Corporate Websites Are Irrelevant by Jeremiah Owyang

On the same journey that prompted my previous post, I ran across a good read by Jeremiah Owyang titled, " Voices from the Community, Corporate Websites are Irrelevant". It was a follow up to his previous post titled, "Web Strategy: How to evolve your irrelevant corporate website". The basic point of the original article is that consumers don't need to concern themselves with the company line as authentic product information is available from real (virtually) people. I must say, Jeremiah does support his notions with singular incidents instead of larger scale statistics. Still I think he has important and relevant things to say. For example:

They use instant messaging, facebook, (and other social networks) and rarely directly type in a domain name to corporate website. If this holds true, then it’s assumed that prospects make decisions on other websites BEFORE they come to the corporate website to get factual information.

I don't think this is a new notion. I would say that most people I know will ask around before making a product purchase. They key is how the modern web makes it so accessible. I can research dozens of opinions on most products with a minimal time investment.