[Sigia-l] Company geographical location, where to display it on the screen

[Juan Ruiz]

After reading the article "blasting the myth of the fold"
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/blasting-the-myth-of, the author
mentions how some websites are putting useful features at the bottom of
the page, based on the research that users DO scroll down to the bottom
of the page when good content is available. 

 

I wondered through some websites from international corporations, and I
noticed a major difference when it came to the 'geographical location'
of the website.

On www.apple.com <http://www.apple.com/> , the feature to change the
location is a the bottom of the page

On www.microsoft.com <http://www.microsoft.com/> , this feature is on
the top right corner

On www.dell.com <http://www.dell.com/> , feature is at the bottom of the
page

On www.adobe.com <http://www.adobe.com/> , feature is at the top right
hand corner

On www.bmw.com <http://www.bmw.com/> , feature is at the bottom of the
page

On www.bp.com <http://www.bp.com/> , feature is on the right hand column

On www.ebay.com <http://www.ebay.com/> , site recognizes the IP
geo-location displaying a pop-up offering to go to the correct site
(e-commerce site)

 

I was under the assumption that a user would like to know the
geographical location right away; after all, I am concerned with the
news/products/locations/etc of my region than the news from another
location. 

 

Apple, as the trend makers they are, has always introduced new UI
concepts, creating new user behavior. Is this one of them? (I'm not even
positive if I should give credit to Apple on this). What is the
rationale for this?


-Juan Ruiz