GRCity.us - A Question of Domain Selection
I just got back from a vacation in Michigan with my wife and son. My wife grew up in East Grand Rapids, so we spent a couple of days there before heading up to Crystal Mountain for some golf, hiking and boating.
While in East Grand Rapids, I was reading the newspaper and saw an article announcing Grand Rapids new official website. http://www.GRCity.us.
Just my opinion here, but that’s pretty bad. Who picked that? And the people that did the design work, they couldn’t convince the city folks that this was perhaps a less than ideal domain?
This sort of decision process is baffling to me. They clearly spent a significant amount of money on the design. Why did they decide to skimp out on the domain? According to the whois, it looks like they might have worked out a deal on the aftermarket with the original registrant which makes it even more strange. A domain like this usually tells me that they looked for what they thought was the best unregistered domain available.
I’ve spoken with the owner of GrandRapids.com before and I know he’s not interested in selling the domain, but there are still MANY better domains out there between GrandRapids.com and GRCity.us.
Filed under: Domains
I don’t think it’s a bad design in the abstract, but it doesn’t feel right for an official city services & info site.
I can imagine the pitch meeting where the got sold a “lively, web 2.0, not a typical stodgy city page, a real destination….”
But they seriously overdid it. I feel like I am being sold something, and not being helped. The logo looks like it belongs on an MFA site. And would it have killed them to have something that looks like an official city seal somewhere on the page? It’s seriously lacking in any authoritative look. Plus, the banner image is way too big, etc. etc…
And, of course, the domain choice was inexcusable.
It is such fun to critique! But please, no one do the same for any of my gawdawful sites.