Seems like a lot of sites are taking advantage of an IE9 and Windows 7 Taskbar feature to create regular interaction between their customers and their websites.
It makes sense as well. As reported by CNET back in February, pinning a website can result in a traffic boost:
Microsoft now says that sites that have gone this extra step are seeing anywhere from a 15 percent to 50 percent increase in site visits, behavior that can be tracked back to a pinned site’s increased visibility compared to bookmarks, which are usually kept hidden within a menu inside of the browser.
During a recent visit to the Delta Airlines website I caught a small notice near the top of the browser window:
This is the typical delivery vehicle of websites that want you to pin their site to your Windows 7 Taskbar. It is fairly unobtrusive and the color scheme certainly catches your attention against the blue background. It even keeps in step with Delta’s primary design colors of blue and red.
So I first logged into my SkyMiles account as recommended above and then dragged the site icon from the IE address bar down to the Windows 7 taskbar. That gave me a Delta logo and a great interactive Jump menu to interact with the main Delta website.
As you can see by having a user login to the site before dragging the icon to their taskbar you end up with a much richer experience and easier access to the parts of the website you need to interact with.
Here is what the Jump menu looks like if you are not logged in:
As you can see it is missing that entire top section of the menu that gives direct access to the user based parts of the site. It still provides easy access to much of the sites functionality just not user specific access.
It is good to see major companies getting onboard with taking advantage of features like this in IE9 and Windows 7 to create a better customer experience. What sites have you seen offer the pinning feature?
Let us know in the comments to share with everyone.
