I had the system up for about a year at f64.wpi.edu. The internet is a new medium which has not developed its own identity.
People consider the web to be like a piece of paper or an adaptation of such.
Sites often lack a sharp focus, because it's a new medium in imitation of a well known and popular medium - printed paper. On the web, presentation and level of detail are infinite. Columns, advertisements, pages, and limitations on number of words, size of photographs, nice as they are sometimes, are elements that are unnecessary on the web, and are hold-ons to the media conventions of old. Those which take advantage of the web are creators that realize that their audience is people all over the world that want to be at their site to learn something. They also realise there are new features, such as huge amounts of space, interactivity, low cost, and ease of changes and updates, which are benefits to those that who choose to accept change.