With a lime, it all tastes the same.

So in honor of tomorrow being Cinco de Mayo, let's have some beer.... beer microsites that is. I took a look at three, Corona, Dos Equis and Tequiza.

Corona
You can't really have Cinco without Corona Pretty simple site with great visuals and nicely integrated with the classic campaign. There's no clutter or unnecessary action, like a nice day at the beach.

Unfortunately, most of the content is hidden within the images, forcing you to play a scavenger hunt game to find the cool stuff. Too bad that kind of navigation was cool in 2001; someone pass them a memo.

Dos Equis
You know, I actually like the art direction on this Dos Equis site. It's different, it's cool. Unfortunately, this is a great example of creative going overboard, at the expense of usability. I found myself instantly frustrated at what I'm suppose to be doing. Even after using the four text guides on the bottom, I couldn't figure out what I should do when the section opened up. Even worse, when you do actually find out what you're supposed to do, there's too much text. This was so close to being a good thing.

Rant on: I can't stand when creatives think the idea is so sacred that they lose common sense and forget that people will actually have to use this stuff. Oh, let's also not forget we are suppose to sell something and that this isn't an art project. Ok, rant off. (Can you tell I have baggage with this issue?)

Tequiza
And coming in last is Tequiza. This site spent so much time on transition animations that I actually sliced some limes, chilled a glass, rimmed it with salt and made myself a margarita instead.

But wow, the home page does a fantastic job of hiding the links you're supposed to use...(that's sarcasm) You only see them when you mouse over . C'mon guys, do you really think I'm going to really spend time looking for these links? Maybe I will but your normal audience won't. Finally, this site guilty of the most stereotypical beer imagery. Nice job!

So that's three beers; tasted, reviewed and spit out. I'll try to be more positive next time but in the harsh light of day, these sites just don't look so good. I'll do further "reviewing" of these brands tomorrow night, but based on today's research, I'm going with Corona. Bring on the limes!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!