Diamond Stone: other stone companies' websites, and what ours must do

Date: 2026-11-11. Revision 1. Drawn in docs/website-map.html section 16; the pages added because of it are in docs/ui-shell-mockup.html under "Website: deciding and trusting" and "Website: what the best stone sites have, and ours lacked".

A page-by-page reading of 37 stone companies' websites: 20 of the leading producers and distributors worldwide, and 17 in Oman, the Gulf and the countries that compete for the same buyers. For each: how it is organised, what a stone's page holds, the catalogue, samples, tools for professionals, proof, contact and languages. Then what ours lacked, and what was changed.

Limits. The sites were read as text and HTML on 11 November 2026, following real links from each home page. Their visual design could not be seen. Blocks loaded by script may have been missed, so "not seen" means "not in the page as served". Several sites refused the request or could not be reached (StoneContact, CDK Stone, Cullifords, Tanhat, Carrara Mid-East's content). Search results were observed from outside the Gulf, so they are indicative only. Points marked (unverified) were not read on a fetched page.

1. The short version

The best sites in the world each do one thing well, and none does everything. Polycor has test values but no stock or price. Aria has stock and price but no technical data. Mandarin Stone has a complete buying page but no origin. Nobody joins them.
The direct competition in Oman is thin online. One modern but shallow site, three stale ones (one still dated 2010, one whose first page is titled "Untitled Document"), and several firms with no site at all.
No Omani stone company's own site appeared for any general search we tried, in English or Arabic. Directories, trade-data sites and the press hold the results. Nothing at all answers the Arabic search for the price of Omani marble.
Our plan already had most of what the best do, and several things nobody does. It lacked eight things that good sites have. All eight are now planned and drawn (section 5).
What would set the site apart costs nothing to build and something to keep: honest data, real Arabic, no errors.

2. Who was read

Worldwide (20). Producers and brands: Antolini, Salvatori, Margraf, Levantina, Polycor, Lundhs, Franchi Umberto Marmi, Solancis, Stone Group International, Temmer, RK Marble, Classic Marble. Distributors: Aria Stone Gallery, Stone Source, ABC Stone, Artistic Tile (partly), MSI, Marble Systems, Artedomus, Mandarin Stone.

Oman (7). Al Ajmi Marble, International Marble Company, Al Nasr Marble, Stones World International, Kunooz, United Modern Stone, and the state mining company's page. No website was found for Al Shanfari, Al Hilal, Majan Marble or Gulf Stone.

Gulf (6). Glaze, Carrara Mid-East, MESK Marble, Marble Design, Fanar Marble, Saudi Marble and Granite, Qatar Marble and Granite.

Exporters into the Gulf (8). Marmonil, Temmer, Tureks, Delta Marble, MGT Stone, RK Marble, Classic Marble, Iktinos. Plus four marketplaces and directories.

3. Best in class, and what each still lacks

For	Best	What it does	What it lacks
A stone's page, for a specifier	Polycor	Test values with their standards; a full-size scan and a sample button for each finish; specification documents; projects that used the stone	Stock, price, sizes
A stone's page, for a buyer	Mandarin Stone	Price by size, lead time, a calculator with wastage, slip rating, a variation grade, care products	Origin
Slabs in stock	Aria Stone Gallery	Every lot in public: number, quantity, slab size, price. Filters by slab length and width. Says photographs are the actual slabs	Technical data
	Artedomus	Lots shown inside the stone's page, by city	Origin, data
Catalogue filters	Stone Source	Counts beside every option; "suitable for"; quick-ship	Test data
Samples	Polycor; Lundhs	A sample basket by finish, no account; a box of six finishes per stone
Tools for professionals	Polycor	Textures, building-model files, drawing patterns, courses, environmental declarations
Projects	Polycor; Artedomus	Architect, fabricator, stone and finish; many projects credited to their architects	Year, quantity, a story
Provenance	Lundhs	The quarry, the mineral make-up, which grade the photographs show
Sustainability	Franchi; Lundhs	Certificates and a declaration as documents
Contact	Solancis; Salvatori; Aria	Named people by region; a booking form with a 48-hour promise; 30 minutes with a named person
Names	Solancis	Fifteen "also known as" names on one stone's page
Arabic	Solancis; Tureks	The only two with real Arabic	Product labels left untranslated

4. How common each feature is, and where we stand

"Had it" counts sites where it was seen. ● in our plan and drawn · ◐ planned · ○ not planned.

