What Do You Want on a News Website? 95
SomethingBig asks: "The BBC is asking people to redesign their homepage, with the best design winning an Apple laptop. With news websites becoming ever more crowded and cluttered, what is really the most important information for a news organization's homepage? Should it contain local news? Traffic? Weather? What type of information would you want on the BBC's homepage (or CNN's if you're in America)?"
Break it down (Score:4, Interesting)
I also want to add custom feeds and have a lot of options to choose from.
Did I mention let me customize it how i want?
Broken Link - Sorry! (Score:1)
Re:Broken Link - Sorry! (Score:1)
It reminds me of this thread [ezboard.com] a while back di
Re:Break it down (Score:2)
But more importantly, there should be a few templates (for on the spot makeover) to cater normal users who can't be bother to customize the site. Eg an Entertainment-Template will have more news on entertainment-related news, and a bit of other news.
While we are at it, I would like know would you rather redesign BBC, or redesign Slashdot CSS.
Slippery Slope. (Score:2, Funny)
Dammit Taco! Look what you started.
change the domain (Score:1)
Re:change the domain (Score:1)
Re:change the domain (Score:1)
As do all the radio stations (but don't tell anyone).
Portal (Score:4, Interesting)
1. Unobtrusive advertising.
1a. No "free registration" nag.
2. Higher quality pictures and videos (in terms of size and resolution, not necessarily content).
3. Open ended syndication - let your visitors set up your home page to show not only your news, but those of your competitors, if they choose to do so. Let them drag boxes around the page, and provide an API to get modules on your page. (RSS or Atom with support for headline images as enclosures would fit the bill nicely.)
I currently get my news from three places: My Yahoo!, Netvibes (when I get comfortable enough about their privacy practices, it'll be my new home page), and Google News. The thing they have in common is the ability to do massive customization of their home page.
Re:Portal (Score:1)
The consequence of "news for nerds" on a non nerd: (Score:1)
Re:Portal (Score:1)
Re:Portal (Score:2)
What would I want? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not a coder or in web design, so I can't tell you how to make a simple but elegant interface. I can tell you what should be readily apparent to anyone asked these questions: I want exactly what I want, when I want it. That's what I like about Google News - if I want sports news on top, that's where I put it; if I want a custom search for all new pharmaceuticals, I can do it. Major news websites should take note that people want to be able to decide what news they see.
There's a reason why most people flip directly to a specific section of the newspaper. It's time the newspaper flipped for us.
Re:What would I want? (Score:1)
What Do You Want on a News Website? (Score:2, Funny)
Re: What Do You Want on a News Website? (Score:2)
(not trying to be an ass)
Re: What Do You Want on a News Website? (Score:2)
(Good god, it's page 3, what did you expect?)
Re: What Do You Want on a News Website? (Score:1)
Re: What Do You Want on a News Website? (Score:2)
Re: What Do You Want on a News Website? (Score:2)
Re: What Do You Want on a News Website? (Score:2)
In any case I'd be surprised if half of all
Warning: Parent link may be NSFW. (Score:2)
Someone will say it.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Someone will say it.... (Score:4, Funny)
What Do You Want on a News Website? (Score:3, Funny)
Duh
Oblig. Simpsons (Score:1)
real-life problems, like the ones you face every day?
Kids: [clamoring] Oh, yeah! I would! Great idea! Yeah, that's it!
Man: And who would like to see them do just the opposite -- getting
into far-out situations involving robots a
Re:Oblig. Simpsons (Score:1, Funny)
"So, you want a realistic, down-to-earth show... that's completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots?" -- Is that not Futurama?!
Less bloat (Score:5, Insightful)
In short: strip Flash out. Video in links only. Make it snappy.
Flash Advertising (Score:1)
Re:Flash Advertising (Score:2)
Re:Flash Advertising (Score:1)
Re:Less bloat (Score:1)
well yes. unfortunately the bbc2 subsite has gone in completely the other direction. seems to be flash only (rotating image background, why?) and launches video the moment you enter.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/ [bbc.co.uk]
Re:Less bloat (Score:1)
Isn't that what RSS is for?
Re:Less bloat (Score:2)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/text_only.stm [bbc.co.uk]
Resolution Preferences. (Score:1)
800x600 still relatively popular. (Score:2)
Simply stretching the article content area isn't necessarily that great either, IMHO, the relatively
Re:800x600 still relatively popular. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:800x600 still relatively popular. (Score:1)
A maximum page width of 800px is perfect: if it was any wider the lines would run too long and become harder to read (newspapers have a lot of columns for a reason).
