In 2003, as part of the project to redesign the Boston University homepage, we conducted a detailed and thorough review of 56 university home pages.  For example, we identified all navigational menus on the pages and recorded the links in each menu. We looked at content areas to see what types of information universities were publishing on their most important web page. We measured the height and width of pages, file sizes, and download times.

In October 2005, we revisited those university homepages and have updated our survey.  We also slightly expanded it.  We have added two new features:

1. Screen shots of each university’s homepage as it looked at the time of the survey.
2. A new report on Content and Services Technologies, where we collected data on the technologies universities were using for search, calendar, and news.

We hope that you find this survey both interesting and valuable.  I invite you to share any comments you might have.

Ron Yeany (staff member in Networked Information Services) conducted this review over a two-week period in October 2005.  We plan to update this survey periodically.

The results of our 2005 review are displayed on nine separate pages.  Those pages are described below. 

Richard Mendez
Director, Networked Information Services
Office of Information Technology
Boston University