For the Alexander reading, we were told to take a look at several 2.0 websites out there that looked appealing to us, and ones that we felt were easy to use. For this assignment, I decided to take a look at the news aspect of user-friendly websites, such as Google News and WikiNews. For your convenience, I have placed the links in the blog roll below. In this post, I want to address my overall experience at taking a look at these sites. I’ll start with Google News. To be honest, before this assignment, I had never used Google News. I just felt like it was too easy. If I wanted to find an article, I could just go to that website’s page and find it there, or at the most, just go it through the regular Google search. But boy was I wrong! The Google News is a nice collection of news from your local area, the world, and a whole lot of other areas. And it is available right on Google’s page. Just hit the “News” tab at the top of Google’s homepage and you are there! It’s very colorful and easy to use, and everything is sectioned off in sections for the benefit of the reader. Several articles are given to you as preferred choices, but Google has thousands of other voices on the matter on the same subject available just at a click of a button. Any time something recommends something for me to read instead of me having to make the decision for myself is a plus. And finally, Google News is something that is beneficial and helpful to both publishers and viewers, and has sections built for each group of individuals, whether you are covering the news or just being covered by it. But where does the 2.0 aspect of Google News go into this? You can feed Google News or any of its articles onto your own website. That seems like a real plus when trying to share information on the web.
And the other site I took a look at was Wiki News. At first, I was a little skeptical of WikiNews, considering the fact that while its root site, Wikipedia, is useful but undocumented. But when I got on the site, while a little more bland and cluttered than Google, it does allow users to write articles and edit the ones located on the page. That really emphasizes the 2.0 aspect that Alexander talks about. The slogan on the page says it all: “The Free News source you can write!”. And as I browsed the site and took a look at the “About Us” section, I was surprised to see some things that I usually don’t see on Wikipedia. Everything is cited on Wiki News, and that they emphasize a neutral point of view. They told biased bloggers to go elsewhere, but suggested places where they could go. And they take every precaution to make sure that only checked and verified articles get published on their front page, and if any mistakes are made, they can be easily removed. It’s a real easy interface to use, and it allows regular individuals to get involved in the circulation of news. While my impression of Wiki News changed, I still have to tip my hat to Google News. Sorry Wiki fans…
Here are the sites for your viewing pleasure. Be sure to check the updated links in the blogroll below.
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- Google’s State of the Art News Center. Impressive huh?
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- A lot of people like Wikis. What do you think?
4 Comments
My first impression before going to either site is that Google is always the way to go. I think Google has become a reliable source for many users including those who want to set up an email account or even create a home page unique to their interests, which is very Web 2.0.
After visiting both sites, I have to agree with Ryan, Google News is my choice. The content seems more reliable and has a broad range of articles ranging from what I want to know locally to globally.
I did also gain more respect for WikiNews. The part that was the most interesting for me was the “watercooler” section, where users could suggest different ways to improve the site or post concerns they have. I also liked that you could write your own story (that would be verified and checked for accuracy). Who doesn’t want to be published?
At first I thought it would be impossible to see any reliable information on a wikipedia site, but I changed my mind after viewing Wikinews. The “free news source you can write” headline is a but misleading though. I do agree with you in the fact that the main site is rather crowded and unorganized. The most popular articles aren’t listed until halfway down the page. I agree that Google news is more useful, simply because of the way the site is organized. The search bar is easy to find at the top of the page and the site is very clean. Wikinews just seems to throw too much information out there at once.
I had never used either site before, and have to say that I was surprised with the content of both, as I previously thought they wouldn’t really be that useful to me.
Google News was preferable to me. It was very organized – I love the color coding – and provided easy ways to find the stories I was interested in. There’s no need to search through a ton of stuff to find what you want to know. I also noticed that I could create a section of stories recommended for me using my search history, a very web 2.0 feature.
Though the WikiNews site was more cluttered and not as well organized, I was impressed by the information presented on this site, since Wikipedia isn’t usually regarded as the most reliable source out there. Having discussions, polls, and even allowing users to write their own stories makes people feel involved with the news stories they encounter.
I was rather impressed with the ease of use and layout of both sites. I prefer GoogleNews personally and have used it before. However, I was impressed with WikiNews’ layout as well despite the pages blander design in comparison to Google. I enjoy viewing the extensive list of international news content provided. A nice feature of Google news is the personalization of the page. It enables you to more easily view various news sections that your are interested in. Both websites provide an amazing database of information easily accessible to all users.