So clearly we have a revolutionary concept here. They've created a directory - a technology that has been around since, I don't know, 1994? and put a minimalist design face on it and now the vendor world will be rushing to their doorstep, as will scores of clients looking to leverage this new paradigm of new business prowess.

They even have an interactive demo that explains this. Basically, you go to the site (step one!). Then you click on the category (step two!). OK, is your heart palpitating yet? Mine is - but it might be all this heat in New York today. Now, once you click on the category you get (drumroll please...) (are you ready? are you really ready? you sure?) A LIST OF COMPANIES IN THAT CATEGORY!! But wait, folks: There's more! If you click the company name, you get a listing, which consists of a few paragraphs of information and even a way you can contact this company. WOW! What genius.

Yeah, whatever. Most vendors I know don't even go on the Inter-Web, but that's besides the point.

The most bothersome thing about this website is the about page...

* Your offering will be found by more agencies because it will be easier for you to be found

I guess all the reps are getting laid off! How are you going to get the word out about your website? If the world isn't already beating a path to your door I see no reason to bother listing with you.

* Agency personnel will be able to learn more about your services

Well, duh.

* You will receive targeted web site traffic from us

Again, only if your site receives targeted traffic in the first place. Easier said than done, take if from someone who knows and then some. If you promote too much, you'll have the vendors of the vendors using it as a resource to bother you.

* The link from our site to yours may improve the search engine ranking of your site

Before I have a COMPLETE HEART ATTACK HERE I have to go "OK Marc, they did say 'may', they did say 'may.'" But that's the single most dubious claim I've seen in a while.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of Page Rank, if you search for a term, the results that are shown are ranked in the order of relevance. The way Google determines this relevance is by rating how "important" your website is based on numerous factors, one of them being who links to you. Page Rank is on a scale of 0 to 10. A major news site like CNN is an 8 or a 9. If you're linked by CNN, your page rank goes up incrementally. Which means higher search rankings and more traffic.

So if you were to list on a site like this, their claim is that by being there, your page rank will go up. Or so they're implying.

EXCEPT THEIR PAGE RANK IS ZERO! ZERO!!!! ZILCH! NADA! If anything, linking to you would make THEIR PAGE RANK GO UP!

How is that even remotely a selling point? People like me who work hard to create a high quality website find it totally maddening to see a claim like this from a new website. It's not only unethical, but anyone with a little savvy can go to a page rank checking site and see where they stand. (Adholes is a 6, predicted to be a 7 soon for the record. And outbound links are a source of revenue for us.)

Anyway - it's clear that these guys have no idea how this business even works and their demo is so insulting to the intelligence it may as well have "First, start by booting up your computer and logging into the Internet."