PC World's 25 Worst Web Sites

Cilibrin writes "PC World has posted a story on the 25 dumbest dot-coms and silliest sites. Among those to make the list are the pet-related Neuticles — a site for testicular implants for pets — and every child's favorite, Rabies for Kids." From the article: "As venture capitalists scramble to throw money at anything labeled Ajax or Web 2.0, and Web publishing becomes so simple that anyone with a working mouse hand can put up a site, we offer our list of the 25 worst Web sites of all time. Many of our bottom 25 date from the dot-com boom, when no bad idea went unfunded. Some sites were outright scams — at least two of our featured Net entrepreneurs spent some time in the pokey. Others are just examples of bad design, or sites that got a little too careless with users' information, or tried to demand far too much personal data for too little benefit. And to prove we're not afraid to pick on somebody much bigger than us, our pick for the worst Web site may be the hottest cyberspot on the planet right now. "

Myspace...

[Patik (584959)]

Should've taken all 25 spots.

YES!

[DurendalMac (736637)]

I'm glad it made number one. I work in a computer lab as a student at a university, and Myspace is responsible for more browser hangs than everything else combined. That site is a festering cyst on the asshole of the internet.

Re: myspace

[klenwell (960296)]

Resistance is afoot:

http://code.google.com/p/moshi/ [google.com]

Re: myspace

[NoTheory (580275)]

I say this as someone who both loathes myspace, and has an account (granted w/o any information filled in), but how is signing up for a myspace account resistance? The problem with moshi conceptually, is that people don't care whether their code or their CSS is kosher, they just care that it looks the way they want it to. I guess i just fail to see how moshi encourages people to be better. Even if you give a proof of concept, that doesn't mean that anybody is going to jump on the bandwagon.

Re: myspace

[FireFury03 (653718)]

people don't care whether their code or their CSS is kosher, they just care that it looks the way they want it to.

Also, the way they want it to look is often terrible - most of the MySpace sites are either completely unreadable because of some background the site owner has decided to apply, or just plain annoying because they've decided that absolutely everyone must hear their favorite piece of music so they push it upon you as soon as you open the page.

From what I can see, the one good thing MySpace has done is group a large amount of crap in one place so it's easier to avoid.

(And I'm not even going to get started on the number of MySpace people who have taken to whoring my bandwidth by linking full size 6MP photos off my web server as their background images without permission).

Re:

[mnmn (145599)]

Myspace was #1?

I clicked on #1 and I got to a generic pcworld.com site asking me to enter my personal info. I agreed with the choice.

Re:

[Danga (307709)]

Myspace...
Should've taken all 25 spots.

Someone is mad they can't get anyone to add them as a friend...

Worst?

[Kaenneth (82978)]

Bumper Bawls(bawlz? something like that) beat Neuticles I think; they were fake testicles for CARS.

I hope they were a joke.

Re:Worst?

[Cheapy (809643)]

Nope. They aren't a joke.

I've seen them. On cars that is.

Re:

[dman123 (115218)]

I hope they were a joke.

I've never seen a pair on a car but I think I've seen at least 10 trucks/SUVs with them. Blech!

Re:

[tylernt (581794)]

Are you really implying that the boss felt he had the right to order his workers to remove these "decorative" objects AND that the workers all acted like good little sheep and obeyed him?

Absolutely. A parking lot is private property, and the rights of the property owner trump any 1st, 2nd, or 4th amendment rights you have. That's why you can be fired for wearing an "offensive" T-shirt to work, you can be fired for carrying a self-defense tool at work, and your employer can have your desk/locker/you searched

The full list

[by Anonymous Coward]

25. Rentmychest.com.
24. IKissYou.org
23. InmatesForYou.com
22. Digital entertainment network (den.com)
21. Golden Palace Casino
20. Hotmail.com
19. WebVan
18. Beenz.com and Flooz.com (tie)
17. Boo.com
16. Microsoft Windows Update
15. Neuticles.com
14. BidForSurgery.com
13. Whitehouse.com
12. The Dancing Baby
11. Rabies for Kids
10. MyLackey.com.
9. HamsterDance.com
8. BonziBuddy
7. Pets.com
6. Pixelon.com
5. AllAdvantage
4. CD Universe
3. Cartoonnetwok.com
2. CyberRebate
1. MySpace.com

Re:

[slagell (959298)]

I was afraid I would see my site up there. :-) Good thing no one visits it.

