Time Warner Cable
Business Class
Road Runner
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Originally printed in Portland Monthly Magazine - May 2001 used by permission 1. mrandmrsfish.com (3 nominations) Judge Chad Gilley of Time
Warner Cable, who designs the highly praised Maine Roadrunner
page, tells us, “The best web sites aren't necessarily about
bells and whistles. Flash animations and QuickTime movies are
great, but if they get between me
2. thomasmoser.com (3) We were also impressed with the web presence of the Thomas Moser furniture store. With the voice-over of the eponymous Thomas himself and hundreds of photos smoothly talking the talk yes, most of these top pages are 'talkies' curious visitors can just surf or skip the intro and go straight to the shopping end of the site. It really is like a personal chat with the owner and an inside peek at the operations leading to a gift store that glows with great Maine-made products. However those who do not run Flash will be excluded from a majority of the site. 3. mainegeneral.org This one has a lot of great features one might not expect on a hospital site. It has a great professional directory that helps patients locate specific physicians. They can be sorted by location, medical topic, and specialty. The links are also provide great resources for people who want to learn. A very charming touch is the personalized get well cards that can be printed or e-mailed directly out of the site to a friend or loved one in the hospital. It's nice to see a site with such a fantastic bedside manner. 4. mainetoday.com (2) This is a very deep site that is updated daily that has everything from job listings to local news, to travel. One can spend literally hours here and not get bored or see all of it. 5. clareon.com Paul Walsh's standard-setting financial site helps companies pay their bills. We enjoyed the illustrations under the Paymode button. Instead of having pages and pages of type, the concepts are simply and vividly shown to help unindoctrinated viewers understand and contract for their services. 6. colehaan.com Not just a shopping site for those who are looking for a great pair of shoes, this site combines quality design and ease of use with great customer service. It allows shoppers to chat directly with customer service reps to assist them with their purchases. It also gives visitors the option to surf with the visual interface or the the text based controls. Judge Pat McVeigh of Bridge Education says, “Very attractive site with some amazing features. You can actually converse with a live salesperson right through their web site. I tested it out yesterday and was in contact with Anna within “0 seconds.”
8. oi2.com “With over 100,000 video clips, iPix, and photos,” this stock photo site has thousands of great images for sale. The “lightbox” (their shopping cart) is a little tricky to figure out, but it ends up not getting in the way of navigating the site and searching for truly great photos. 9. llbean.com (2) What says Maine more than L.L. Bean? Well, probably lots of things, but this is still a great site that has been around the block for a while and only gets better with age. This site offers more than just the shopping pages. L.L. Bean offers their Outdoor Discovery Schools that teach everything from kayaking to outdoor photography for very reasonable rates. They also offer their shopping guides which assist visitors in comparing products directly without having to open several windows. 10. bmarley.com This is Bob Marley's (Maine's fast-rising comedian) site. Some of his favorite jokes have been put on the site so that visitors can hear them. There's even a funny animated cartoon. Simple and effective to get the point across even the interface is fun. After the Top 10, it's a more subjective task to order the remaining Maine's Best Web Sites, so the following sites have been listed in alphabetical order for quick referencing. 2catsbarharbor.com This inn and café has a cute little site. Postcards and stamps are used in a creative way to provide information to the viewers. Instead of just lists and block of type. Backs of postcards are used to guide viewers through the site and to provide testimonials to potential guests. Even though this site is small it gets the job done and is not cloying like so many bed and breakfast sites of yesteryear. a4architects.com An architectural firm's site. abcdbooks.com This is not an advanced site by any means, but it has lots of information on buying books and is not just a stand-in for the brick and mortar store but also has lots of goodies such as lists as to what others think are the best books of the century. It is also linked directly to a national site (abebooks.com) that allows you to search and buy from abcdbooks in Camden.
