Circumstances beyond my control led me to the Oracle website. It's been a number of years since I used an Oracle database and I wanted to see what they have in the way of rapid application development tools.
Now, why is it that big companies like Oracle, Microsoft, HP, and IBM have websites that are completely impossible to navigate? I think I would have an easier time finding my way out of the Australian outback than finding my way to a product on any of these sites.
How is it that these companies -- industry giants -- have abysmally difficult websites? The budget for these sites probably rival's the GDP of a small country, and for what? Usability? Ha! Accessibility? Doubt it. They spend this money and they arrive at a website that is so difficult to navigate, that one wonders how such a monstrosity could have been contrived.
There is so much fluff and market-speak on these sites that it is truly challenging to get an idea of what they are selling. Does Oracle sell a database server? Does Microsoft have some sort of collaboration tool? Do HP and IBM still sell servers? The answers -- if they exist -- are buried deep in a big ball of mud.
Could it be they have too many products? I mean, look at Microsoft and Oracle. Does every product they offer have their name in front of it because their products aren't unique? And although I think Microsoft's site is very much improved from recent versions, check out this list of "Windows" products:
- Windows 7
- Windows Vista
- Windows XP
- Windows Mobile
- Windows Automotive
- Windows Azure
- Windows Embedded
"Windows Automotive"? Really? "Azure"? And the list of servers:
- Windows Server
- Windows Essential Business Server
- Windows Small Business Server
- Windows Home Server
Apparently, Windows servers aren't essential to small businesses or in the home? You get my point: Too many products.
Back to oracle.com and the impossibility of understanding what products they really offer. A database? Sure. But what's all that other stuff. I need to hire a consultant to tell me what all these products are for.
After a while I was able to find the developer's version of the Oracle database as well as their free IDE known as JDeveloper. I got these things set up and poked around a bit, building a simple JSP page and generally fiddling with the software.
As an experienced systems administrator and programmer, I can see there is a lot of power there, but I am totally overwhelmed by the massive amount of products offered by Oracle. Could I use them? Probably, but I don't have time to figure out which ones I need.
Call me impatient, but I want something that obviously fits my needs. As a builder of things, I understand the desire to create more products and I reckon most of these companies are (or should be) creating products to obtain a competitive advantage. But more products as a differentiator? That I doubt.
Is anyone doing it right? I tried to think of a "big" company with a lot of products. The Apple website is pretty easy to use. But I think Google has the right idea; lay it all out in a simple way; icons, title/link, and a (very) brief introduction.
It is easy for me to sweep aside years of product development and branding, making simple something that is inherently complicated -- and it's not like any of these companies would listen to the likes of me. But this made me examine my own products and websites -- do I have too many products? Do you?
