Starbucks.com goes down like a cuppa joe, but it's not the place to buy coffee.

IN A NUTSHELL

Fans of Starbucks will feel right at home as they experience the same customer-friendly format and information present in Starbucks' retail outlets.

BRAVO

Elegant design balanced with a good use of Flash make the site easy to navigate. All the main functions you'd expect to find on the site are clearly marked—coffee descriptions, store locator, and managing your Starbucks card. Extra bonus content for learning about coffee, the Hear Music series, and other brand extensions (ice cream, bottled Frappuccino, and the new coffee liqueur) invite you to stay longer and deepen your brand affinity.

TRY AGAIN

For such a rich site, you're left wishing for a site map. It's missing on the U.S. version but, strangely, available on many of the international versions. One other oddity: Starbucks.com isn't the place to buy coffee—for that you have to go to a different site: starbucksstore.com. Both sites offer newsletter signups, though the one on starbucks.com acknowledges the signup through a pop-up, which may not be viewable by users with pop-up blockers (a large percentage of the audience, we're guessing). The newsletters are a good idea, but there's no mention of frequency and no example to view, providing little incentive for anyone but the die-hard Starbucks devotee to fork over an email address.