professional editors keep the front page looking sharp. The mullet strategy is here to stay because the best way for web companies to grow traffic is to let the users have control, but the best way to sell advertising is a slick, pretty front page where corporate sponsors can wistfully admire their brands.
Best of all
For a particularly interesting and useful site you could always try the Emerald one!
If you have any favourite (or otherwise) sites that you would like us to review on these pages, or wish us to consider your own site, please drop us an e-mail and we will ask our reviewers to check them out.