Adrants has a breakdown of the Web Marketing Association’s (WMA) Internet Standards Assessment Report, which examines which industries have the most/least effective websites. The study found that gaming, music, sports and automotive sites are the best while public relations, directory/search engine and radio sites are the worst. You can download a copy of the report from the WMA website.

A close look at the report reveals that the definitions of the various industries covered are a bit fuzzy. As an example, the PR category doesn’t consist exclusively of PR firm websites (which was my initial assumption), but instead broadly of any website that has a PR focus. In addition, search engines are defined pretty liberally – Tower Records and www.cancer.com were included. It makes it difficult to make some sort of big statement about the report’s results.

However, web developers should explore the report for the listings of exceptional websites in each industry. You’ll find some gems. The winner for best search engine website in 2004 and 2005 was www.scirus.com, a scientific information search engine that allows visitors to save and export search results and guides users deftly towards more refined keyword combinations. Volkswagen was ranked the best automotive website in 2005 and its got everything you can imagine. The website had better be great if its going to help VW overcome those baffling television commercials they are currently running.

First saw this on Micro Persuasion.