TimesofIndia.com may not be the worlds worst news site in the world. But it is definitely
the worst India english news site. Just a cursory look at its main page would reveal
TOI’s dilemna. Is it a tabloid with juicy stories about flings, fashion, sports or it is a
relevant news paper that presents facts for the people? You will find headings more
in place in a cheapo tabloid like ’’10 top sexy actresses/negar goes topless’’ competing for space with other important national events and winning all the time. For your
voyeuristic pleasure, the site also has pictures of semi-nude women on its main page
plus a rating system. All perfect for all those IT/call center single employees wanting a little excitement at work place.
As for the design, its design is plain bad and ancient. Each time you visit, it must pop up an ad. Maybe it doesnt know the ’’in-thing’’ these days are inplace text ads.
The rating system it has for the articles mostly doesn’t work and you cannot give a crappy article a bad rating. Your comments dont go the page but instead go to an editor’s recycle box.
Since a long time, I have boycotted their site for the above reasons. I did not wish to
give this site more hits and increase their revenue by ads. But lately, I had started to
check up their cricket section. But even this section conforms to the overall view of the
site -- crass, provocative, parochialistic... It seems they got two editors and one is clearly from calcutta and the other is elsewhere. Somedays, you will see articles sympathizing ganguly as victim, concocting about dravid-chappel conspiracy, and on toher days, it talks about bright future of the indian team under dravid. There is no
balanced presentation anywhere. Just like the main site.
All in all, not a site to waste your precious time. Just boycott it, and be happy that by not visiting the site, you are making it to lose money by not giving ad-revenue to it.