What Are the Real Differences Between Intranet and Internet Sites?

By Patrick Walsh Nov 24, 2010

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Are Intranets really just simpler versions of their big brother the Internet? In this guest article Patrick Walsh of the BBC argues that intranets need to be thought about much differently — that is, if you want your project to succeed.

I gave a presentation on the Lean Intranet some weeks ago to an informal meet up of Content Strategists and Intranet people. In the presentation I was quite passionate about my position regarding intranet workers. I stated categorically that they should come out of the shadow of the internet and start creating their own tools and approaches — their own profession. At the end of the presentation I was asked the following question by an astute member of the audience:

"You say you want us to create our own profession but what exactly are the differences between intranets and internets?"

To my shame I waffled and gave what might have been to many an acceptable answer but it was not acceptable to me. Afterward, I realized that I needed to give this question some more thought, and the result is this article.

‘It’s all web sites isn’t it?’

This is what someone once said to me. They were wrong. From once static pages, Internet sites have evolved and specialized. A quick trawl about the Web will yield sites with very different models, aims and methodologies. The successful ones will have figured out what their site is for and what model best suits getting the job one.

I think that intranets in general have not yet achieved this. I honestly think that many intranet workers look over their shoulders at their big brother, the internet, and think that somehow they have the answer and we don’t. I think that when it comes to intranets neither have the answer…yet.

So as for my assertion that intranets and internet site are really different how can I back that up? I have thought of some areas where I think there is a real difference and I will enlarge on these differences below:

Users
Information needs
Knowledge
Shared Goals
Environment

Let’s have a closer look at each of these.

User Diversity

As an intranet worker you will have a unique set of users but, unlike many internet sites, they will not be homogeneous. OK, you might say that this is true for internet sites too as, for instance, many different groups of people use Google.

However they have a simple model in that the only major user motivation is ‘I want to find something about a topic’ and then connecting them with the most relevant content. I am not saying this is easy, it isn’t, but understanding what the users' motivations are is easy — they want to find stuff.

With intranets you will encounter many different sets of users, all with differing motivations and ways of doing things, and so it can get very complicated and messy if you try and satisfy everyone. In many ways a Web site can choose its users by what they offer. An intranet site is stuck with their set of users and so must modify the site to suit them.

Just consider a few types of user sets an intranet must provide for: finance, operations and procurement. It’s like an internet site trying to be a banking site, Wikipedia and Ebay all at once. It’s a big problem and one for which intranet workers must find workable solutions for themselves, as no one else will.

Information Needs

I have already pointed out that there are differing user sets for intranets. Each one of these sets will have their own special information needs. What they want, when they want it and in which format.