Feature	Worldwide (of 20)	Oman and region (of 17)	Ours
A journal or news	18	5 fresh in a year	●
Projects	17	most, as photographs	● with full facts
Browse by colour	13	most	●
A sustainability page	10	few	● as "what we can and cannot say"
A trade login or account	9	2	● the portal
Samples ordered online	8	0	● and priced
A list or wishlist	7	0	● and it can be sent
Quarry pages	7	most claim quarries	○ by choice: we are a trader; an origin page instead
A datasheet or brochure per stone	8 of 16	most have a brochure	● datasheet; ◐ catalogue (added)
Country of origin on the stone's page	6 of 16	few	● always
"Similar stones"	6 of 16	0	● (added)
Filter by use	4	0	●
Stock shown in public	4	2	● (added; depends on the stock decision)
Textures to download	4	0	◐ by request
A room visualiser	4	1	○ by choice
A bookable visit or video call	3	0	● (added)
Named sales people	3	2	●
Filter by slab size	3	0	●
Projects linked from the stone	3 of 16	0	●
A photograph of each finish	3 of 16	0	●
A note on natural variation	3 of 16	0	● shown as a range and a grade (added)
Care guidance from the stone's page	3 of 16	0	● (added)
Lots with slab sizes, in public	2	2	● (added)
A price on the page	2	0	● for the sample
Courses for architects	2	0	○ by choice
A glossary	2	0	●
WhatsApp	2	9	●
Test values with their standards, on the page	1 of 16	1, the same values for every stone	● per stone, dated
Other names listed	1 of 16	0	● as one quiet line, on the main stone page only
A compare tool	1	1	●
A promised reply time	1	2	●
Arabic	1	5, two done properly	◐ a decision still open
Live chat	0	0	◐ under Contact only, while someone is on duty; whether it is on at launch is an open decision
Says "limestone" where it is one	few	0 Omani producers	●
Product data that search engines can read	few	1	●

5. What ours lacked, and what was done

#	Gap	Seen at	Fix	Drawn
1	Slabs available now, in public, by lot, with slab sizes and where they are	Aria, Artedomus, MESK, Tureks	A page of lots and a page per lot. Works for stock in the yard and for lots at a supplier ("3 weeks"). It depends on the open question of whether stock is held	● two screens
2	How much a stone varies, shown and graded	Lundhs (which grade the photos show); Mandarin (a variation grade)	A range from lightest to deepest from real lots; a grade from 1 to 4; a sentence saying what the photographs represent	●
3	What each finish is for	Lundhs	A line per finish on the stone's page	●
4	Care, from the stone's page	Mandarin, Solancis, Polycor	Three lines per stone, and a link to the guide	●
5	Similar stones	6 of 16	Two or three, with what differs, and "compare"	●
6	A visit or a video call that can be booked, with the list attached	Salvatori, Aria, Stone Group	A short form: here or by video, when, which stones. Sales confirm	●
7	A project as evidence	Polycor and Artedomus each have half	Architect, year, stone, finish, format, quantity, and how it was delivered, together	●
8	A page on sourcing and the environment	10 of 20	Ours says only what can be shown, and lists plainly what is not claimed	●
9	An origin page	7 of 20 have quarry pages	The country and its geology, sourced. Never a quarry: we are a trader and suppliers stay private	●
10	Compare; an enlarged slab with its lot and size; a projects list; how we match (first named "how we work"); what each test means; our numbers; a "which stone?" page	Various	Already planned, now drawn. The "which stone?" page was later withdrawn (`docs/CATALOGUE.md`, "Revision 2")	● seven screens
11	A catalogue and a company profile to download	Nearly every Gulf site	Made from the records each night, so it is never out of date; English and Arabic	●
12	An answer, in Arabic, to "what does Omani marble cost"	Nobody. The search returns classified adverts	"How buying works" written in Arabic for that question: what changes the price, the sample's price, a quote in four working hours	●
13	Content written for the Gulf	Nobody	A guide to stone outdoors in the Gulf: heat, salt, slip, from our own test reports	●
14	Counts beside each filter choice; a link that reopens a filtered view	Stone Source; Aria	Added to the catalogue's rules	◐
15	A sample button beside each finish; the sample tied to its lot	Polycor; nobody	Each finish has its own sample. The code on a sample leads to its stone and, where it still exists, the lot it was cut from	◐
16	A file with the enquiry; the visitor's role asked once	Margraf; Polycor	The enquiry already takes a drawing; one optional question, "I am a…"	◐

6. What we deliberately do not copy

They do	Why not
A room visualiser	Four sites have one; no evidence it brings enquiries, and it is costly to keep true to the stone
Courses and credits for architects	A producer's programme, not a trader's
Stock and technical data behind a login	Hiding them is the most common complaint. Ours are public; the portal is for a customer's own orders
No origin, or a proprietary name with no rock type	Against our rules, the naming standard and Oman's consumer law
No price of any kind	The sample has a price, and "How buying works" explains a quote
Quarry pages	We are a trader. Claiming quarries would be untrue, and naming them would expose suppliers
Investor and corporate content in the menu	Not for a buyer
A long form	Three fields; the rest is asked by a person

7. Faults seen on other sites, and the check that prevents each

Even the best had small faults; the regional sites had large ones. Each becomes a check at publish or a quarterly review (docs/SITE-DESIGN.md section 9).

