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Notes on tech

Notes on technology, business, enterpreneurship, economy, markets along with interesting general tidbits.

Timesofindia.com - AARGH!

1/10/2005 01:04:00 AM, posted by anand

Whats up with the http://www.timesofindia.com/ website? Half of the time I get stupid errors like:

Exception: EAccessViolation
Message: Access violation at address 017625CC in module 'cms.dll'. Write of address 0178A8B

And at other times, I am simply not able to view the site. At a time when websites are moving away from showing stupid banners, popups and flashy ads, the timesofindia website, has over a gazillion advertisements unsuccessfully competing to grab user's attention. Its like a typical crowded bazaar where street vendors shout out prices and the names of things they are selling to try and grab your attention. On the timesofindia front page, there are about 10 stories and 16 advertisement banners. You do the content vs. crap ratio math.

Links on the site dont work. Images are broken. Wierd error messages popping everywhere. The site looks amateurish.

Guys (as in folks who run the timesofindia site), you need to realize that users make a pyschological connection to the stability of your site with the credibility of your news. Take your head out of the sand and look around at how rock solid are the CNN and BBC websites. Compare their content vs. crap ratio. Feel free to look around these two sites and see and feel their user experience. If you cant beat that, atleast try to match it.

And stop showing all those stupid error messages. There are many graceful ways to tell the user that something is broken internally and you are fixing it. One error message that I got is "500 Server Error. Contact your administrator". Yeah right.. I'll contact 'my' administrator and tell him that 'your' site is broken.

Sorry about the rant, but this is absolutely nonsensical and its been going on since quite some time now.

I've sent them an email, now lets see whether they bother to reply back or not. Here is the email that I sent across:

Hi,

Since quite some time now (over 2 years), the user experience on both the timesofindia and the economictimes websites has deteriorated. I am disappointed and shocked at the number of popup's and banners found on both the sites. Remember, I am not lamenting about the coverage of the news or the quality of the reporting. Both of those, remain excellent. This is more about the technical/asthetic elements of the site on which the news is presented.

I have posted my views on my blog: http://www.ypjain.com/anand/2005/01/timesofindiacom-aargh.html

Feel free to leave your comments (or your side of the story).

A very frustrated user,
Anand Jain
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1/17/2005 2:07 PM, comment by Blogger M

It would be really interesting to see their response. Do post it on your blog if and when you get one. Till then I guess we all will just have to endure bad service, for lack of a better place to get good Indian news.    



5/11/2005 12:18 PM, comment by Anonymous Anonymous

I agree with you. I lived in Bangalore for two years and loved to see the news. Now, all I get is computer full of crap. This is the last time I access this junk site.    



8/26/2005 9:24 PM, comment by Anonymous Anonymous

Dear Sir,
I am a regualr reader of the times of india(for short'the paper')I look at the paper as a good english improver but i am upset to note that your editorial board does not have little time to see the junk your newsrepoer are reporting. In today's the paper on fornt page under the head of a news item as "Dog killer arrested finally" ... killing of a pregnant female dog...". The english used is rediculas actualy you ought to written as " gruesome killing of a bitch big with a yound one...". I hope you will do the needful in the matter.

post me at deepakcnatu@hotmail.com    



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