The Times Newspapers

After using the Times Newspapers site for a couple of weeks, the general consensus seems to be that they've got it right. Weekdays there's the regular Times, on Fridays there are selected highlights from a new edition of the Times Higher Education Supplement and the weekend brings the Sunday Times, low on graphics but well presented and a damn sight lighter than the amassed bulk of several hundred inky, unwieldy sections landing with a thud on the breakfast table. The information is free and all the more enjoyable for that, with a decent-sized smattering of stories, reviews, letters, opinion and comment from every section of the paper. It's also very fast. On top of this there is a Personal Times option which lets the reader choose only the bits he or she wants to look at. This is the only operation that takes any time, dragging, as it does, all the relevant sections and keywords out of a database of the whole online newspaper. Interestingly, the site is best viewed in either Netscape or Microsoft's Internet Explorer and, rather irritatingly, its overall ease of use and no fuss functionality make it a site worth returning to, even for someone who has despised the newspaper's agenda and poorly written prose in the past. And lastly, if the news is of no interest, there's always the Times crossword, which is almost an institution in itself.

Link | www.the-times.co.uk