J-Walk & Associates, Inc.

Web Sites That Suck

Ted French has a spreadsheet blog at About.com: Ted's Spreadsheet Blog. Here's an item from that blog: Excel Timeline Template. That blog entry has a link. Click the link and you go to an article at About.com.

The article has a link labeled "Downloading the template". Click that link and you go to another page at About.com (it's one of eight pages associated with this stupid article).

That new page has a link to Microsoft's free timeline template. Click that link, and you're finally taken to the download page at microsoft.com. But the page is presented in a frame, with About.com's URL still displayed in the address bar. I hate that!

And Microsoft proves that they are just as sucky. I couldn't even download the damn template because of a Template download problem:

My Web browser is Firefox -- which I much prefer over Microsoft's browser.

Sure, I could have download that template directly from Excel 2007. Or, I could have fired up Internet Explorer and download it. But by then I'd lost all interest in that template -- which probably sucks, anyway.

Why is Microsoft checking for a 10-year old product and denying access because it's not installed?

Now, the big question is: Which sucks more? About.com or Microsoft.com?

- Reader Comments -

Following are comments in response to this item.
The most recent comment is at the bottom.

1. By Jon Peltier. Comment posted 04 December, 2008 10:51am

   About.com is teh suck. I have found material from my web site copied there, without permission or attribution, and I have tried repeatedly to have it removed. I don't even know whom I should contact, because their web site makes useful information impossible to find.
2. By Christian. Comment posted 04 December, 2008 11:40am

   Hi, i passed through the same path too - so I completely agree with you. But, there's a tiny button link below the section 'To download this template manually without solving this problem:', below the warning. Here is the direct download link:
   
   http://office.microsoft.com/download/file.aspx?AssetID=TC010162661033&Application=XL&Result=2&Version=8&CTT=71
   
   Regards,
   C.
   from Spain
3. By John Walkenbach. Comment posted 04 December, 2008 12:21pm

   Thanks, Christian. I didn't bother to scroll down to see how to solve that "problem." I downloaded that template and it confirmed my suspicion. It sucks. Hardly worth 10 pages of explanation at about.com.
4. By Christian. Comment posted 04 December, 2008 1:14pm

   I agree... when i saw that post i expected something more than a few text boxes and a red line...
5. By The.Q. Comment posted 05 December, 2008 3:54am

   Which sucks more? About.com without a doubt. It's just rubbish!