Realty Bid, what happened?

[villain2]

So anyone know what happened to Realty Bid? Is this a case of 2A coming up with something that was really good and the company going "it's too much for us, we want something simple" or what?

[No-Tec]

I might be making this up but as I recall on here, in a previous discussion, something or someone fizzled out and they ended up scrapping the site b/c they wanted HTML only? Maybe.

[pixelranger]

Its a simple case where the Old Marketing person who wanted the flash site left the company. The New Marketing person wanted to change everything in order to suit what they envision . Happens all the time in the business world.

Shane
www.pixelranger.com

[villain2]

The new site sucks by comparison. It looks like every other "business" site out there. Guess it's less confusing for the more conservative minded though.

"Just keep it like everyone elses"

Originality is worth nothing in the business world.

[nevil]

Originally posted by pixelranger
Its a simple case where the Old Marketing person who wanted the flash site left the company. The New Marketing person wanted to change everything in order to suit what they envision . Happens all the time in the business world.

Shane
www.pixelranger.com

same thing happened with us, we built the guinness world records site in 100% flash about three years ago now, then new team wanted t in html, so we built a dull version in html, not much you can do about it unfortunately.

[juxtaflo]

Originality is worth nothing in the business world.

I still have hope. Apple, Volkswagon, HP, and even 2advanced seem to be doing alright in the business world.

[MG315]

Originally posted by juxtaflo
I still have hope. Apple, Volkswagon, HP, and even 2advanced seem to be doing alright in the business world.

that's not completely true. Apple isn't doing very well at all. In the latest (or 2nd latest) issue of Money magazine they have a special on why "the iPod can't save Apple." very interesting read...

Here's the beginning of the article, but you don't get to see any of the interesting stuff until you get further into it, such as although their sales are high, profits are next to nothing.


anyway, this isn't an apple discussion so i'll stop talkin about it, its just i read that article a few weeks ago and your post reminded me of it.

[Ultima Designs]

Wow - that site has really gone down the drain. How could they give up what they had before for that......thing...?

[fospher.com]

Is the old version to be found anywhere? I arrived a bit too late.

[N.I.M.]

Originally posted by fospher.com
Is the old version to be found anywhere? I arrived a bit too late.

Yeah, it's in 2A's portfolio section.
http://www.2advanced.com/realtybid/

[mr. freak]

Yeah, the whole thing is really sad
I remember being incredibly impressed by RealityBid when it was first released. Seemed really complex for a Flash site, back then Also damn pretty.

The same thing happened to me once -- a company called Listen Up Group got some new management, and replaced my work ( www.webfeatsdesign.com/lu -- the HTML site was completed too but it's gone) with what's up today at www.listenupgroup.com . Ah well).

[MG315]

happened to me too. one of the first sites I designed was for a company called prima energy. I guess the guy that worked with me was replaced and someone else thought they could do a better job.
My version: http://www.mg315.com/images/primaEnergy
Their version: http://www.primaenergy.com/


I'm sure it's happened to all web developers at some point in time. The important thing is to check up on the sites in your portfolio to make sure they havent destroyed the site you created (and if they have, upload it to your server and link to your version in the portfolio). There's nothing we can do about the politics within a specific company, but we can make sure that prospective clients don't see the "new" version instead of the one we did.

[Ultima Designs]

Originally posted by MG315
Their version: http://www.primaenergy.com/

Ouch. What a disgrace to your work.

[MG315]

at least my name's not on it, heh.

i tried contacting them, asking if they had accidentally lost the one I did and offering to give them a new copy but I never heard back from them. Doesn't bother me too much because it was the first commercial site I did and I did it for free.

[TheOriginalFlashDavo]

The thing to keep in mind though, is that maybe in some cases it's as simple as Flash not beng the right tool for the target users...

Just a thought, and not referring to any of the sites discussed here specifically.

[villain2]

To that, I again reiterate (sp?), who in this day and age DOESN'T have a flash player on their computer. We're not talking some huge FlashLevel or Fantasy Interactive .swf, we're talking accents. Flash sometimes loads faster than certain .jpg files.

[phacker]

Their version: http://www.primaenergy.com/

This thing was done with Frontpage, probably by the son or nephew of one the big bugs.

You gotta love all those animated gifs.

[TheOriginalFlashDavo]

Originally posted by villain2
To that, I again reiterate (sp?), who in this day and age DOESN'T have a flash player on their computer. We're not talking some huge FlashLevel or Fantasy Interactive .swf, we're talking accents. Flash sometimes loads faster than certain .jpg files.

What's that got to do with what I said?

Right tool for the right job is what I'm saying... and in some cases there is no better tool than a HTML (sorry, XHTML! ) front-end... still.

You think a site like www.smh.com.au should be Flash?

Or www.bbc.co.uk?

Or www.cnn.com?

Saying that Flash can be used for every type of site is as bad as saying that Flash should never be used.

IMHO.

[juxtaflo]

I understand what you are saying but I see no problem with those sites being in Flash.

I think they would look like this: http://www.rr.com/flash/index.cfm

This was a big step for Flash and Fantasy Interactive are the pioneers that made it happen. I think eventually, when budget permits, every big news site will turn to Flash. The benefit of the rich interfaces you can build with Flash are starting to outweigh the technical hurdles.

[villain2]

Yeah,it's not great for every site, but it does add to it. Look at MSN.com. Nothing spectacular but it's a heck of a lot better than an animated .gif and allows for more of their headlines to be displayed without you having to click on a bunch of pages or taking up space on a page. That is good use of Flash on a content driven site.