ABC v. Drudge
ABC News is challenging The Drudge Report and created a breaking news page.
Drudge's site - ugly as it is - is perfect for presenting breaking news. Not alot of text for each story, various font sizes and colors for attracting attention - all very basic, but very effective.
The ABC site just runs all the stories together with just a bullet point separating each with smallish fonts and line heights that are way too short. That style is impossible to read quickly or to scan for new info if you are a returning visitor. Plus, of the 11 items in their 'Noted Now' section, only 3 of them have links to a story - and 1 of the links is in an entirely different format than the others. Not to mention how far down the page you have to scan before the actual content starts.
Some of you are currently using a certain other Web site as your homepage because you are under the misguided impression that it is the best place for BREAKING news and DEVELOPING stories that are IMPACTING now.Thats all well and good, but as it currently stands, they've got no chance in hell of overtaking - or even denting - Drudge's chokehold on the breaking news position. The ABC site's biggest problem currently is its design.
But given that elsewhere the focus is often entertainment news or earthquakes (geological ones, not geopolitical ones), we bet that a lot of you in this presidential year would like a one-stop shopping place to go to get all the information on the election -- faster than the AP (Sorry, Fournier.), more colorful than cable, and more direct than calling Howard Fineman.
Drudge's site - ugly as it is - is perfect for presenting breaking news. Not alot of text for each story, various font sizes and colors for attracting attention - all very basic, but very effective.
The ABC site just runs all the stories together with just a bullet point separating each with smallish fonts and line heights that are way too short. That style is impossible to read quickly or to scan for new info if you are a returning visitor. Plus, of the 11 items in their 'Noted Now' section, only 3 of them have links to a story - and 1 of the links is in an entirely different format than the others. Not to mention how far down the page you have to scan before the actual content starts.
# | April 07, 2004