links for 2009-12-01

"12 months ago we completed an on-budget and on-time two year redesign and redevelopment project on guardian.co.uk. Since then we have had time to revisit sections of code and have realised that there are areas that we would like to improve". For those of you that still think teaching journalists a smattering of HTML will save the future of news on the web, a brilliant post from Emma about some of the gnarly client-side issues in delivering a website as well used and as complex as guardian.co.uk

Research trumps "OMG it is a Google conspiracy". Newspaper people should really read Danny Sullivan more often...

"It is proof, if any were needed, that some banks have such a long way to go to actually deliver a service that their customers want and deserve. This is our money after all. Now the thing is I don’t think that it’s only this bank, I know its probably the majority of them. Do a search on Twitter for online banking and you will see some lively comments instantly about a variety of well known names."

"In less than the time it has taken you to transcribe, sub-edit, publish and distribute your hack of a finished piece of copy, I have already blogged about how painful and tiresome the whole process was". [via One Man and his blog]

"However, too many of the pro-paywall arguments have, to me, the ostrich-like quality of sticking your head into the sand of traditional media, whilst ignoring the developments that have happened elsewhere on the web for the last decade. Believing that paywalls will save the day requires an interesting combination of hubris and myopia such as that on display in Tim Luckhurst's piece on Comment is Free today. The penultimate paragraph made me laugh out loud."

Rick makes the point that with little text to work on, Google ads on pay-walled snippets become less and less relevant. WIll subscriber uptake make up for that dip in advert clickability?

"Since when was a headline enough to tell a story? Unfortunately, people are often so time-poor nowadays that I think a headline is often all they see of an article. Paywalls could push us towards a situation where more and more people are relying either on news or unregulated websites for their news and, whilst I’m all in favour of citizen journalism and social media, the prospect of mass misinformation terrifies me".

"Google is playing with perhaps the biggest redesign they ever did. There are a lot of little changes, and some really big ones too, mainly: a new right-hand column in the search results page". Very thorough analysis of changes Google are making to their search interface.

Exhibition from my friend Jhinuk Sarkar: "After a journey experiencing many different cultures the artist displays her visual journal. Through various contemporary forms Jhinuk displays tales from New York, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and India".