aucocisco.com This Portland art gallery has current lists of shows and samples of art. deadriver.com This fuel company has more than just an electronic business card. There are pages that help visitors including a trouble shooting checklist, fuelsaving tips and a great page and oil tank safety. People who are not even Dead River customers could use this page to learn more about oil and oil services. Not only is it practical like so many service industry sites, it is also attractive and well thought out. easternleague.com This is a great resource for those who love baseball. It has a link to The Portland Seadogs but is a quality site in its own right. It is especially good for those Mainers who wish to see the local boys play away games and learn a little more about the competion. gofish.com This a national resource for the fishing industry is based in Portland. It has up to date news, a seafood yellowpages, and a member-only section that allows companies to buy and sell products online. There also are other goodies such as the Industry Supplier page that allows companies to easily find each when upgrading and building new facilites. It's a thrill to realize that fishermen right this second, in boats lifting and falling in swells and troughs out on the Grand Banks, are reporting, registering, and selling the freshest fish in the world through instantaneously on this innovative site. homeswithheart.net This real estate company's site helps them list homes to potential home buyers. This company also raises money to give to their charitable partners. horsepharm.com This site caters to vets and private owners who need to buy drugs and supplies for horses, though when having drugs specially made you can have them made for a variety of animals. One can also purchase books and texts on equine health and medicine. hyde.edu/index2.asp This is the home of the Hyde schools of Bath, Maine and Woodstock Connecticut.
jobsinme.com Just a truly great job site. It allows visitors to search through the open listings as well as browse through the company profiles which contain all the companies that have used the site whether or not they are hiring. The links page is very helpful for those who want to relocate, find jobs in Maine or just visit. mainerentalguide.com This site describes itself as “Maine's complete relocation magazine.” This site has made this list due to its great potential though much of the site is under contruction or has “coming soon” listed next to items. Visitor to this site should check back regulary to see what has been improved upon. Though this site has not yet met its potential, it should not be discounted either as it is now a good resource for those who are looking to move to or within Maine. maine.rr.com Innovative design and surprising web-cam views from the top of Portland City Buildings consistently delight visitors to this informative, high-volume site. This is another standard-setter. meca.edu Maine College of Art's newly launched site has much of the same information of the original, but repackaged beautifully. All of the portions that were not finished were removed and this site is now more polished and easy to get around. mystyc.com This site of a web design company shows off its technology well and treats flash and html visitors as equals. The best part of this site is the links to other sites that they have worked on. ourmaine.com This Portland area news site is good and improving daily but still has some hurdels to overcome. Though it is attractive and easy to navigate. portland.com This is the companion site to Mainetoday.com and is helpful in its own right. When the archives go back a few more decades, this will be an amazing resource.
portlandlandmarks.org Sweeping web-cam views from the top of the Portland Observatory highlight this beautiful site. rsn.com (2) sundayriver.com My favorite part of this well considered companion site to the ski mountain is the regularly update trail information that includes snow fall and open trail among other helpful information. Anyone who plans to travel to this mountain should visit this site the day before. the-clown.com This is a nice addition to the Old Port store. This site primarily describes items available at the stores for people to go and buy. The wine page was nice, with prices and description of just a few of the many great wines available at the brick and mortar store. Also online were sample of art that can be purchased at the Clown's gallery. thetruthiswhatyoubelieve.com This site was recently launched by a local Kurt Dommermugh and is the first installment of the interactive game “Reason.” It has very little purpose but shows what a great Flash site can be. As far as we can tell, you have to have Flash 5 to make it work. “Launched last month, it had over ',000 hits its first day.” www.thomas.edu. “One of the most innovative educational sites anywhere, Thomas College's site has been ranked as the 22nd best of more than 800 college sites surveyed nationwide. Thomas has the only web site in Maine to be named in the top 100 list issued by the national Research Center for College and university admissions. The site will actually dynamically create a page for each prospective student. villagecandle.com Creatively shows exactly where you can purchase these Maine-made candles in all 50 states with a striking geographical directory. Judges
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