Fellers at Dell ditch Della?

Updated PC giant Dell is no longer in touch with its feminine side, it seems. It has taken its female-friendly sub-site, Della, offline less than ten days after launching it online.

The sub-site was dedicated to promoting the virtues of netbooks, and Dell's diminutive Inspiron Mini 10 in particular, to the fairer sex.

Technology retailing's answer to sanitary towel advertisements, there were lots of photos of girls wearing flowery dresses and straw hats, surfing in sun-drenched mountain valleys, relaxing on colour co-ordianated cushions and brightly checking email before traveling in to the office.

There's was a lot of text in pink. Women in business apparel wore glasses.

We say 'were' and 'was' because the site isn't there anymore. Della's URL,

http://content.dell.com/us/en/home/della.aspx,

now redirects to the more generic

http://content.dell.com/us/en/home/lifestyle.aspx

and all the actual content has gone.

The site's sub-sections now redirect from Della-specific URLs to lifestyle ones. A search for the term 'della' yields the bald statement: "No matches found."

Will it return - or is all this cross-dressing gone for good?

Did it all prove too much for the jocks at Dell? Or might it be that women are perfectly able to choose, buy and use technology without all this pink, fluffy patronising nonsense? ®

Update
Dell's (undoubtedly male) web team have got the content back up - minus the Della branding. Ladies, you now get help to "protect your investment with a stylish sleeve" and "the hottest laptops that match your style".