twist_freeride

I am going to Kelowna on the IEC next year with my GF and as everyone will agree, such a process involves a lot of research on the net... one thing I have really noticed about Canadian businesses (although not true in all cases of course) is that an extremely high percentage have sub-standard websites or none at all - this just seems weird as even a lot of small businesses in the UK have a strong web presence (again.. not true in all cases)

Does anyone have any thoughts on why this may be? Even some fairly large shopping malls that I have looked at have sites that look like they were made in 1998 and work the same haha. I'm pretty sure it's not because Canadian computers run on coal so would love some input or even disagreement

crazydaving

I've noticed the same thing! And I find a lot of the websites seem to rant and rave about how good they are at giving 110% gold-plated everything, but you end up having to go really deep into the site to find out what the company actually does! Sounds like a business venture methinks - website overhaulage!

BristolUK

Certainly there are many local contractors who don't even have a Website (or even just a web page), just an entry on the yellow pages site with an enlargeable display ad.

When there is a website and email option they usually don't respond. Makes you wonder why they have it.

dbd33

The internet isn't as widely used in Canada as in Europe, most of the country only has dial up access. Accordingly, a web presence isn't the priority for Canadian businesses that it is for European ones.

iaink

Canadians do business on word of mouth, its a lot more important than web presence. Treat people right and customers will come.

Websites are an afterthought, or a long forgotten novelty from some time in the mid 90s.

jericho

Canada has one of the highest broadband usage rates in the world.

dbd33

If you're interested in the offerings of a major company then it's worth looking to see if they have a website for the US. If they do you can research the product of interest on there and just phone the Canadian branch to see how much they charge for it.

dbd33

In Toronto. Once you go past the 401 it's line-of-sight or dial up. I suppose that once you get up past Thunder Bay you're connecting your computer to a tin can with a string to the service providers tin can. Fortunately for the broadband statistics, the Canadian population mostly lives squished together in high density housing with internet cables; the great empty spaces are just that, the only advanced technology comes from John Deere.

AlmostThere12

This is what we've found trying to take a look at stuff(furniture, rentals etc) while we are still in the UK. I have to say that Australia is the same though and we found loads more once we were there, so will have to fly by the seat of our pants again for Canada!

Piff Poff

It does get frustrating when you try to find something. I was trying to find out how much a garbage container (skip) would cost. Only a couple of companies had a website and neither of those had prices (this was after hours so wanted to get an idea as don't have much time for personal calls during the work day).

Also tried to get an idea of prices for concrete steps - the website was advertising a clearance sale for Spring 2009. OH will have to pop in at lunch time now I doubt as with many of these places they are open on weekends, Granite shops are open Mon-Fri until 5pm, so are the tile shops (one is open until 3pm on a Saturday) etc.

lynsey4321

Yes! I've noticed this too, trying to look up letting agencies and it feels like an impossible task on the net. I can't help but kind of judge a company by how professional it is as that's all I have to work with. I notice it with Gumtree Vs Craigslist

Freddy_uk

If that's the case can't you get rogers 4g network?. Everywhere I've been in Alberta and BC at least had dsl.

Tony_Tiger

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

R I C H

You need to get out more. I'm 20 minutes drive from the downtown core of a city of c90,000 people, and just a couple of kms out of city limits. I have no cable, no cell service, no broadband. I recently took a road trip from here to Jasper and had no cell service for over 4 hours of the journey. The following 2 days travelling to Banff and back to Kamloops were similar - service available within towns themselves, but travel a short distance outside and there's often nothing. To suggest 4G is commonly available in BC is nonsense.

curleytops

I lived just west of Thunder Bay & lived on the internet - for me there was nothing else of interest to do. I threw my dial-up connection out the window years ago & had no bother adding to my audio and video libraries with the broadband connection I had.