If you’re like me, then you’ve scowered the web in search of employment at one time or another. Being a software developer, I am of course drawn to the “brand” company names like Mircrosoft, IBM, Google, and Lucent, as well as typical DoD contractors like Lockheed, L-3, Grumman, etcetera. Tonight I happened to be just browsing, and it hit me: Most of these companies are considered “cutting edge” and yet their websites are shitty.

The web isn’t just some advertisement and it’s not just a repository of information. It’s not just a center for entertainment and it’s certainly not just a means of communication. No, the web is all of these things and more; it is the clothes we wear and the way we smell and the firmness of our handshake and how we hunch our shoulders and the way we make eye contact and the scuffling of our feet. It is an extension of the physical world, not just some detached meaningless part of it. A technology company that doesn’t dedicate sufficient resources to a powerful web presence isn’t “cutting edge”, it is “legacy”.

And in this business, old is dead.