I like to consume lots tidbits of news rapidly, so my Google Reader account is always my first stop when I need a break. (You can see the news items I’ve marked for sharing from Google reader in the right column). But eventually I’ll have blown through all my new items and have to actually go to a website to find content! When I want a more general overview of the world, than the quirkier and more specialized haunts of BoingBoing and Slashdot.
My present faves are:
The BEEB
I’ll start in this post with my wife’s favorite site, and my fav of the establishment. Unlike BBC radio, which is grating to listen to, much less ergonomic than the fine balance of voice and music selections of of WNYC.
Not the most attractive, the site an offers an intelligible, well rounded multitude of international current events. Not as smooth as nytimes.com, the BBC’s rough cut gives you the goods quick.
Usability
You can see a lot more content at a glance, and surprise, with no ads! It’s amazing the difference of an ad-free environment. And it prefers the legibility of Verdana, to the subtleties of The Times’ typography.
Hierarchy
They also don’t bother with the artistic, large photography characteristic of The New York Times print. Their small, unscrupulously low-res photos are more informational, and less distracting than the Times.
Not Designed for Readability
Come to think of it, nytimes’ site before a recent redesign conformed to those good usabilities principles much better than the current, if more attractive site does. Non-coincidentally, I used to frequent the site much more in those days.
Not to say a site can’t be beautiful and usable at the same time. Some examples that come to mind are del.icio.us, craigslist and 37signals.com. The two former, data-centric web apps have recently gotten overhauls of their undesigned information.
Structure
Both of these sites are portals to vast media projects that include multimedia and rich archives. However the BBC’s url structures, encouraging users to browse by url instead of link, I find much more appealing than the Times’ focused, and commercially driven content, ie. Times Select (though nothing more than a quick jump to bothermenot can fix). I suppose that reflects the current state of politics and States’ relationship to public media in the UK and USA.
Conclusion
All in all, news.bbc.co.uk, is webbier than nytimes.com. :]
Next post, I’ll look at the more social, 2.0ish, sites: Newsvine & Newstrust.
Tags: article, comparison, news
Nice blog alvarix.
I agree, the Times is way to commercial these days–really don’t read them much anymore (damn liberal bias
But a 5 col layout that actually works is pretty impressive. Personally I get my news from 6 month old Daily Show clips.
CL reboot is great. font-family: sans-serif…love that!
37 signals — I hate the big body font look. Unless you’re targeting the geriatric crowd I just don’t get it.
Wall Street Journal has nice layout and unbiased news. A+ in my book…but ya gotta pay $$$.