Funny. Respectfully, I think they look great.

I always get the information I need - books and research they've been involved in, career history, a few personal details (family, hobbies, interests, where they live), and some links to more websites I never would have found otherwise. Maybe they don't have exciting animations, memorable logos, or even colored backgrounds, but it beats searching my university's over-engineered, information-starved profile on them.

They tend to be aesthetically unpleasant and high on the signal-to-noise ratio, yes. Hitting both would be nice, but if I had to choose one, it would be the second one.

guilty. manual html tags, no css, a couple center and table tags here and there. the page loads fast.

my powerpoints have (d)evolved to become just as bare now, too.