When user experience takes a back seat
The Hindu’s online edition seems to have embraced online ads eventhough it comes at a huge inconvenience to the average user. Earlier, The Hindu used to sport Google ads and other local ads only on the sidebar. Adsense Ads used to appear at the bottom of the article. I recently noticed that such ads (not just text ads) have started appearing right in the beginning / middle of an article. Although other publications have been using such a style, The Hindu’s attempt to do it has been plagued with poor execution. I think The Hindu is indirectly pushing people to take to the e-paper instead of the online edition. Here are some snapshots of what’s in store:
posted by Kaps at
8:02 AM
5 Comments:
For years Ram is telling people that hindu.com will be redesigned based on guardian website. I dont see any step in that direction. Till recently all the hindu.com pages are infested with popups and even Reader's Editor (he is a joke) justified usage of popups in hindu web site. HinduPrinterFriendly greasemonkey script is born out of these frustration. I have stopped visiting their online edition and started reading epaper. Even epaper site is is bad. That rant is for another day :)
Hindu should look at New Indian express site for inspiration. They have better website than Hindu.
By
Saravan, at 1:10 PM
I like the print edition of the Hindu newspaper. The experience visiting the online edition is marred by annoying pop-up advertisements and other intrusions. The same can be said of the online edition of the times of india. although i feel that these publishers stand to gain nothing by making their content available for free online without anything in return,the site can be tailored to ensure that the original purpose of visiting a website is not defeated.
By
Anonymous, at 10:34 PM
User Experience will have to take a backseat , give way to the Profitability Experiences of the Promoters of The Hindu...
Afterall, the promoters of the India's Second Biggest English Newsmedia needs more profits to expand to newer markets, to expand into non print media and maintain its dominance right ????
By
ramki830, at 1:42 AM
You have pointed out a thing which is of prime importance right now and will always be.I agree that content is important,but if the user has to search for the content on a site that it leads to lot of pain.
This makes me remember of www.pagaalguy.com which is a site with excellent content..I really love it but has so many ADs that I need to search for the content.
Do check my blog http://thoughtsprevail.blogspot.com and comments would be highly appreciated.
-Himanshu
By
Himanshu Sheth, at 4:55 AM
i would say hinduonnet.com has got a more reader friendly appearance than the online edition. at home hard copy is a must :)
By
smiley, at 10:16 PM
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