The Best Websites that Are No More

When I scroll through the endless list of sites I've bookmarked over the years in the certain but mistaken belief that they'll remain viable, interesting, and just plain there, a handful stand out among the missing.

No, not the 37 sites that show up titled "Welcome!" Not even the 14 that list themselves as "Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6," or 5, or, worse yet, 4. No, these are sites I actually enjoyed, found beneficial, and in at least one case, really wanted to buy from.

1. Miss Snark, the Literary Agent

Stiletto-heeled, blunter than a blunt instrument, and funny enough to make you spew coffee all over the computer keyboard, Miss Snark was the anonymous online incarnation of a New York City literary agent. Along with her canine sidekick Killer Yapp, she dispensed advice, held contests, educated writers about what to do (and not to do) when seeking literary representation, and attracted a following that was as loyal as it was outspoken. A must-read every day for writers (and wannabes) all over the world. When she announced on May 19, 2007, that she was hanging it up, you could hear the shrieks of disbelief and despair from outer space. Fortunately, her content remains relevant and accessible, all the way back to her inaugural post in 2004.

2. BUD UGLLY DESIGN

No, that's not a typo. It was a celebration of the absolute worst the web had to offer. Pages that indulged in the old Netscape "blink" tag to the point you thought you were going to have a seizure staring at them. Frames run amok. Orange type on psychedelic backgrounds. Navigation systems that aspired to lead in circles and only succeeded in drunken parallelograms. Better yet, or maybe worse, some of the content came from real websites chosen as sites of the day. Was it a badge of honor to be a Bud Uglly winner? Only if you subscribed to the theory that it doesn't matter what people say about you so long as they spell your name correctly. From July 1996 to September 1998, Bud Uglly was online infamy's best friend, an absolute showcase of the worst Web 1.0 (better make that 0.5) had to offer. Lucky for all of us, its seven major redesigns remain on line for archival perusal.

3. Tiki Mac

I was one week away from buying an honest-to-goodness Tiki Mac drive. From 2004 through 2007, Tiki Mac sold Hawaiian-themed external USB drives. The hand-cast, hand-painted Big Tiki had an illuminated data cable that plugged in the top of his head, glowing eyes, and a green light-up disk-activity-indicator aura underneath his nearly 4"-tall case. Does anyone really need a flash drive that makes you think of drinks with paper umbrellas in them? Probably not, but it was a sad day when I logged on to Tiki Mac and found they'd gone out of business. I really wanted a hard drive with a personality. If you dig around on the Wayback Machine, you may still find some traces of Tiki Mac. Mahalo!

Miss Snark (http://misssnark.blogspot.com/)
BUD UGLLY DESIGN (http://budugllydesign.com/)
Tiki Mac (http://www.tikimac.com/)