Homepage improvements & Olympics video stream
There have been a bunch of improvements to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ homepage recently which are worth a mention. Individually, they may not seem like a big deal - but together, they signal our intention to keep up the pace of change.
Since my last post, we've introduced video to the main section of the page.
Our aim is to seek out the best short clips available from around the ´óÏó´«Ã½ - from news packages to comedy sketches. I hope that visitors to the page start regularly coming across nuggets of interest.
Moreover, we will sometimes 'go live' to big breaking stories. Our first live video stream, of the Olympic opening ceremony, was fired up by 400,000 users. In this sense, the homepage really will be a "portal" - giving users a direct line of sight onto unfurling events.
It's early days yet, and I would be interested in hearing feedback about which types of video work for you and which don't. Are there clips you would like to see which we don't currently provide?
And speaking of the Olympics, we rolled out a special section (or module - see below) dedicated to the Games, with news, live video and a medals table. We also launched the food widget I mentioned in my last post and are already lining up a Learning one - which includes a "phrase of the day" available in four languages.
New content isn't limited to people in the UK. With additional funding from the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s commercial arm (), we are improving the ´óÏó´«Ã½ homepage for international users as well - this month introducing specially-produced features to pep up our offering.
While working to make the homepage reflect (or even aid) the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s aspiration to become an industrial-strength global media brand, we won't forget about those overseas users who come to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ site to get a slice of something distinctly British. Forthcoming improvements to the way in which the page can be customised will be key here.
Technical enhancements "under the bonnet" are going on all the time - even if you can't see some of them. One recent upgrade responded to complaints that you couldn't move sections up and down within an individual module. But now if you want to see tennis headlines above football... be our guest! Just use your mouse to drag them up or down.
We aren't going to rest on any laurels though and remain acutely aware of things that users are pushing us to do. Items on our "to do" list include a smaller main promo area, enhanced customisation and more access to non-´óÏó´«Ã½ content. Many people have asked for a webmail module, for example.
I've also had time to reflect on comments made back in April by those who wanted a return to the old ´óÏó´«Ã½ homepage. While I thoroughly approve of o_r_i_g_i_n_a_l, referencing one of my favourite Simon and Garfunkel , ultimately I side with Dylan and say: .
Still, I'd be interested to hear from any of you to see if you've since warmed to the new homepage. Or do you still dislike it six months down the line?
James Price is editor, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Homepage.
Comment number 1.
At 16th Aug 2008, emmdeepool wrote:The weather widget on my ´óÏó´«Ã½ homepage has reset itself to London, even though when I hit edit it confirms that it is set at Poole, Dorset.
I like that the big TV show promo bit seems to have been replaced with the top news story. How marvellous not to have Last Choir Standing or some other nonsense in which I have no interest shoved down my throat - thank you for that.
In all, I love the new homepage, thanks!
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Comment number 2.
At 16th Aug 2008, acotgreave wrote:I love the new drag and drop WITHIN a module feature. Well done.
One thing I'd like to see is the ability to *exclude* items. Say, for example, I love sport but despise football. Instead of ticking all but football, I'd rather tick an "exclude" football box.
Keep up the great work!
Andy
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Comment number 3.
At 17th Aug 2008, KfirPradva wrote:James,
Great news indeed. As a non UK resident - will your international content be news only or additional ´óÏó´«Ã½ content?
Thanks,
Kfir Pravda
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Comment number 4.
At 18th Aug 2008, Orville Eastland wrote:To add to KfirPradva's comments, will the ´óÏó´«Ã½ content shown be stuff we may not get (yet) in our countries? (I'd love more ´óÏó´«Ã½ News stuff, Songs of Praise stuff and Doctor Who stuff...)
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Comment number 5.
At 18th Aug 2008, Foomandoonian wrote:I only wish I could hide the customise/location/reset bar to get that bit of space back!
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Comment number 6.
At 19th Aug 2008, Outside the Marginals wrote:Slowly getting to tolerate it - but it is hard work. The Firefox Add-in Stylish has enabled me to remove a lot of the irritants - I have managed to restrict it to two columns so that items do not disappear under the right hand edge; yet there are still some wretched elements which put the horizontal scroll bars on!
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Comment number 7.
At 13th Jun 2009, U14033173 wrote:Thank you great stuff...
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