Others run navigation bars horizontally across the tops or down the sides of their pages. One site stuck the navigation bar way down near the bottom of the home page, requiring users to scroll down to find it. Most of the big boys' sites wisely offer left-side vertical navigation bars and supplemental ones across the top. Site maps are important. Even some smaller manufacturers with sophisticated sites and varied offerings use site maps to steer users where they want to go.
Commerce is tough to predict.
Many of the smaller tool companies will sell their goods to you directly. Yet direct commerce is rare among larger manufacturers who pass users through to traditional retailer or distributor Web sites. The retailer handoff is usually clumsy and forces the consumer to begin the product search all over again once he reaches the retailer site. This area needs lots of improvement across the board. Rich media, Flash animation, and video are alluring, but few sites use it.