Re:800x600 still relatively popular. (Score:1)
I want news (Score:5, Insightful)
I read the news to make my decisions, not to have them made for me.
Re:I want news (Score:4, Funny)
If you don't like slashdot, why not just come out and say it?
Google Effect? (Score:2)
Dupe? (Score:2)
Re:Dupe? (Score:1)
FP? (Score:1)
Save the text! (Score:2, Interesting)
Also, it would be cool if there was some kind of "stories you may like" feature made, that pulls together some keywords. So if you tend to read sto
Re:Save the text! (Score:2)
Re:Save the text! (Score:1)
Most if the time; (Score:2, Interesting)
But occasionally I want opinionated sensationalist one sided reporting with a large dose of tongue in cheek humour and honest to god trolling (then I go to
Oh and when I want to know what's happening in United States of America and need a good laugh I check out FOX.
Relevant Headlines (Score:1)
--
Hmmm (Score:2)
By the time they realised I could be half way through the BootCamp installation to spyware town.
Re:Hmmm (Score:2)
More content, less hype (Score:2)
When I read news, I want to know what happened. Not what could have happened or what might have happened. When a police car rams a b
Re:More content, less hype (Score:2)
Re:Make it divisive and exclusive (Score:1)
Re:Make it divisive and exclusive (Score:1, Insightful)
"Microsoft Dalek: Embrace, extend, and EXTERMINATE!"
I would add that your sig is completely what is fucking wrong with this place - I mean, it's both lazy and derivative, but a crowd-pleaser - like so many posts and article submissions. Thank God for that pragmatic minority of Windows evangelists (& I have no real affection for MS) who, once in a while, s
But will they call it... (Score:2)
Coincidentally, I did this spoof over the weekend. Guess what was on TV all the time...
BBC 2.0 [msn.com]
Needs more rounded corners though...
Re:But will they call it... (Score:2)
And #006666 green and the Coliseo font.
users comments (Score:1)
CNN for Americans? Yuck! (Score:1)
Some of us in America would actually prefer news from the BBC. At least for world news coverage, the Beeb does a far better job than American news. Most of what I read in the US tends to be inane political posturing. If you're a leftie, read CNN. If you're a rightie, read Fox. If you have two working brain cells, you see that it's all crap.
On topic: I'll echo what other posters said about customization. Let me have the (not required) option of creating an acco
Re:CNN for Americans? Yuck! (Score:2)
>At least for world news coverage, the Beeb does a far better job
>than American news.
Before around 2001, I would have agreed with that. Then their presenters started worshipping the ground Bush walked on, and became a lot more sympathetic towards their own Prime Minister Wormtounge, as well.
Back in the 70s and 80s, (and presumably earlier) the BBC might have had some degree of journalistic integrity. These days however, they're just l
Fairness (Score:1)
For example, instead of a biased news such as "Rep. X said blah, while the very, very conservative rep. Y said blah, showing he doesn't care for Z", the "data" part would simply say "In regards to Z, rep. X said blah, while rep. Y said blah", or, better yet, "In regards to Z, rep. X (x% liberal according to institute A's 2005 research in t
Just one thing (Score:3, Interesting)
There is one thing I want more than anything else in a news site. If a news article is about a legislative action, then I want bill numbers, amendment numbers and a sidebar that shows me who voted how. That way, I can pick up the phone as soon as I have read the article, without spending two hours trawling through the house/senate web sites looking for the info, and call my elected representatives to either thank them or to tell them they are sons of bitches.
Project Vote-smart is a good step in the right direction, but the database is indexed the wrong way and doesn't touch committees at all. Besides, it isn't a news site. I want it integrated into a news site. [vote-smart.org]
That alone will probably get my undying loyalty.
Re:Just one thing (Score:2)
It's great to see another person who phones his reps and senators about issues. I must spend 2 hours a week on the phone with various state and federal reps.
Care to share any of your favorite news sites for politics?
Simple (Score:1)
They're doomed! Lawsuit city! (Score:2)
News for nerds, stuff that matters ? (Score:1)
CNN? Gack, no! (Score:2)
Whenever I go to CNN's website, I can feel myself losing IQ points. And that's before I see the inevitable: "Woman dismembers own child: WATCH NOW!" which makes it sound like they have video of the act, but also is an example of their preference for sensational-but-relatively-unimportant stories like killings and missing white girls.
(Actually, it looks like they finally got rid of that kind of headline, at last.