When I praised Martine and Phillippa's Cool Canals book earlier this year (see 'Canals cool for cats') I thought the book would probably stop there, with maybe only annual updates.
But they've been busy little cats, and I see they are expanding their original website from a simple shopfront for the book into an online version of the book itself.
Cool Canals Guides (dot com) seems to be aimed at the same territory as Waterscape, the official British Waterways leisure site, going very much for the all-users market.
I think it's an astute move to go line with the whole content of the book, but then I speak as someone who doesn't read the paper versions of guide books so much any more. Indeed, if I do buy such books, I often buy them as 'souvenirs' of a pleasant online experience.
It's early days for Cool Canals Guides, so it's unfair to look for the gaps. First impressions are that it's a light, airy and easy-to-navigate design, and I like the auto-expanding menus, something that Waterscape should try.
One big omission is a dedicated site search box. If you know the name of what you want but you don't know exactly how to categorise it, you won't find it easily.
(To be fair, this is something that even Waterscape itself can't get right. Its search results are notorious unproductive. For example, look on Waterscape for the new Grand Union gastro-pub The Three Locks, which opened last spring near Leighton Buzzard. Even if you find the right page - it took me ages - you'll end up talking to the mobile phone of the monosyllabic Irishman who left it over a year ago. This is despite The Three Locks winning 'Best New Pub' in The Morning Advertiser awards in October. But I digress.)
[Update: Waterscape has corrected the error mentioned above.]
What's really missing from Cool Canals Guides, though - and which I think ought to be in by default - right from the start - is an RSS feed. This would keep us informed of new additions to the site without having to revisit it. So long as there's no feed, the most up to date part is going to be their feed on Twitter, @coolcanals. [Update: Martine has promised this is coming.]
The real test of whether the Cool Canals Guides website becomes a useful online version of the book - and ever grows into a competitor for Waterscape - will be a steady stream of announcements (including tweets) about updates. There needs to be at least something new announced almost every week.
You can sign up for a 'quarterly newsletter'. But come on, be honest everyone, even if you do sign up to email newsletters do you ever read beyond the first paragraph or two? The longer the newsletter, the tougher it is to absorb - no matter how soft.
Martine and Phillippa says they are launching two new books in the new year - Weekend Walks and Pub Days Out. I'd be inclined to launch these as extensions to the website first - perhaps publishing them chapter by chapter. The books, when they come, could be 'souvenirs' of a thriving website.
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