The 50 loudest websites in 2006 and what made them successful

Before looking intowho will make headlines next year let’s see what made websites successful in 2006. In short: Marketing, Content, Usability, Design and Behavior are the main factors that make a website work.
Internet Marketing is a combination ofPresence (how well is it pushed? How known is it?) andSelf Dynamic (how well does it market itself as a product?). Interactive Content is a combination of Constructivity (is the content/service productively usable? Are the texts authentic? Do they incite to write? Are theyleading to positive action) andUniqueness (are they genuine? Are they special?) Usability is a combination ofStructure/IA (Are the contents organized in an understandable way? Where am I? Where can I go?) and the organisation of theUser Interface (Do I understand where is what and why? Do I understand how it works? Does it do what I expect it to do?) Web Design is a combination ofTypography (Is the texteasy to read Is the typography web adequate) and Attention to detail (does the website care about the little things? Is it characteristic and delicate or just bold?) Online Behavior is a combination of Interactive Ethics (do the authors/owners have a positive open-minded attitude? Do they follow the basic rules of good manners?) and Democracy (Are they working towards a democratic open web or do they work only for their own pocket?)

Top Services, Platforms, Tools
We all know that the website of the year is youtube. And if you wonder why — it’s not a secret anymore. Youtube has an excellent selfdynamic, it is very constructive in its nature, usability and design are quite good, but most of all: Eventhough ethically it sometimes operates in a gray zone, youtube is an exceptionally democratic platform. If you wonder why Google doesn’t get good behaviour grades: 1. The amount of realtime marketing data they have direct access to allows them to stay way ahead of their competition (why does no one ever talk about that?). 2. Google forGoogle and China 3. Google works its way up to the next global monopolist that will be able to dictate its own web standards.
Pres: Presence
Dyn: Dynamics
Cons: Constructivity
Id: Uniqueness
IA: Information Architecture
UI: User Interface
Detail: Attention to detail
Read: Readability
Ethics: Digital Ethics
Dem: Democracy
 
Outstanding
Strong
Solid
Nah…
Dude! Uncool…
What the hell?
Marketing Content Usability Design Behavior Score
Domain Pres Dyn Cons Id IA UI Detail Read Ethics Dem Total
Alexa
youtube.com54
6
craigslist.org54
33
wikipedia.org53
12
google.com50
3
flickr.com50
37
ebay.com48
13
gmail.com48
g.analytics48
pandora.com47
1,092
blogger.com45
9
mac.com45
442
amazon.com40
20
yahoo.com38
1
technorati.com39
189
News
To put old school New York Times in front of slashdot might seem offensive. Well, not if you appreciate unique content and user centered design. The New York Times has become the news site with the best user interface and most love to detail. If you have seen the coverage of the elections you know what I’m talking about. MSN is there because of its massive exposure. As such it is not very convincing but mere force still gets you an Alexa rank of 2.
Marketing Content Usability Design Behavior Score
Domain Pres Dyn Cons Id IA UI Detail Read Ethics Dem Total
Alexa
newyorktimes.com47
104
slashdot.org46
228
bbc.com45
28
wired.com42
601
memeorandum.com42
34,242
msn.com40
2
Social Networks
Number one social network site is Japanese mixi. If you don’t speak Japanese and don’t have a friend inside that will invite you, you’ll never see why. Too bad. Facebook with its stingy design definitely has the biggest potential to overrun everybody else in the field next year. They have a better chance to make it in Japan than myspace. Also Mark Zuckerberg didn’t sell to Yahoo. Why? Google didn’t sell. Craigslist didn’t sell. Which of the two strategies does he follow?
Marketing Content Usability Design Behavior Score
Domain Pres Dyn Cons Id IA UI Detail Read Ethics Dem Total
Alexa
mixi.jp48
48
facebook.com48
45
myspace.com43
5
secondlife.com41
1,597
Social Linklists
Clear winner is Reddit. Smart crowd, smart system, smart developers, big future. No need to say much more.
Marketing Content Usability Design Behavior Score
Domain Pres Dyn Cons Id IA UI Detail Read Ethics Dem Total
Alexa
reddit.com50
795
digg.com47
78
del.icio.us47
123
stumbleupon.com45
423
Corporate Websites
Clear winner: 37 signals. Their website is almost perfect. Of course there is no way around Microsoft when talking about the loudest websites even though their new redesign is not much more than a sad attempt to do be hip. One of the worse this year is Edelman. No real competence, no ethics, all facade. In terms of presence the astroturfing and the dubious deal with Technorati actually paid off.
Marketing Content Usability Design Behavior Score
Domain Pres Dyn Cons Id IA UI Detail Read Ethics Dem Total
Alexa
37signals.com58
2,649
apple.com48
75
microsoft.com35
17
edelman.com24
43,893
Blogs
Stylish, smart, funny, winner: Subtraction. The author of the blog is the creative director at The New York Times Online, so he scores twice. Again, we have a couple of antiliberal candidates in the list (student death threat catalyst Malkin and rightwing nutcase Redstate). For a conservative site, Redstate actually made quite a good redesign. Hand in hand with the lack of liberalism and tolerance goes the lack of openness, constructiveness, democratic spirit and humor. And that’s why ultra right wing bloggers can’t make it on the web.