Re:The full list

[Danga (307709)]

dude, you look like a simpsons character!

Re:The full list

[grammar fascist (239789)]

They TOTALLY left out Association of International Glaucoma Societies [globalaigs.org]!

Maybe it's because they cleaned up their act. They no longer play the Glaucoma Hymn upon visit - you have to click on something now. They've still got the frames, the horrendous color scheme, and the bobbing heads, which I suppose represent people with Glaucoma.

Glaucoma, Glaucoma, Glaucoma
Constricting vision slowly
Halted by progress of science
Vision of a world united
Beyond all science knowing...

Re:The full list

[rahmza (862442)]

I'm sorry, but the worst website I have ever seen has to be http://hosanna1.com/ [hosanna1.com]

Re:

[Al Dimond (792444)]

I don't have a Windows box within reach right now... can anyone tell if that (hosanna1.com) renders into anything remotely legible in IE? In FF it looks like a Jackson Pollack painting...

Thanks, now I have to go to goatse

[Secrity (742221)]

I now have to go to goatse to get that melange of hideous images out of my mind. As far as I can tell, hosanna1.com is a site for born again afghan dogs.

Wrong, great site award

[edxwelch (600979)]

No, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will see they have a picture of a dog with the words "great site award".
this proves without any doubt that it is actually a top quality web site.

Oh my $DEITY, my eyes are *bleeding*

[jo_ham (604554)]

That site just has to be a joke.

Surely someone has made that site as bad as possible as a joke to show their friends. No one could be that truly awful and still claim to have "the most beautiful pages on the www".

Check out the "Why we suggest you use IE" page: http://www.hosanna1.com/AAAWWW/why/index.html [hosanna1.com]

Tell me that's not a joke. It's just impossible to take seriously. The inaccuracies sprinkled with a hint of misunderstood technical info is just impossible to believe!

Re:

[yog (19073)]

They've obviously never visited University of Massachusetts at Boston's website [umb.edu] or Northeastern University's School of Professional and Continuing Studies [neu.edu]. Just try to find a course listing on these pathetically designed sites; I dare you. Note especially how you need to look up a code that corresponds to "Fall 2006" on the UMass site before you can even search for a fall course, and you have to go through this horrific Peoplesoft data entry screen. I am sure that the average high school student could ha

What's wrong with rabies site?

[iamacat (583406)]

People need to get basic information from somewhere, what's so terrible for this particular source?

Re:

[mblase (200735)]

what's so terrible for this particular source?

I think the (legitimate) gripe about this particular site [cdc.gov] was the garrish design. The whole thing is very, very 1990s-college-freshman in the way it looks.

Those are pretty bad...

[HatchedEggs (1002127)]

Of course, there are much worse out there. How do I know, I see it every time a new person wants to start a fan site about something stupid.

On the other hand, there are lots of cool sites. www.stickdeath.com used to be cool, until they started using annoying pop ups (yay for blockers) and what not. Funny site though. There are tons of others... so, my suggestion, when you come to talk some trash about how bad those sites are and add your list, throw out a site you think is cool as well.

_____________________

Worst website according to Digg...

[AtariDatacenter (31657)]

In a story with 1500+ votes, Digg users acknowledged THIS to be the worst web site ever:
http://www.kwota.net/cdc/default.htm [kwota.net]

A quote: "I feel like I lost a part of my web design soul just by viewing this site."

Re:Worst website according to Digg...

