Ladies' Choice

Brandweek, June 5, 2000 by Kristina Feliciano

As the gender divide among computer users closes, more and more women are turning to the Web to find useful information and nothing-but-Net entertainment. Although there's been a boom in sites developed for and by women, only a few are worth a second look.

The Web is from Mars, women are from Venus. At least that's what people used to think. Now the logic is that women are so pressed for time and burdened by responsibilities, they need the Internet to make their lives easier.

But first, they need someone to make the Web itself easier, which explains the explosion of sites catering specifically to women.

These sites, ranging from IVillage, which launched in 1995, to Totalwoman.com, which made its debut in April, are a lot like online women's service magazines. They offer tips on homemaking, fashion, health, parenting and career. And they are remarkably similar in their visual approach: All of the six general-Interest sites we reviewed follow a simple grid layout, and all but one were resplendent in yellow.

Content and tone were another matter. Too few of these sites were engaging. It's as if they extended their no-frills attitude a little too far. But others, like Oxygen.com, were rather compelling.

Let the comparison shopping begin.

IVILLAGE.COM

****

The Point: Solutions for women's lives in a "well-lit, supportive, community environment."

Vital Statistics: Launched in 1995. Owned by iVillage Inc., in New York City.

Target Demo: Women 25-54.

Traffic: 5.8 million unique visitors in March.

Content: This site actually delivers on its promise of helping women find solutions to practical matters. There's a pregnancy calendar, a recipe finder, a debt-reduction tool, a Top 10 downloads for home improvement help and lots more. IVillage.com consists of 19 channels organized by subject matter: "AllHealth," "Pets," "Shopping Central," "Travel" and a new one, "Working Diva." There's music, courtesy of the iVillage Radio Network (spinning soft rock, country and something called Hits Live!). Tips are mixed in with the substance: Solution No. 129 in "21st Century Solutions, 365 Answers to Women's Everyday Problems" was how to make your lipstick last. But at least it's useful tips. IVillage also offers e-mail, personal homepages and message boards. A "Specials" section features freebies and discounts on stuff like vacation cruises and books from Amazon.com. "Shopping Central" links to products (discounts offered by online retailers) and stores (such as ibaby.com and planetrx.com). The news section acknowledg es women care about more than their looks, covering sports, politics, international and health, just like a real newspaper.

Look and Feel: Has less white space than the others; there's text neatly arranged in every bit of the basic grid layout. But it works--you feel like you're being presented with lots of information.

Usability: It doesn't take a village to use this site.

Advertising Opportunities: Sponsorships, banners, buttons and sweepstakes. Sponsors/partners include Unilever, Ford Motor Company, Warner-Lambert, Charles Schwab, PNC and AT&T.

Bottom Line: A solid option. IVillage has the content and the presentation. Plus, everybody knows about the site: It's been heavily marketed, and founder Candice Carpenter has been written about in everything from The New Yorker to The Industry Standard.

OXYGEN.COM

****

The Point: To serve women "better than they've ever been served before"--and to promote cable network Oxygen TV

Vital Statistics: Launched October 1999. Owned by Oxygen Media in New York City.

Target Demo: Women of all ages.

Traffic: For April, 3.3 million at-home users and 1.6 million at work users (these groups overlap to some extent).

Content: Oxygen.com is smart, and it's got personality. At what other women's site would you find features like "Is bread making you broad?" It's also for the pop-culturally aware. One of the partners is GirlsOn.com, a snappy entertainment site that reviews movies, books, TV and music from a twenty-something perspective. Elsewhere, there's a newsletter, features on Oxygen programming and the requisite sweepstakes and such. But rather than hold a contest to win a vacuum cleaner, as one of the other women's sites did, Oxygen invited women to see who could write the best rock song. The contest exhorted would-be participants to "forget divas," and the panel of judges included the all-grrl band Luscious Jackson. Oxygen.com is for women who have opinions and a sense of humor--and who have never seen a made-for-TV Valerie Bertinelli movie.

Usability: As intuitive as breathing.

Look and Feel: Much more visually interesting than its peers. Yes, it's yellow, but it's also gold and avocado green--in overlapping tint blocks that resemble an abstract lithograph that might have decorated someone's kitchen in 1974 (but in a good way). An animated "dial" breaks up the banality of the frames layout.

Advertising Opportunities: Sponsorships, banners and buttons. There's also a "partner utility bar," which is integrated into Oxygen's sites and links visitors to specially created partner pages that feature tools, services and discounts. A TV stripe," which runs continuously on the Oxygen cable network, offers information about the advertiser, from URLs to tips to "call to action" messaging. Advertisers include Cover-Girl, Amazon.com and gazelle.com.