Marketing Content Usability Design Behavior Score
Domain Pres Dyn Cons Id IA UI Detail Read Ethics Dem Total
Alexa
subtraction.com52
35,411
boingboing.net49
1,370
dailykos.com46
1,813
huffingtonpost.com45
1,405
daringfireball.net45
23,052
mediamatters.org44
10,034
engadget.com43
455
techcrunch.com43
522
gizmodo.com43
747
scobleizer.com43
15,653
kotaku.com42
2,185
moveon.org42
15,069
beppegrillo.it41
7,964
michaelmoore.com39
29,994
crooksandliars.com38
3,936
redstate.com32
27,784
michellemalkin.com28
8,079
Don’t be shy to tell us whom we forgot. If you liked this you might be interested in our daring predictions ofwho will make headlines in 2007.
That‘s it. What Next?
More iA Notes
Subscribe to ourNewsletter or ourRSS feed. If you liked this entry, you might as well have a look atall iA notes or read one of our latest articles:All notesStrip it down for Uncle Fritz: Introducing iPhone Nano&ShuffleWeb Trend Map 2007Internet 2007 PredictionsThe 50 loudest websites in 2006 and what made them successfulBig business with bogus data: Boycott Technorati? (2)
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2006 at 10:44 am
by Oliver Reichenstein.
Both comments and pings are currently closed. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.1 Japan License.
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40 Responses
21/12/06 byjoey
Random thoughts:
Where‘s Yahoo, it‘s not loud?
I love reddit too, but I‘m not keen on its future since the buyout. Theypulled the nsfw subdomain,their passwords got stolen, hada big chunk of unscheduled downtime due to their corporate overlords DNS fuck-up, and one of their key genius developershates corporate life. I feel like a user exodus is imminent.
Subtraction rules. I love the way he does his links section. Waxy.org/links is excellent too, and uou left off iA360docimg_522_!
I think the logical follow-up to this post is your 2007 predictions, but shouldn‘t YouTube = Google = Gmail = Analytics = Blogger ?
Or maybe the logical follow-up is a little widget where we can rate you, or a MySpace/YouTube-like embedded object where any site‘s users can rate and debate it in a similar fashion.
21/12/06 by Andrey Sorochan
Another great piece. Thank you!
One point here: it seems that you look at MSN too preconceived (Usability and Design views). I‘m not a MS fan, i‘ve just checked MSN website (which, i say, i visit one or two times a year) and i see nor bad Usability nor bad Design there (i mean i don‘t see a really BAD D.&U., which makes interaction process one big pain).
Sure i‘m not an expert here in Usability and Design industry, i‘ve just tried to be as impartial as common user is.
Could you please clarify your point for those who don‘t see the problems.
Here are 2 screenshots which i made while browsing MSN:
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/9174/scr01gs1.png
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9886/scr02zu7.png
21/12/06 by Oliver Reichenstein
Andrey,
True, I could be a little more tolerant there and give them a "solid" for UI and IA.
But tell me, these screenshots: You overwrite font settings, don‘t you? On my Mac the fonts are pretty small... If not they actually almost deserve a star for readability. I‘ll check my PC at home and reevaluate.
21/12/06 by Andrey Sorochan
Oliver,
Yes, i put "Largest" "Font Size" properties in IE6. It is okay, i think. The design fits well.
My point is, we should be as objective as we can, and review all the states website allow us to view it.
22/12/06 bytanjadebie.nl
[...] Information Architects Japan » iA Notebook » The 50 loudest websites in 2006 and why they’re so successful (tags: WebDesign lists webdesign) » Plaats op eKudos [...]
23/12/06 byWeb Strategy
[...] This scorecard rates the overall Web Strategy of many sites I visit frequently. Wow the Edelman site bombed, read what they said about ethics, ouch. Robert you’re a 43, tied with Arrington. Michelle and her all caps titles scores a big fat bomb. not too bad. 37 Signals scores very high.  MySpace scores low on design. Here’s the criteria: Internet Marketing, Interactive Content, Usability, Web Design, and Online Behavior [...]
23/12/06 by anon
Washington Post, anyone?
23/12/06 byCartoons Fans Lounge
[...] X Men posters You’ve seen the boring ‘top 6,000 sites of the year!’ lists out there, but this is a quality set of rankings based on more than just looks. Marketing, Content, Design, and Behavior evidently combine to form the ‘Loudness’ rating system. Great list! X Men sabertooth; [...]
23/12/06 byGeorge
My friend James has as website that he just released. While it isn‘t nearly as popular as these, it should be added to the list under bloatfolios.
The Good Harvest
23/12/06 byJake
Awesome! I forgot about reddit.com..
23/12/06 byThe UnSub
[...] A good shoot-out of the best 50 website. I like the factors listed by iA when it comes to considering what makes a website work… [...]
