Gossip

How to write a "how-to" web page. It's about iPod Video...

iPods are, indubitably, mobile devices, and so when "iPod Video Lessons" asked us to allow them to link here, we thought: "Why not?" So we went to the "guest book page" and entered our details. And then, curious, we checked out the result. Heck! - humans are doomed, aren't we?

The page we used couldn't be much simpler. There's a form where you fill in your web site URL; and another form where you fill in a description. And there are (very clear!) instructions as follows:

 Adding your site is very easy and it will be live immediatly!

1) copy and paste the following html code in the big field:

<*a href="http://www.YOURSITE.COM">ANCHOR TEXT"<*/a>
Now delete the two * characters (do not leave any space where the two * were)

Now change YOURSITE.COM with your site address and ANCHOR TEXT with the text link you prefer (ex.: yellow widgets).

 Could it be clearer? delete the asterisk, and change "YOURSITE.COM" to the real URL. And change "Anchor text" to your blurb. Simple! Or, was it? To find out how simple it was,  go check out the guest page

We particularly liked the New Scientist entry, which reads (in full):

 <*a href="http://www.newscientist.COM">New Scientist Magazine"<*/a>
The Best Science and Technology News Resource on the Web.

But at least they managed to get their URL there for you to copy, and a real blurb! - One better than many. How about STM? They managed to delete the asterisks, but decided that was enough:

"ANCHOR TEXT"  - STM- protecting your digital cargo.

Without doubt, however, the saddest is Virtual Greatness. This from a company which claims to be a web site designer - and it couldn't even create a link tag?