“Who moved my cheese…”
That’s really true, I have really gone to a new cheese, because hardly do you get time to watch television and with such a busy schedule, there is one thing in life, that’s Internet. Internet has really changed our life; from a “couch potatoes” we have become the “dot potatoes”. I am 100% sure, that most of you who write review here would agree to the fact that we have changed and we have gone to a newer avenues of information, you call it the Internet World.
”BBC…The rulers…& their history…”
Before going ahead with the brief about their online presence, let me just run you through the history of BBC. BBC was formed as a company in the year, 1992 and was known as British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) they pioneered themselves into all the areas of communication whether, its radio, television and now online. They come under the royal charter hence, 12 governors are appointed by Queen in Council and they monitor BBC performance and set standards for them.
Online…they go…
Any website, which is online, needs to understand many aspects which are useful for normal user. Hence, very close care has to be taken when building such website. As I come from a background of customer care it is of outmost importance for me, I would like to look at this website from the perspective of a normal user. BBC, has gone online, let’s analyze in short, as a normal user, how is it going to help me in giving the up-to-date data.
Layout & Loading…
News, based website can expect heavy traffic and also heavy content. Hence, it’s very important that the website not only loads faster but also the content provided is up-to-date. BBC’s layout of the website is very user friendly and they have tried to maintain the international standard of categorizing their section in a proper manner which yahoo or msn would do, because now days people are habituated to yahoo’s and msn’s. Hence, the look and the feel of the website should be of similar nature. The color used in the website is also very light and soothing to normal user’s eyes. The light shades of grey, light blue and in some cases corresponding navy blue. The fonts used are also of international standard and mostly they have maintained an absolute consistency in using the same fonts. The font used is verdana and definitely it’s the most user friendly font, wherein the user can read it clearly.
The loading is sometimes a bit slow, but that’s understandable because there is very high flow of information, every seconds, the news needs to be updated and maintained. The archives have to be kept hence; some times the website does take time to load. For people with low connection can check out the only text version with no pictures and graphic images.
The most important and the most frustrating part for the user is the Error, the page not found etc. These errors should not be present in the website. But BBC has failed in this area, because many sections of the website, you will find page not found. But sometimes, I did feel that may be the problem is in my end. But I have tried from different location and the same errors are found hence, I had to come to this conclusion that BBC guys need really good quality people to monitor these small but not negligible errors.
Content is King…
Many times, a well designed website doesn’t give you the best of the content. Hence for the user more than the layout the content is of most importance. The entire essence of the website is lost if you don’t provide the actual stuff for which you have made this website. I would like to give you in short some important feature of this website as far as content is concerned.
Program Schedules…& Message Boards
This website is no doubt secondary for BBC, but they have not failed to give you the schedules of the TV and Radio programs. Also you can check out the message boards and the chat where you can put your point across on certain issues.
Audio/Video…
BBC, have smartly put some audio and video clippings of their live news so that people who would miss it on TV would be able to watch on the Internet. But sadly it needs an absolutely very good connection otherwise you won’t enjoy. Also your system should have the required software’s and hardware to listen and watch the video. Probably the best bet on the Net for people with high speed connection. But I am not sure, how many of you will be actually be watching them on the Internet, because if you are at office ( ;-) you would avoid watching it right! Or you Boss will sit on your head and say, what are you doing.) Anyways, they have given you the option, hence can try this.
World services…
This is actually a very good option for people who are not from England, because you can read the news in 43 different languages, hence they have broken the language barrier and every one can read the news. You can check out the latest international news splashed and can most important can read in your own language, provided your system has the required language script.
Some of the areas where your mouse can click are:
World News, Sports, World Business, Science, Entertainment, learning English, Talking point, Programmes, Schedules & Frequencies.
Quality of News…
Again, my important concern was, whether BBC was biased like CNN, heavily focusing on the American news. Though many a times, BBC has been guilty of being a part of the US & UK cold war and instances have seen that important news being skipped or shown in the background. But sometimes it’s understood, because everyone is patriotic about their country and they should be. But BBC has to understand that now they are not only focused on England but they are International Brand and people really look forward for International News only on BBC. The news are basically well edited and hardly you will find unwanted stuff and its absolutely crisp and perfect.
But overall if you ask me BBC has been a pioneer and I hope they give equal treatment to all over the world news in the same manner which they give to European news.
Customer Service…
This is my favorite topic and I wouldn’t miss this for any thing. With high standard which BBC has, I expected a better service from them. I had sent them a query and it was answered after 4days. Which I didn’t expect from BBC, because BBC is know for setting up high standards. But one positive thing is that, at least they have a Customer service who answers our query.
Dotcom Guy…
Finally, just was wondering if I had to stay all alone in a room with just Internet Connection, like the Dotcom guy, would BBC.com serve me the purpose of being the only news website on my screen.
The answer is Yes & No, because, I would still prefer foxnews.com because a very neutral focus is given on the News at least on the Net. But, as of now, it’s a hop and skip between BBC.com and Foxnews.com
©Asyis …2002