“Believe it or not, in our patent office — now, this is embarrassing — this is an institution responsible for protecting and promoting innovation — our patent office receives more than 80 percent of patent applications electronically, then manually prints them out, scans them, and enters them into an outdated case management system,” Obama said a today’s Forum on Modernizing Government.

Sounds like the same problems that most large organizations suffer from… whether it’s banking or even health care.

..at Zappos, we really view culture as our No. 1 priority. We decided that if we get the culture right, most of the stuff, like building a brand around delivering the very best customer service, will just take care of itself.

Interesting. I’ve often heard the phrase “if we get the employees right, most of the stuff… will just take care of itself”, but Tony seems to have experience in his prior company in which the employees were right, but the culture ended up failing to produce a Zappos-like success.

One of the first things we encountered is the tedious task of choosing a domain name. Since his firm’s business name is pretty generic and common, the domain name is taken. So, now it’s about finding something that still represents his firm, makes sense, is easy to spell, and of course isn’t already taken. Tough task.

Coincidentally, I happen to also be a subscribe to Architectual Digest and recently came across their list of the Top 100 designers. So, what better way to get inspiration than to look at the best 100? Below is the list and their corresponding websites:

Marco Aldaco, No website

Thomas Allardyce, www.hendrixallardyce.com

Charles Allem, www.cadintl.com

Marc Appleton, www.appleton-architects.com

Howard J Backen, www.bgarch.com

Penny Drue Baird, No website.

Bannenberg & Rowell, www.bannenbergandrowell.com

Javier Barba, www.greenarchitecture.com

John Barman, www.johnbarman.com

Bill Bensley, www.bensley.com

Marcos Bertoldi, www.marcosbertoldi.com.br

Karin Blake, no website.

Count Benedikt Bolza, www.reschio.com

Samuel Botero, www.botero.com

Peter Roy Bowman, www.banderasbaytradingcompany.com

Geoffrey Bradfield, www.geoffreybradfield.com

Thomas Britt, www.thomasbritt.com

Mario Buatta, no website.

Diane Burn, no website.

Candy & Candy, www.candyandcandy.com

Timothy Corrigan, www.timothy-corrigan.com

Savin Couelle, www.couelle.com

Elissa Cullman, www.cullmankravis.com

Wallace E. Cunningham, www.wallacecunningham.com

Joanne de Guardiola, no website.

Mark de Reus, www.dereusarch.com

Douglas Durkin, www.durkindesign.com

David Easton, www.davideastoninc.com

Steven Ehrlich, www.ehrlicharchitects.com

Mica Ertegun, no website.

Ferguson & Shamamian, www.fergusonshamamian.com

Norman Foster, www.fosterandpartners.com

Linda Garland, www.lindagarland.com

Michael Graves, www.michaelgraves.com

Allen Greenberg, www.allengreenberg.com

Robert M Gurney, www.robertgourneyarchitect.com

Victoria Hagan, www.victoriahagan.com

Mona Hajj, www.monahajj.com

Alexa Hampton, www.markhampton.com

Hariri & Hariri, www.haririandhariri.com

Nicholas Haslam, www.nh-design.co.uk

Thad Hayes, www.thadhayes.com

Ann Holden, no website.

Laura Hunt, www.laurahunt.com

Terry Hunziker, no website.

Ike Kligerman Barkley, www.ikba.com

Hugh Newell Jacobsen, www.jacobsenarchitecture.com

David Jameson, www.davidjamesonarchitect.com

Jim Jennings, www.jimjenningsarchitecture.com

Stephen Knollenberg, www.stephensknollenberg.com

Richard Landry, www.landrydesigngroup.com

Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, www.martynlawrencebullard.com

Michael Lee, www.mlcollection.com

Donna Livingston, www.dlivingstondesign.com

London Boone, www.mimilondon.com

Ron Mann, www.ronmanndesign.com

Peter Marino, www.petermarinoarchitect.com

Marmol Radziner + Associates, www.marmol-radziner.com

Margaret McCurry, www.tigerman-mccurry.com

Richard Meier, www.richardmeier.com

Miro Rivera Architects, www.mirorivera.com

Juan Pablo Molyneux, www.molyneuxstudio.com

Juan Montoya, www.juanmontoyadesign.com

Moore Ruble Yudell, www.mryarchitects.com

Katherine Newman, www.lonadesign.com

Sandra Nunnerley, www.nunnerley.com

Olson Kundig Architects, www.oskaarchitects.com

Thomas Pheasant, www.thomaspheasant.com

Mary Philpotts McGrath, www.philpotts.net

Campion Platt, www.campionplatt.com

Alex Possenbacher, www.possenbacherdesign.com

Jennifer Post, www.jenniferpostdessign.com

Antoine Predock, www.predock.com

Bart Prince, www.bartprince.com

Chakib Richani, www.richani.com

Jaquelin T Robertson, www.cooperrobertson.com

Jacques Saint Dizier, www.saintd.com

Nina Seirafi, www.ninaseirafi.com

Annabelle Selldorf, www.selldorf.com

Stephen Shadley, www.stephenshadley.com

Shelton, Mindel, www.sheltonmindel.com

Shope Reno Wharton, www.shoperenowharton.com

Majorie Shushan, www.majorieshushan.com

Michael S. Smith, www.michaelssmithinc.com

Scott Synder, no website.

Jose Solis Betancourt, www.solisbetancourt.com

John Stefanidis, www.johnstefanidis.com

Robert A. M. Stern, www.ramsa.com

Emily Summers, www.emilysummers.com

Roger Thomas, no website.

Suzanne Tucker, www.tuckerandmarks.com

Edward Tuttle, www.designrealization.com

Wang Ta-Chun, www.mwa.com.tw

Paul Vincent Wiseman, www.wisemangroup.com

Craig Wright, no website.

Pierre Yovanovitch, www.pierreyovanovitch.com

As with many projects, I typically do my research before diving into design. In this case, having a list of the top 100 designers currently by AD is beneficial in seeing what others have (or haven’t) done when it comes to representing their life’s work on the web. So, In the upcoming notes I’ll share with you my findings while browsing through this list. But, for today — here’s some interesting notes by just looking at the domain names.

.com’s: 81, or 81%

.net’s: 1, or 1%

Country Specific TLD’s: 4, or 4%

Are exactly the name of the architect and designer:  43, or 43%

Includes hyphens in the name: 4, or 4%

Don’t have a website: 10, or 10%

Generic Keywords only: 3, or 3%

Part of their name + the keywords “architect”, “design”, or any abbreviation of those words:  22, or 22%

Gotta love calculating percentages when the #’s are out of 100. The one thing that stuck out to me was the # of folks who didn’t have a website. In this day and age, it amazes me. Especially considering these are the top 100! I think it just goes to reinforce the fact that much of the business in the Design and Architectural world comes via contacts and knowing the right folks. I would be interested to know if any of these top 100 receive leads via their websites.