Thursday, October 23, 1997

Businesses remaking their Web sites to make them more useful

By GLENN GAMBOA / Knight-Ridder Newspapers

Surfing the Internet is passe.

Time is too valuable to waste.

When corporate Internet sites were still a novelty, bouncing around looking at them meant something.

If a company was on the Internet in, for example, 1995, it said something about the hipness of the firm and the audience it was targeting. But these days, now that nearly any company of size has a cyberspace presence, just being on the Internet is not enough.

These days going to many corporate World Wide Web sites is about as exciting as reading the phone book. The Internet does not need more blatant, self-serving ads. It needs more useful information.

It seems simple enough. But you'd be surprised at how many wonderful companies don't understand that. There are so many bad corporate sites that when you find a good one, it shocks you.

Two good examples are from Akron, Ohio, companies that both recently relaunched and renovated their sites.

Goodyear is an obvious one. And the re-launch of its site (http://www.goodyear.com) earlier this month made a good site even better.

Sure, there's advertising for new products, such as the soon-to-be- released EMT run-flat tires. But there are also loads of information about tire care, the company and, of course, the blimps. Goodyear has also grouped a lot of different information into "user guides," designed for students or researchers to get what they need quickly.

"This redesign of Goodyear.com makes use of new, state- of-the-art Web architecture and takes us to the next level," said Rob Elder, the company's Web site manager. "We invented features ... that have been copied by other tire-related sites."

Goodyear features like the tire selector and dealer locator have essentially become standard issue on tire company sites.

But for a global company, especially one with a reputation for good marketing, that is kind of expected. After all, the first try was lauded by everyone from Interactive Age to Yahoo! to Point Communications.

The new site from Akron law firm Brouse & McDowell (http://www.brouse.com) is more of a surprise.

Too often, law firm sites on the Internet are little more than online brochures and a bunch of biographies of the attorneys. The Brouse & McDowell site, on the other hand, actually provides information about the law.

"It's part of our strategy to better serve our clients," said Carol Todd Thomas, director of administration at Brouse & McDowell. "If they've done some preliminary homework before they come to see us, they can better use our legal services."

The Brouse site currently offers information about joint ventures, new Internal Revenue Service regulations, how to make an initial public offering and other hot topics.

Since this is an attorneys' site, there are some disclaimers, not the least of which is that visitors should not take this information as actual legal advice. But it does provide useful background on various issues and helps visitors ask more intelligent questions of their attorneys.

The Brouse & McDowell site also allows clients to register for free seminars on hot topics. And if they miss the seminar, they can download the RealAudio version from the site.