[ Friday ]
An Open Letter to Online News Sites...
Every morning, and many times during the course of a typical day, I turn to a large number of online news sites around the world for updated information. There was a time, several years ago, when I would click over to the New York Times or Washington Post websites...but no more.
These sites are missing out on a large portion of the Internet viewing audience because they are not 'user friendly'. While it may be true that a visitor can scan the headlines on these sites and others, any in-depth review requires registration to journey past the 'front page'. And it's more than just one's e-mail address. Some want all types of demographic info.
Multiply the information requested on the Post's or Times' site by all of the other times one is requested to 'join for free', and it becomes almost unmanageable. Bad enough that one has to submit pages of personal preferences for some online trade journals in order to receive industry updates.
The point here is a simple one...why burden the website visitor with this request. Site operators already utilize cookies and other methods of harvesting visitor information. And with banner and button ads, along with some sites' annoying and obtrusive pop-ups, the site owner should have enough information at its disposal, along with click-through revenue.
While I once went to the Post or Times for current news updates, I now go straight to the wire services. And, if one chooses to monitor certain sites like Drudge, his links to the Post go directly to the article, without requiring a sign-in from the visitor.
MM [11:00]
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