They call themselves “wowOwow,” aka the Women on the Web. But they’re not just any women. The website says “wowOwow is a free daily Internet website created, run and written by” several famous and semi-famous women who are all friends from way back. Um, free? Are they that out of it that they think a free site is a big deal? Apparently. They started the website so that they could “go on the Internet with [their] conversations and make them available to everyone who might be interested.” Well, shoot, how kind of them to let us eavesdrop on their perfect wisdom. Nothing like fundamentally misunderstanding the nature of interactive media. I am not equal to them, since I can only comment on their stories – I can’t post my own.
Let’s go to the homepage. Horoscope? Good hair day? You. Must. Be. Kidding.
Lesley Stahl interviews Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay — and one whole segment is about Whitman’s fashion style. I thought Stahl was an actual journalist?
Check out the rich and entitled’s guide to doctors and taxis while traveling around the Mediterranean — Clearly, these are people who are in a socio-economic category far above me. May you find the people you intend this website for, as it is certainly not for me.
I also went to the new Shine site from Yahoo: while it contains some original content, much is pulled from other Yahoo sites. And a lot of their stories are filler — about eating cereal on a diet, why fasting is bad, etc., and some random gossip items … and a whole section on astrology. Resumes should only be one page long, per Shine. There is nothing compelling, quirky or unique, or even timely – which is what I expect from the best websites.
Why is there practically nothing about tech and online communities on either of these sites? You know, the online world where both of these sites exist? Shine did run an article about mommy bloggers and the power of blogging about bad customer service, but that was one article. Why did they decide to stay with just the old standby categories from print magazines? These two sites are the opposite of niche communities, excepting their gender bias. Both of them are as generalized as possible, which translates to wide, shallow, and unremarkable.
Give me Shiny Shiny any day, if I must be relegated to a gendered web.