Fault	Seen	Our guard
A stale year in the footer; news that stopped years ago	"© 2010", "© 2018", news ending 2018 and 2024	The year is never typed. The journal list hides itself rather than show a last entry over six months old
Template left in place	A project page with placeholder Latin and "John Doe"; a filter reading "Origin 1, Origin 2"; a mechanics' advert on a stone site's blog	A check for placeholder words and empty fields; nothing publishes from a template with unfilled parts
Another language leaking through	Five of the best sites	Every string has an owner per language; a check for words from the wrong language
The same test values on every stone	One Omani site	Each value belongs to one stone's Fact, with its own report
Data locked in images	Test reports as pictures; catalogues as pictures	Values are text; the PDF is made from them
Nothing without scripts	"Loading…" as the whole page	Pages are complete before any script runs
Counters that read zero	"0 projects, 0 years"	Figures come from records and are checked before showing
Claims without evidence	"ASTM and EN certified" with no values; a firm founded in 2020 listing a building opened years earlier	No claim without a Fact; no project without consent and dates
A link named "live stock" that leads to a login or a shared folder	Three sites	Stock is on the page
Language signalled wrongly to search engines	A country code used as a language	Checked automatically
A page that weighs megabytes	A 3 MB home page	The speed budget
Conflicting facts	"28 years" and "20 years" on one site	One company record

8. Names and claims in the market

One beige Omani stone goes by at least nine names: Omani Beige, Oman Beige, Desert Beige, Desert Rose, Sahara Beige, Sohar Beige on marketplaces, with Imperial Beige, Royal Beige and others reported (partly unverified). Whether stone from different areas is the same stone, no page establishes. Other Omani companies sell stones under names our own catalogue also uses (Sahara Beige, Narcissus, Desert Rose). This confirms the names plan in docs/CATALOGUE.md: one page per stone, answering to whichever name the customer used (the explanatory "which stone?" page was later withdrawn: see docs/CATALOGUE.md, "Revision 2").
A marketplace lists "Omani Beige" with its origin as Turkey. Wrong origins are already in circulation and AI answers may repeat them. A clear, sourced page of our own is the only remedy.
No Omani producer's site says "limestone". Saying so honestly, as planned, is unclaimed ground.
Landmark claims. Other Omani companies' sites and a trade article name the Royal Opera House Muscat, the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque and buildings in Makkah as using their stone, mostly as photograph captions with no quantities or dates. One contractor's page is reported to say the Opera House's external finishes are Omani marble (unverified). Our rule stands (docs/EDITORIAL.md section 6): no landmark is named until a source that can be shown has been read. Competitors making a claim is not evidence for ours.

9. Being found: what the searches showed

Ten searches, in English and Arabic ("Omani marble", "Oman marble supplier", "marble supplier Muscat", "Desert Rose marble Oman", the Arabic for "Omani marble" and for "Omani marble prices", and others). No Omani stone company's own site appeared for any of them. The results were the press, the ministry, marketplaces, trade-data sites and business directories. Even a search for one company's own name returned directories before its site.

What follows for us:

The ground is open for a site with a real page per stone, in both languages.
Directories and marketplaces rank; a correct listing there is worth having, with the same facts as our own pages (docs/WEBSITE.md section 17).
The Arabic price question has no good answer on the web. Ours is planned.
Name searches ("Desert Rose marble Oman") return marketplaces and even other countries' stones. The stone pages, each answering to the name the visitor used, address exactly this.

10. What changes in the other plans

Plan	Change
`docs/CATALOGUE.md`	A stone record gains: a variation grade (1 to 4) and a sentence on what the photographs show; a line per finish on what it is for; care notes; similar stones. Lots become publishable: a lot can be marked "show on the website" with its slab sizes and place
`docs/WEBSITE.md`	New pages: slabs available, a lot, visit or video call, sourcing, origin, our numbers, quality, how we match (first named "how we work"), compare, downloads. A "which stone?" page was listed here and later withdrawn (`docs/CATALOGUE.md`, "Revision 2"). Catalogue filters show counts and can be shared as a link
`docs/EDITORIAL.md`	A Gulf guide; the Arabic price answer; landmark claims by others noted
`docs/SITE-DESIGN.md`	The publish checks in section 7 above
`docs/STORE.md`	A sample per finish; a sample knows its lot
The open decisions	Whether stock is held now also decides what "available now" shows. Arabic at launch matters more than before: it is the largest unclaimed ground

11. Decisions

Show lots in public, with slab sizes and place but no price. Proposed: yes, once the stock question is settled.
Arabic at launch. The evidence now favours it strongly: almost nobody does it well, and Arabic searches return nothing useful.
A downloadable catalogue and company profile, made from the records. Proposed: yes; Gulf buyers expect one.
"Our numbers", from records only. No refused or rejected counts in public (docs/MATCHING.md section 7). Proposed: yes.
No visualiser, no courses, no quarry pages. Proposed.

12. Sources

Read directly on 11 November 2026: the home pages and, by following their own links, a stone's page, the catalogue, a project, the company page, contact and resources of the sites named in section 2; two marketplace pages for Omani stone; a business directory entry; search results for ten queries. Not reached: StoneContact, CDK Stone, Cullifords, Tanhat, an Alibaba showroom, Carrara Mid-East's content, several sites' script-loaded blocks. Not seen: any site's visual design.

After the owner's rule on matching (11 November 2026)

No blocks; the promise is tiles and slabs that match. Of the sites read, one (Stone Group International) presents a layout service; none of the Gulf sites does. This is now the main point of difference. See docs/MATCHING.md.