What is it that makes a site good or bad? The answers are sure to differ. However, tardy navigation, old design and features, and intrusive ads are sure spoilers for Netizens worldwide on a website.
Time.com has come out with a listing of what it calls 5 Worst Websites. According to it, these are the sites users may want to think twice before logging in to.
Over to 5 Worst Websites.
1. eHarmony.com
Topping the Time's Worst Websites list is eHarmony.com. The site claims to be the `#1 trusted online dating site for singles'. However, Time.com seems to differ. According to it, after making users answer some 436 compatibility survey questions and taking its premium charges ($21 to $60 a month), the site many a times delivers terrible recommendations -- or worse, even rejects users as unmatchable.
Also, eHarmony.com's advice to users to continue with it for several months to improve their odds of finding a soul mate too looks self-serving, considering that the longer a user stays with the site, the more he pays.
2. Evite.com
Next on list is Evite.com, a popular online invitation and social planning website. Time.com writes that the site is crying for an overhaul. In today's time when UGC (user-generated content) rules the roost, Evite's fill-in-the-blanks approach appears clumsy and dated. The ads on the site too are said to be intrusive, and navigation a drag.
The site has also been rather slow in adopting some of the media-sharing tools that have become almost a standard way of the Web. Incidentally, many of these features are said to be in development.
3. Meez.com
The virtual hangout Meez.com too makes it to the Worst Websites list. It may be a trend to tack poems, photos, icons, logos etc onto e-mail messages, however, the 3D animations and other digital doodads created with the help of Meez and other sites of its ilk - Blingee, Iconator - are just plain annoying, writes Time.
Plus, these also end up clogging the recipient's inbox with unnecessary bits. Though the Meez.com insists that the app is not a spyware or an adware, however, it still slows down one's computer.
5. MySpace.com
This name will surely surprise most Netizens. For, MySpace is not only one of the most popular social networking sites, but also happened to be the no. 1 social networking site till sometime back.
However, lately the MySpace community seems to have become infested with marketers and other opportunists who create false profiles and spam other users, all under the guise of “making friends.”
According to Time.com, though MySpace has always been known to carry loads of profiles of fictional characters, created to help market a movie or promote some brand, the recent `bait-and-switch tactics' have turned the things a bit sad.
6. SecondLife.com
Another hugely popular site on the list is a virtual world Second Life. The site has not only people logging in, but also has companies such as IBM, Cisco and our very own Wipro among its members.
However, according to Time.com, SecondLife.com is notoriously slow to load and difficult to navigate, even with a broadband connection. Users interact in the space through an avatar, but creating and personalizing of this animated representations of oneself is tedious. Most sites offer a learning curve for new users, but there is no such consideration on Second Life.
Also, "there are crazy people around every corner - disruptive types who spread graffiti and get in your way and throw you off your groove," writes Time.
