High Profile ASP.NET websites

Question

About twice a month I get asked to justify the reason "Why are we using ASP.NET and not PHP or Java, or buzz-word-of-the-month-here, etc".

100% of the time the questions come from people that do not understand anything about technology. People that would not know the difference between FTP and HTTP.

The best approach I found (so far) to justify it to people without getting into technical details is to just say "XXX website uses it". Which I get back "Oh...I did not know that, so ASP.NET must be good".

I know, I know, it hurts. But it works.

So, without getting into the merit of why I'm using ASP.NET (which could trigger an endless argument for other platforms), I'm trying to compile a list of high profile websites that are implemented in ASP.NET. (No, they would have no idea what StackOverflow is).

Can you name a high-profile website implemented in ASP.NET?

EDIT:

Current list (thanks for all the responses):
(trying to avoid tech sites and prioritizing retail sites)

Costco - http://www.costco.com/
Crate & Barrel - http://www.crateandbarrel.com/
Home Shopping Network - http://www.hsn.com/
Buy.com - http://www.buy.com/
Dell - http://www.dell.com
Nasdaq - http://www.nasdaq.com/
Virgin - http://www.virgin.com/
7-Eleven - http://www.7-eleven.com/
Carnival Cruise Lines - http://www.carnival.com/
L'Oreal - http://www.loreal.com/
The White House - http://www.whitehouse.gov/
Remax - http://www.remax.com/
Monster Jobs - http://www.monster.com/
USA Today - http://www.usatoday.com/
ComputerJobs.com - http://computerjobs.com/
Match.com - http://www.match.com
National Health Services (UK) - http://www.nhs.uk/
CarrerBuilder.com - http://www.careerbuilder.com/

Answer 1

Here are some case studies from MS.

Answer 2

Stackoverflow

If that isn't convincing enough I guess you could also throw around

• MySpace
• Dell
• Wachovia
• Microsoft
• WhiteHouse.gov

To name a few

Answer 3

MySpace

Answer 4

MySpace (at least, they're sending a Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0 and X-AspNet-Version: 2.0.50727)

Answer 5

You could try to build your own list -- start with a list of high-profile sites, like say this one: http://s3.amazonaws.com/alexa-static/top-1m.csv.zip, from Alexa (http://www.alexa.com/topsites) -- it's their top 1 million daily sites.

Grab a bunch off the top of that list, whip up some code to grab their home page and look for "X-Powered-By: ASP.NET' or 'X-AspNet-Version' headers and there you go.

However, I guess that list from MS will be more convincing.

Answer 6

It's not high-profile in the way that MySpace or Stackoverflow might be, but we're using ASP.NET/IIS6 to serve ads for the SocialCash (http://socialcash.com) Headliners product, and we serve millions of impressions a day.

Answer 7

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

You can tell from the viewstate in the source.

Answer 8

Add Match.com. They were an early adopter of ASP.Net

Answer 9

Plenty Of Fish

Answer 10

add google's orkut

Answer 11

One of the most profitable online stores...

Costco

I don't know if you consider all of these to be high-profile sites but here are a few more.

Monster
ShareBuilder
BECU
John L Scott
REMAX
HTC
Zecco

Answer 12

add uk's leading price comparision site Money Supermarket

Answer 13

NHS National Health Service - Pretty big in the UK

Answer 14

Dell.com

Answer 15

Careerbuilder.com

Answer 16

Chipotle's online ordering system. Yum.

Answer 17

These same discussions happen with every technology. Sometimes it's just a matter of people trying to feel like they are part of the process. A better response to requests that want you to justify your technology choices is to ask, "Why do you care?" You have to gauge whether or not your audience can handle this retort, but you're the expert. You have skills and experience that they don't necessarily have.

When they buy a car, do they ask where the cup holders were manufactured and what type of polymers were used to make the dash? Do they ask whether the catalytic converter contains platinum or palladium as the catalyst? Of course not. They just want a car that looks nice and takes them places.

Tell them that you're building something that works and meets the requirements. Tell them you'll be glad to help them improve the product or service, but when it comes to the implementation details, you've got it under control.

Disclaimer: I no longer work with .NET. The car analogy was stolen from a recent talk by Dave Thomas, though embellished by me.

Answer 18

Crateandbarrel.com

Answer 19

I tend to turn the question...how hard is it to find developers for technology xyz?

This answer is also location specific. In my area it is much easier to find Asp.Net developers. Then PHP, then Java, then Ruby. If you want code that can be maintained over the long haul, you need developers. Asp.Net is where the developers are.

Answer 20

http://www.tesco.com (seems to use cfm in places as well but the cart part is .net) http://www.thomsonlocal.com/

Answer 21

This isn't the answer you asked for, but in situations like this I like to present the requirements (past, current, and future) and explain how the current (or in new projects, proposed) technology meets them.

Then you can ask your colleagues what their preferred technology is, and in what ways it is superior to yours in meeting each of these requirements.

Usually the mere thought of them having to actually research and write something definitive will result in sudden surge of trust for your expertise on the matter.