I think office photos, although common and trendy, do serve a purpose (if done well): they show the client that a) they are ding well enough to have an office, and a pretty nice one too and b) they work in a comfortable environment, one that will lend to their production quality.

Like the office photos, the company bios (again, if done well) show the client how creative they are. Obviously, creativity is important in such a competitive industry.

I think the flash trend is dying and is being replaced with WordPress. Thank God.

Other than that, I think you pretty much nailed it.

Here’s an idea for your next post: Why all software websites are the same (i.e. liquid layouts w/ big colored stripes, big and bold typography, nifty icons, and sitemaps in the footer).

Ha! Genius.

HMK

Laura Bergells :
So, so, true! And sad…
When almost every agency uses the same “see how different we are” approach to demonstrate why they’re unique… they all end up looking and sounding exactly the same.

Amen. It’s like the kids who shop at Hot Topic:

“I wanna be different, just like everybody else!”

And I definitely second the vote for auto dealers, plumbers, lawyers, dentists, CPAs and I’d like to add “almost any website targeting a local business targeting folks in the 25-55 demographic”