msnbc.com
The most important characteristic of a good website is the amount of 'breathing space'/ white space it provides to the reader. And this fact, largely, in my opinion, determines the amount of popularity of a website. Usage of more pictures also communicates the message easily.
For a newswebsite to be attractive and at the same time appealing, it has to reduce on clutter and make the it more colourful so that the it doesn't look like 'a lot of words' at the first look.
Msnbc.com follows the diktat which makes it a 'pleasing' news website to look upon.
Usage of shorter sentences and bigger font are easy steps which can be followed while building a website, in order to attract hits.
Colours draw attention. This website has also used the colours to good effect.
The biggest drawback of the website is that the user has to scroll a lot to enter into different sections of news which is very irritating.Taking into consideration, the time spent by an average internet user on a web page compared to other forms of media, is very less, it becomes really important for a website to be concise and at the same time very easily accessible.
timesofindia.com
Compared to its print version, The times of India, dissapoints from its website, the first thing which one notices while on the site that its full of text and which eventually is seen as clutter by the user.
However, the fact that it provides sub-sections below the masthead, and different categories in the sub-sections is a plus point of the site.
Colours are not used well, and lesser breathing space (which follows from the newspaper) makes the site look difficult.
thehindu.com(beta version)
The Hindu, and its recently launched beta version is a great improvement from its earlier version which was no good than a newspaper.
Its probably the best news website, in terms of designing. Soft and soothing colour scheme, good balance between white spaces and words, bigger font in contrast to its previous version.
thehindu.com v msnbc.com v timesofindia.com
The fact that internet is more interactive than any other means of communication, it becomes more necessary for a website based on news, to involve its users into the communication process.
timesofindia.com comes out as the best in these terms. Below every news story it gives you space to leave your comments on the story. Now, leaving space for viewer comments on the story and leaving a link which leads you to another web page for the comments are two very different things. This is where timesofindia gains ground over the other two websites.
msnbc.com inspite of its good designing and more 'eye value' has a drawback of long webpages and stories. thehindu on the other hand, is a classic mixture of both the websites but it totally falls back when feedback is taken into consideration. Again, thehindu.com gives you sub-sections below the masthead, which is a common feature of almost all the indian news websites.
This age has been called by many, as the information age, primarily because of the internet. Conveying the message in the best possible manner, is what the news makers should be looking for, the internet provides more ways than any other medium to communicate better.
Usage of videos in news stories were found more consistent in msnbc.com than the other two websites. People will opt for timesofindia.com or thehindu.com for short newsstories,but they will still find the story being told through videos easy to understand.
None of the websites can be touted as the best, but timesofindia.com can be termed as better than others.
Hindustan times in indian websites and theguardian.co.uk are probably the best examples of good news websites.
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