23/12/06 byTom
Yahoo should be ranked a little higher I think.
23/12/06 by Brian
What about Digg?!?!?
23/12/06 byDenver Computer Consulting
I LOVE website which make me never want to hear sound come out of my computer again, they should write a book on website development.
23/12/06 byAnythingClose.com
Interesting round-up..360docimg_523_
23/12/06 by Beth
Hand in hand with the lack of liberalism and tolerance goes the lack of openness, constructiveness, democratic spirit and humor.
You have to be kidding! Maybe you should venture beyond just two sites on the right. Just sayin‘.
23/12/06 byshaun stevens
What an interesting way to look at the marketing and development of websites and website popularity.
In most cases it is the same analysis of industries by the same computer industry based tools with the same mindset.
Very refreshing and innovative way out thinkint "out of the box".
23/12/06 byTop Ten Lists
[...]The 50 loudest websites in 2006[...]
23/12/06 by煎蛋
[...] 一个分项列表，包括市场、内容、设计、模式几个指标，选出年度最为“响亮”（应该说最受关注）的 50 各站点，很好的资料。# Blog 和 digg 这样的微内容站点果然占了很大的比例。链接 | 来源 Design [...]
23/12/06 bySteve
Reddit > Digg. You got that right.
23/12/06 by J Woo
Are you kidding me? Youtube‘s layout is one of the most dizzying and unhelpful designs, I‘ve encountered on a major website. It homepage is like a disheveled desk, I know where things are because I‘ve gotten used to where things are, but the layout is anything but intuitive or aesthetically pleasing.
24/12/06 by Jenny ‘O
a word about the detail rating given to "Crooks & Liars". a lot of the info is in essays and links left by commmenters. some sites, like Huffington Post for instance, has comment sections that are overused for pithy comments and is eaten up with trolls. another problem at some blogs is that often there is 568 comments on one item, so it is all but impossible to put anything worthwhile there as it will be lost in the doo doo.
24/12/06 byliquid
Yahoo should be dropped from the list, they are slow reactors, their new user interface doesnt looking appealing enough
24/12/06 by Brandon
Your political site listings do you a disservice. This is a blog, it‘s your opinion, but give me a break. Dailykos‘ ethics are solid, while Michellemalkin‘s are "what the hell?"
Please.
This category should have been left out.
24/12/06 by curious
Ever heard of Clipmarks.com? You missing a lot!
24/12/06 bygelund.art.music.politics
[...] a quality set of rankings based on more than just looks. Marketing, Content, Design, and Behavior evidently combine to form the ‘Loudness’ rating system. [...]
24/12/06 by ron
huh, where‘s popurls.com?
24/12/06 byBlondeheiress
Stylish, smart, fun! My deactivted Yahoo accounts by some Troll is still waiting for a written response from Yahoo. You are right ON! Digital Ethics..... Nah
Dem: Democracy....Nah
24/12/06 by Chris
What aboutZamzar Free online file conversion for hundreds of file formats, with a nifty user interface !
24/12/06 byeConsultant
[...] The 50 loudest websites in 2006 and why they’re so successful [...]
24/12/06 byJason Fried
Thanks for naming us the clear winner in the Corporate Websites category. We really appreciate the recognition.
24/12/06 byalessandro
I have to say that the "digital ethics" for flickr.com has been going _down_, not up . Myriads of fake users post porn while artists are booted off the site, losing their digital artwork in the process.
I guess its the yahoo effect.
As for everything else... very good analysis!
24/12/06 by JakeL
www.usemycomputer.com is quite popular for creative design and re-linking.
www.drudgereport.com - known for it‘s extreme design and crazyness.
25/12/06 byEdgy TV Online
[...] The 50 loudest websites in 2006 and why they’re so successful |
The success and pitfalls of various websites, makes you wonder...
25/12/06 by Oliver Reichenstein
I don‘t intend to start a political debate here. I am obviously not a specialist when it comes to right wing blogs. I do read them from time to time because I try to understand both sides of the story, but I do so with great pain, as what I see there tends to hatred, racism and often crude fascism (at least when measured with European standards).
Conservatism contradicts Internet culture:
It is merely impossible to promote the web and be conservative at the same time. As the web leads to the biggest most anticonservative change one might think of: It destroyes hierarchical order; it deconstructs political, religious and economic hierarchy, it uncovers undemocratic top down processes in a refrreshing bottom up dynamic.
26/12/06 byARTbird309’s Blog
[...] Information Architects Japan » iA Notebook » The 50 loudest websites in 2006 and what made them successful (tags: design webdesign web2.0 Usability web marketing list) [...]
26/12/06 byHolger Dieterich
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26/12/06 byFat Mobil Content
[...] wolverine xmen You’ve seen the boring ‘top 6,000 sites of the year!’ lists out there, but this is a quality set of rankings based on more than just looks. Marketing, Content, Design, and Behavior evidently combine to form the ‘Loudness’ rating system. Great list! cyclops xmenread more | digg story [...]
28/12/06 byThe People’s Common
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28/12/06 byukasz Schabowski
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