Site: www.gilbaneco.com
Company: Gilbane
Reviewers: Ed Weisberg, president of BX.com, inc. Jerry Meyer, president of the East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce After being ranked the top private company last week in the Providence Business News, we felt it important to see what a $2 billion company does with its space on the Internet.
Ed Weisberg, president of Providence’s BX.com thought they were not doing enough, while East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce President Jerry Meyer was satisfied with his visit to the site.
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”Gilbane’s position as a national leader in construction is not explicit on the home page,” said Weisberg, “Only several lucky clicks led me to the sub-page that associates Gilbane with such grand-scale projects as the National Air and Space Museum in Washington and Terminal V at O’Hare International. These accomplishments, alongside a client list that includes GM, Exxon, GE, IBM and Pfizer, would make for a more dramatic first impression.”
”I was impressed by the quality and simplicity of this site,” said Meyer.
Meyer also praised the design of the site.
”The layout and muted colors gave a real feeling of quality,” he said.
Weisberg disagreed.
”The home page, with its 19th Century imagery, intends to signify that Gilbane is ‘experienced’,” he said. “Unfortunately, many visitors may read ‘old’ instead.”
The company, which was founded in 1873, was the 11th oldest of the private companies featured on last week’s list. Weisberg felt that there were more appropriate ways to demonstrate a tradition of excellence than to repeatedly feature the image of founder William Gilbane with his bushy mustache and ascot.
Another complaint that Weisberg had with GilbaneCo.com was the quality of the photographs on the site.
”Gilbane uses stock photos that give the site an unfortunate generic look and feel,” he said. “But some original photos need help too.”
