Deal Dot Dummies?

I just popped my head in to Deal Dot Com to check out the latest product and couldn't believe my eyes. Check out the screen grab. Yes, you read correctly, the site is "Down for Maintenance Until Tomorrow".

Huh? I don't get it. What if Googlebot and other search bots come calling and find no content and no links? What about new site visitors? Have they even heard of the word USABILITY? Have you ever known a company to simply wipe all content from their site while they whip up a new one? Maybe it's just me, but that seems totally ridiculous. The last time I saw such stupidity was when a client of mine decided to switch off her (carefully optimized) site for a 2 week Christmas vacation. Ouch. Bye bye rankings!

If our sites fall over for even a few minutes due to unscheduled hosting outages, I am the proverbial monkey on the back of my hosting company for the entire time, pushing for them to get the sites live again. I just can't believe an online business find the need to close up shop for back-end maintenance. Deal Dot Dumb?

29 Oct 07 *UPDATE*

Ok now they've changed their white "site down" page to a more colorful "site down" page with a cute cartoon character. Oh and they've also added their email address. Yep, that will fix the problem.... NOT!


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