Comments on: Will Code For Food

By: Stefanie

Stefanie — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:00:14 +0000

Totally agree with you.
I especially HATE those Flash intros. those never work on smartphones either. so if I needed their address in a hurry, I just end up getting frustrated.

I’m with you.

By: Endy

Endy — Wed, 06 May 2009 01:10:11 +0000

Rick,

I think a big part of the problem is that restaurants don’t _care_ about having a current — or any — website. (They may be justified — I suspect people like you, me, and Jen are in the minority of restaurantgoers.) And so firms that sell cookie-cutter website designs have swooped in knowing there’s easy money to be made; restaurants are more than happy to outsource this sort of thing the same way they outsource their garbage disposal or linen.

it’s all the more sad because, as Jen said, it would be cheaper and so much more effective to have a 1-page site with contact info, hours, and directions — no upkeep necessary and dead easy to develop with NO FLASH. A win for everyone.

it seems all hope is NOT lost though as I’m noticing quite a few local restauranteurs setting up (and updating!) Twitter feeds. Certainly Twitter is a big fad these days, but increased technology-restaurant “fusion” can only help matters.

By: Rick Mason

Rick Mason — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:28:27 +0000

Couldn’t agree with you more. The state of restaurant websites is horrible. There should be a restaurant website standard developed that everyone can adhere to in terms of presenting the important information. And what’s more, I really dislike the various services that host dozens of resto websites. I find they just make things worse. I bet the reason many websites are poorly maintained is because these very networks most likely provide crappy tools for management of content.

The site and admin need to be dead simple. But also, the restaurant needs to make it someone’s responsibility to keep the site current.