New looks for Not Delia and Delia Online

Coincidentally both Mrs Smith and I were revamping our websites at the same time. I don’t usually write very much about the ‘queen of British cooking’ as I’m NOT a fan. However, I do have a look at Delia’s site from time to time, just as I look at many other foodie sites.

We’re most of the way through our revamp now, with the new logo, the cleaner new look, and the improved navigation. So far we’ve had nothing but compliments – feel free to post a comment about our revamp, whether you agree or not.

Meanwhile, poor Delia Smith has come under some flak again. I guess it’s a price of fame. This time it’s not about frozen mashed potatoes but about her website itself.

I feel sure she probably had nothing to do with the whole process itself, it’s much more likely she left it to her website design and development people. But, oh dear. How they’ve let her down. Now, I do understand that we can’t all be everywhere at once – only Gordon Ramsay can do that – but I think it’s a typical case of where divorcing ownership from management can result in stuffing up more than a turkey.

Malcolm Coles spells it all out in his blog posting “Delia Online relaunch goes sour”. Apparently they’ve deleted all the old forums and lots of people’s saved recipes. They’ve also allegedly got paid links which violate Google’s terms and conditions, which may make the site liable to be booted out of Google’s index. (Yeah, I know that not everyone is a Google fan, but it’s a very brave website owner who ignores Google’s power and influence.) There are adverts in the breadcrumb trail (OMG!). And there’s lots more to recoil in horror from. I won’t try to reinvent the wheel – you can get the whole story from Malcolm’s blog.

And that’s not all – Malcolm wrote in a later blog posting:

I recently pointed out that the Delia Online’s relaunch was a right cock up. They’ve now made things worse …

I wonder how much was spent on the whole revamp. I feel sure that many of us could have done a better job for a damn sight less.

Anyway, enough of the webmastery stuff, what about the content of the site itself? Well… one of the first things I saw when I visited was an advertorial for Spanish picota cherries. I guess that’s OK, but it’s from a cook with a major influence on what British people buy, at a time when everyone else is promoting BRITISH cherries. It’s National Cherry Day next week – a cause supported by leading chefs such as Gordon Ramsay. I really think that Delia Smith has lost the plot.