[dufachi (973647)]

Well, I am going to have to agree that the site in question should be on the top 10, considering that they claim on their hideous-looking site that they are both elite and elitists. Apparently, the elite are color-blind.

Re:

[imroy (755)]

Ok, that has got to be a parody. The author(s) claim to be a "Member of the HTML writers guild", but a look at the HTML shows it was produced with MS Word, complete with all the rubbish that entails. The clan members page however looks to be a dead give-away.

i helped co-author two of the bestselling books, "Teach Yourself MS-Paint in 21 Days" and "Teach Yourself MS-Bob in 21 Days".

i have written, consulted and co-written many various and numerous plugins for MSPAINT, including the "ALIASER" (a de-anti

Best part

[Kadin2048 (468275)]

What I really love about that site is their business motto:

IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY WITH FINISHED PROJECT YOU TAKE IT AND PAY US.

I swear I've done business with these guys.

Not enough silly

[Aeonite (263338)]

I don't know whether to be gratified or insulted that Ninja Burger [ninjaburger.com] didn't make the cut, as silly as it is.

Though looking at their list, it appears they really weren't interested in silly anyway; sites that were intentionally silly number only 5 (by my count), the bulk qualifying as dumb (which I read as unintentional silliness or lack of quality):

Dumb
23. InmatesForYou.com
22. Digital entertainment network (den.com)
21. Golden Palace Casino
20. Hotmail.com
19. WebVan
18. Beenz.com and Flooz.com (tie)
17. Boo.com

Re:Not enough silly

[Gamefreak99 (722148)]

BonziBuddy is about as silly as the Spawn of Satan.

23. InmatesForYou.com

[owlman17 (871857)]

"23. InmatesForYou.com

This site helps you find that special someone, even if you have to wait 13 years for her parole to come up."

I tried clicking on the link but it says "Service Unavailable."

I hope this wasn't slashdotted.

Glass houses...

[Griim (8798)]

The best part is PCWorld's site sucks.

I don't know what their minimum requirement is, but I don't like to maximize my browser window, so I can see what's going on in the background. I have a large screen though, so most sites will fit in a window that's roughly 1024 across...not this site though!

And who doesn't love an article that's broken down into at least 5 separate pages? I know there's nothing I love more than clicking and waiting 5 times, just to read a single article.

Elitism Foiled.

[twitter (104583)]

The best part is PCWorld's site sucks.

Yes, and that goes a long way to foil the author's baseless elitism. A recurrent theme of the article is snobbery. MySpace looks bad because people are stupid and evil is their central message:

... a one-stop shopping mall for online predators. ... In an era when the basic tenets of the Net are under attack by both Ma Bell and Uncle Sam, MySpace is a headache we don't need. But let's put all that aside for a moment. Graphically, many MySpace pages look like a tee

What a load of crap

[slack-fu (940017)]

This list is completely wrong, Hamster Dance is the de facto standard of excellence in web design. Ive modeled almost all of my geocities sites after it, and nowadays I try to implement its design features the my personal, and friends, myspace pages.

Golden Palace is nuts.

[technoextreme (885694)]

They have the stpuidest ad campaign and PC World described it best as buy as much crap as they can. They bought the naming rights to a monkey. A freaking monkey for $600,000. On the one hand it is good for the monkeys because it's going to help them. On the other hand why???

Clearly something wrong...

[atomic-penguin (100835)]

Clearly there is something wrong when "modestapparelchristianclothinglydiaofpurpledresse scustomsewing.com" [modestappa...sewing.com] does not make it in the top 5 of worst .com lists.

Russell's Paradox strikes again!

[argent (18001)]

This must be a list of the 25 worst websites that don't list themselves.

Not that bad...

