55-Alive! - but for how long?

The press release says.

55-Alive! is a premier interactive online magazine and community for individuals over 50. 55-Alive! provides news, lifestyle, health, recreation, and financial information, dozens of featured columnists, and an interactive community. Membership is free, and members can create online profiles and blogs, participate on discussion boards, become moderators or featured article contributors, or join one of the 55-Alive! Groups. 55-Alive! is the successor to the RetirementLifeToday.com

How is this web site likely to fare? I am still far from convinced there is a lasting requirement for generation specific web sites. Run as “cottage industries” or serving niche segments of the 50-plus age group, they might have a role. It will be interesting to see how they get on during 2007 – in particular Eons.

55-Alive has some specific problems. It is not that this site doesn’t have loads of stuff and things to do, but it is somewhat “cheap and cheerful”. The site design is annoying. It requires using both the browser and the on site scroll bars. There are some glitches when using Firefox and some of the navigation coding results in overlapping menus. All of that is fixable. If the company spent another $30-$40,000 dollars on the site design it would greatly improve the appearance.

Like all 50-plus ventures, I wish 55-Alive luck - but I have my doubts. Dick Stroud