Websites of the Fortune 100
By Steven Snell | Published April 20th, 2009 in InspirationObserving websites from a variety of different industries and different types and sizes of business can be very interesting. Today I would like to look at the sites of some of the largest companies in the world, so the Fortune 100 seemed like a good point of reference.
The 100 businesses contain a great deal of diversity, and they all have their own purposes and approaches with their websites. However, they’re all large, successful companies, so it can be interesting to browse through them all. They are listed here in the order that they appear in Fortune’s list.
1. Wal-Mart
2. Exxon Mobile
3. Chevron
7. Ford
8. Citigroup
10. AT&T
12. JP Morgan Chase
13. AIG
14. Hewlett-Packard
15. IBM
16. Valero Energy
17. Verizon
18. McKesson
19. Cardinal Health
20. Goldman Sachs
21. Morgan Stanley
22. Home Depot
23. Procter & Gamble
24. CVS Caremark
26. Kroger
27. Boeing
29. Costco
30. Merrill Lynch
31. Target
32. State Farm
33. WellPoint
34. Dell
36. Marathon Oil
37. Lehman Brothers – Bankrupt
38. Wachovia
40. Walgreens
41. Wells Fargo
42. Dow Chemical
43. MetLife
44. Microsoft
45. Sears Holdings
46. UPS
47. Pfizer
48. Lowe’s
49. Time Warner
50. Caterpillar
52. ADM
53. Fannie Mae
54. Freddie Mac
55. Safeway
56. Sunoco
57. Lockheed Martin
58. Sprint Nextel
59. PepsiCo
60. Intel
61. Altria Group
62. Supervalu
63. Kraft Foods
64. Allstate
65. Motorola
66. Best Buy
67. Walt Disney
68. FedEx
69. Ingram Micro
70. Sysco
71. Cisco Systems
72. Johnson Controls
75. American Express
76. Northrop Grumman
77. Hess
78. GMAC
79. Comcast
80. Alcoa
81. DuPont
83. Coca Cola
84. News Corporation
85. Aetna
86. TIAA-CREF
87. General Dynamics
88. Tyson Foods
89. HCA
91. Macy’s
92. Delphi
93. Travelers
94. Liberty Mutual
95. Hartford Financial Services
96. Abbott Labs
98. Humana
99. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
100. 3M
For more design inspiration, please see:
Think my favourite is General Dynamics
There’s a lot of room for improvement for a lot of these sites.
Some of these are actually pretty horrific. Chevron for example, there’s not really any need for all that white space.
this is very good to have a looking at F100 companies website under one roof !! good job..
I would love see the collection of all social networking websites under similar roof..
[...] Websites of the Fortune 100 [...]
interesting.. it really surprises me amazon isn’t there!
Berkshire Hathaway is interesting – a Fortune 100 company with no web design to speak of, or anything to indicate visual branding on the web.
The visual message that these sites have in common is one of playing it safe.
Zach,
I agree, there’s not a lot of impressive design work here. However, I have a feeling that some of these websites are very effective for their companies even though they don’t appeal to us as web designers.
Tracey,
I thought Berkshire Hathaway was a joke at first. I can’t believe a company of that size has a website like that.
allstate and pfizer seem to do nicely. simple and effective designs.
berkshire hathaway…welcome to 1996. interesting to see something like that still hanging about on the internet
Very corporate! Thank you for this collection
@Callum Chapman
Amazon.com is #171 on the Fortune 500 list with just about 15bil in revenue and only 400mil in profit. Sounds like a lot, but not as much as the big boys.
White, white, white, white, white, white, white, white, white, white…
I was surprised to find that I really like General Motors’ site.
Berkshire Hathaway’s site is an extension of Warren Buffet’s personal belief that companies that spend a lot of money on flashy marketing or fancy offices are not spending their money wisely.
The “design” is certainly not visually appealing, and wouldn’t work for anyone else, but you have to admire the way it holds true to the Oracle of Omaha’s approach to business.
Most of them could be improved, I agree on that with others
Matt,
GM’s stood out to me as one of the better sites on the list as well.
Stefan,
Well he’s obviously a successful businessman and he’s built a very strong company. It just doesn’t make sense to the rest of us, but maybe there’s something to it.
Janko,
Agreed.
They kinda all look the same to me. I agree GM’s site is pretty cool though.
Its hard to build websites for huge corporations were everyone wants to fill the pages with tons of content and layout is debated on by various departments.
Some of the sites need some upgrade~ maybe even to web 2.0
Thom,
I agree, most of them look very similar. I think that goes back to what Tracey said about them playing it safe.
[...] Websites of the Fortune 100 [...]
It is disappointing how totally unimaginative these sites are, and how badly they fail at differentiation.
[...] Snell at DesignMag did me a huge favor a week ago: he put together a list of the web sites of the Fortune [...]
Good list.
” but I see that shit in the list.
I was about to say “that’s a good point that you did not include Microsoft
Hasan,
I didn’t choose the sites/companies on the list, it’s just taken straight from the Fortune 100. If a company is in the Fortune 100 then it is on this list.
Yes. Next time I will read the title
I’d like to know who designed these. Just out of curiousity.
Jack,
I would think a lot of them are done in house with companies of that size. I could be wrong though.
Where the hell is google
Sumanth,
I didn’t choose the companies to showcase, they’re based on the Fortune 100. If they’re not part of the Fortune 100 they are not in this post.
great collection
All of these web sites are BORING. And these are the companies who have the bucks to make a really interesting website. But they play it safe. Look up the advertising agencies who made these websites and visits their website. You’ll see an innovative, fun site. check out http://www.leoburnett.com/
every so often it changes. Last time I was there you could draw all over the web page with a pencil. That type of thinking, on the part of these companies, would make the U.S. great again. Otherwise we’re just Rome rotting away.