Dr Marc Pinter-Krainer, Chief Executive of Knowledge Technology Solutions PLC, says companies are missing out on the chance to make more use of their websites by using out of date information and sticking to dull, routine formats.

Walk into your local Waterstone’s and you will discover that one of the most heavily promoted hardbacks chronicles the life and times of a ‘lady of the night’.

The book incorporates the website musings of the mystery woman which attracted massive hits before catching the attention of an enterprising publishing house.

This site demonstrates how private individuals are breaking new ground with web logs – or blogs to use the vernacular – used by egocentric scribblers to record their daily thoughts and activities.

The quality varies enormously – but that only adds to the surprise and appeal of this new use of the web.

Contrast what is happening here with a typical company website. They tend to be pedestrian with a standard menu bar, usually on top of the screen, and then pages devoted to worthy subjects such as the company’s history, trading record, overseas offices and media room.

If it is a public company there will be information geared to investors – stock exchange releases, a share price graph, and links to its main financial advisors.

There was a time, around ten years ago, when a company setting up its own website was hot news. Even the City and business sections of the broadsheets thought it worthwhile to say that Barclays or BP had joined the online revolution.

Of course, the dot com bubble has been and gone, but right now there is a whiff of 1999/2000 in the air. There has been a resurgence in interest in web-based companies. This interest has been fuelled by the meteoric rise of pure dot coms like Google, and the flotation of Party Gaming, the company that runs the world’s most popular poker site.

But has the web become a shade too familiar? Are we now a bit blasé about its marvels and have we become a bit too conservative about it? Certainly this seems to be the case for a lot of companies.

Don’t get me wrong. Using predictable navigation formats is very helpful for users. People welcome a consistent approach to information presentation. No-one opening a dictionary would expect to find words beginning with A at the back, for example. Conventions become established because they tend to make sound sense.

Yet it is the mavericks, the rule breakers, the pioneers who grab our attention and our support. The public warms much more to Richard Branson types who are prepared to have some fun, take risks and not be too “corporate.”

The web is an immensely flexible environment, so why not make more imaginative use of it? This doesn’t mean using gimmicky graphics and pointless sound effects; people tire waiting to gain entry into websites while Flash spends 30 seconds going through its paces.

What people want is information that really reflects the true nature of the company or organisation they might be dealing with. By adopting a common approach to web design and content, the site imposes uniformity on the firm, and almost certainly on the people who work for it, that doesn’t reflect its interesting diversity.

When pitching for new business, most firms spend time pointing out how they differ from their competitors. But when a prospective customer checks out the website, all too often it looks just like its rivals.

The language, that stilted corporate-speak riddled with jargon, will soon tell a new client that they are exactly the same as everyone else. In just a few seconds, the effort by the pitch team to differentiate itself is undone by the standardised blurb on the site.

This tendency to copy competitors or run with the pack occurs all too frequently. Partly the fault lies with the company, partly with website designers, who tend to sell tweaked versions of the same site to different clients because it’s cheaper for them and involves less effort.

With a conservative company and a lazy web designer working together, the result is a classic case of the bland leading the bland, turning out dull websites that are only useful for curing insomnia.

Users want attractive websites that are interesting to look at, and just as importantly, they want up to date information. Even some of Britain’s larger firms have parts of their websites, including the newsroom, which are months out of date.

According to anecdotal evidence, over 80% of websites contain old or inaccurate information, while Forrester Research has reported that 60% of webmasters say “keeping content up to date” is their biggest concern.

This is really not good enough. Now that updating sites is getting simpler and is no longer a dark art understood only by the webmaster, most organisations should be on top of this.

With oil prices currently hovering around $70 a barrel with the potential to go even higher, the cost of moving goods and people is going to rise, adding to the cost of production.

If a company could do online what it currently does outside of cyberspace, it has the chance to make some decent cost savings.
Therefore, right now is as good a time as any for companies to review their web operations, and to make sure their websites are fully up to date, stand out from the crowd, and describe accurately and interestingly their services.