[mrcolj (870373)]

Of the 60 million active websites out there, they're trying to tell me that I've even heard of any of the worst 25? I was expecting 25 on par with "neuticles" or "rabies for kids," not another baseless rant against Windows Update. And don't nobody mention Dancing Baby, which is so good that 7 years later I just showed it to my wife a week ago (who's too young to have seen it--25.) Moral of the story: no major magazine has ever put out a legit list (besides the Fortune 500.) PC World's list of the worst

Discerning Dogs Can't Tell

[Ranger (1783)]

I love Neuticles [neuticles.com]. I think they are one of the best products on the market for dogs. I can picture this endorsement:

Customer: After I had my first dog, Scamp, snipped, he just didn't lick himself with the same enthusiasm. When we were going to get our second dog, Arny, snipped we heard about neuticles. After they removed his manhood, we had the install a big ole pair of neuticles. He was unsure of himself for a few days. He sniffed at them tentatively, gave them a lick and he was hooked. I decided to get a pair for Scamp installed. And boy was he happy. Now, both dogs lick themselves with the same enthusiasm as if they had real balls.

Arny & Scamp: (in unison) Woof! Woof!

I'm sorry but...

[mkiwi (585287)]

The rabies site deserves an "OMG RABIES!!!"

It looks like a 15-year-old girl designed that site. Poor Canada. :-(

Windows Update?

[raezr (946135)]

I've never known anyone to have trouble with it. How is it difficult to click the "update" button and let it do everything for you?

This sounds more like a lame attempt to bash "Micro$oft" yet again.

Re:

[evilviper (135110)]

I've never known anyone to have trouble with it.

Windows update is okay. THE REST OF MICROSOFT.COM IS UTTER CRAP.

A COMPLETELY random collection of pages, added with no particular scheme in-mind. It's extremely difficult for both their own search engine, and Google, to handle. And to make things WORSE, they go out of their way to REMOVE links to useful pages frequently, and eventually remove the pages themselves.

I've made it a point to burn EVERYTHING to CD, that I've downloaded from Microsoft. Next syste

Truth in Domain Names Act?

[Perseid (660451)]

FTA: "In 2003 Zuccarini pleaded guilty to violating the Truth in Domain Names Act and was sentenced to 2.5 years in the federal pen."

What? Truth in Domain Names Act? So if I create a site about rocket launchers and register it to fuzzybunnies.com I can go to jail? Can fuzzybunnies be a porn site?

Sigh

[mqduck (232646)]

Like perhaps most people, I skipped first to #1.

The ease with which anyone of any age can create a page, upload photos, share deeply personal details of their lives, and make new "friends" quickly turned MySpace into a one-stop shopping mall for online predators.

I lost interest in the article right about here. thinkofthechildren, etc.
(Come to think of it, aren't shopping malls one-stop shopping malls for "predators"? Oh, teh irony!)

MySpace slogans?

[GrumpySimon (707671)]

Myspace: where blink tags go to die

Myspace: It's like being trapped in geocities, during 1996.

Anyone else?

I knew it

[suv4x4 (956391)]

So I click "Worst Site #1" link directly.

And what opens? PC World. With a bunch of floating flash ads over the article. No wonder.

Re:

[owlman17 (871857)]

Hmmm. Right. Just saw it now. And with all the ads I had to go thru to read that, PC World should be part of the list.

Re:

[QCompson (675963)]

Plus, they're called neuticles. Neuticles! Maybe I'm just drunk, but that's the funniest thing I've heard since 1985.

Neuticles allowing your pet to retain his natural look, self esteem and aids in the trauma associated with neutering.

Scratch that mofo off the list, PCTurd. I'm off to order a bathrobe.

Re:

[bitt3n (941736)]

An intact dog is also required for breeding.

I'm not sure the offspring of a dog bred from neuticles is going to meet expectations.

Re:Badger Badger / All Your Base

[Jekler (626699)]

I agree. I think Hamsterdance, badger, all your base, etc. Are all a matter of "How funny did you find it?". They obviously weren't meant to be seriously attracting someone to use the site with some kind of purpose. I think the entire list should be redone minus joke (or "one hit wonder") web sites.

I think a list of "worst web sites" should be done using only serious material. If you had a "dumbest quote" contest, you wouldn't include intentional jokes.