I've seen quite a few threads about the worst designed commercial sites, but I'd rather get some opinions about what you consider the BEST designed commercial sites, and why?

We should get the definition of a commercial site. Are we going to limit this to the hosting industry only? Are we talking about any e-commerce site? Are we talking about any regular website of a business entity?

Best and worst are far too subjective, moreso "best" I think.


For me the best designed commercial site is Google.com

When I visit I have a singular purpose and that is displayed up front with no bells and whistles.

Excluding personal websites - yes, regular websites of business entities.

I don't know it depends on the type of business in my mind. Google is a nice design but all it is search. So They don't got much to work with. It get the main point across though.

I assume to get understanding on this issue you need to visit different web design studios and ask for the opinions

Comments on these? Seven of them have been recognized as top sites somewhere on the web.
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Here's an interesting related poll concerning layouts.

I always thought The New York Times (www.nytimes.com) had one of the best websites by a newspaper. It transcends an incredible feel of holding a real paper in your hands.

The Times (UK), The Wall Street Journal, while also great work, they have more of a traditional design. The NY Times are the only ones who managed to nail it so well.

Took a look at the NYTimes - got interested and read a few stories. You're right.

I like these two:

http://www.loveisrespect.org/
http://www.thedailycat.com/

I think they both address their target demographics very well (probably the top concern when creating a design, in my opinion) and are attractive sites in general.

The best website is hard. I like Google and The New York times for sure. However, I guess you can really acheive what ever you would like to with millions or tens of millions of dollars per year to invest in the best. There are some sites that are the best for ROI, even though they may not be the best. Plus, the Internet is so huge, that is is hard to view all the sites to determine the best.

I think you have to be a speed reader to read the warning on www.loveisrespect.org.
thedailycat is great - good info and design

You're right about never being able to review them all. That's why asking here helps us view sites we would have probably never found on our own. That's what I like about Stumble.

Well there are 10k plus members at Hosting Discussion. It would require all of us to review 1,000 new websites a day to keep up with the number coming online daily. I read there was a couple million new websites that come online everyday.

It is hard to place legitimacy on some of these best site awards because there is no possible way. With cars there are only a handful of car makers and maybe a few hundred to thousand card models. I think car and driver screws up their ratings every year.

Why don't we just scale it back to those sites that you've visited - which are the best? The purpose of this is simply to compare what each of us has experienced. One of my favorites is www.webmd.com.