SO bloody good (bbc.co.uk)

Member Name: dave27

Product:	bbc.co.uk
Date:	19/09/01 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Authoritative, Well laid out, Great site

Disadvantages: Can't think of any, The logo, The bloody question amrks when you copy and paste from Word

Great institutions of the world Part 1 (in a series of 'I'm not sure how many yet')

The British Broadcasting Corporation (if we're being formal, but better known as the BBC or the Beeb or even Auntie if we're being pathetic and stupid and self consciously chummy a la Wogan - with a sparkling twinkle and a cheeky jape and a gay little skip, the bewigged one danced into our hearts - NOT!!!) is actually still without a peer in this enormous world of ours - the envy of the world's broadcasting organisations, churning out on a regular basis some of the best television programmes anytime anywhere, has every reason to swell a little with pride at its undoubted reputation for excellence.

And as a very high quality extension of its brand and offering, BBC Online, the Beeb's Internet presence, found at http://www.bbc.co.uk is a very strong component in the Corporation's assault on an information and quality hungry public. It screams authority and reputation and useful and 'Bookmark Me' in a strident and avaricious voice, begging, nay demanding, your attention, then allowing you to gorge yourself on the rich tapestry of cyber life it lays before you, enticing you in with a wink and leer which would leave Lord Reith a-tossing in his grave.

You can put me down as a Beeb lover without any reservations and the Beeb's website is as far ahead of its competition as the fare it pumps into the box in the corner of your living room is when compared to Granada Men And Motors. It breathes excellence from every pore of its being (steady there!!!) and just implores you to pat it on the head, mumbling 'I'm Man's Best Friend' with unswerving loyalty before it rolls over so you can tickle its tum.

The BBC Online Homepage isn't anything special and I wouldn't trouble you to ruffle its hair, but beneath that top level portal you get two of the very best subdirectories with the News and Sport
s sections, leaders in their field and 'Must Have' items on your Favourites menu.

The Sky News and Sky Sports sites used to be my havens of choice about six months or so ago, but a scrappy looking redesign of their wares tempted me to see what else there was out there and one look at the Beeb's offering told me that here was my ready made new friend, shaking its tush attractively in my general direction. If only they would change that abysmal logo, then I think I would actually have died and gone to Heaven, because that's seriously the only minor fault I can find with this website.

Now, I'm not saying that the other sections of the Beeb site aren't also first rate, it's just that the News and Sports areas are so damn good and just the most authoritative in their field, both featuring first class journalism, excellent pix and some great audio and video feeds. But what would you expect anyway? The TV version of the BBC's news and sports coverage are also first rate, and they've translated them skilfully to the online medium.

The News section is split into the following main areas: Front Page, World, UK, UK Politics, Business, Sci/Tech, Health, Education, Entertainment, Talking Point, In Depth, AudioVideo. Of course, they all do exactly what it says on the tin and this is an attractively laid out and designed set of pages and would these days be my first point of call for checking out what's going on in the world.

Similarly, the Sports section allows you to link into the following main areas: Football, Cricket, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Tennis, Golf, Motorsport, Boxing, Athletics, Other Sports, Sports Talk, In Depth, Photo Galleries, Audio/Video, TV & Radio, BBC Pundits, Question of Sport, Funny Old Game. Sounds boring and ruthlessly efficient eh? Well, rest assured it is, but you get exactly what you want and what you'd expect.

The rest of the site is similarly strong and i
nformative and is split into the following sections: News, Weather, Arts, Education, Entertainment, Films, Food, Gardening, Health, History, Homes, Kids, Live Chat, Music, Nature, Radio, Religion, Science, Teens, What's On, World Service

Now it ain't dramatic and there are no surprises awaiting you, but you get a damn good attempt at a general portal that covers the interests and needs of most of us and I've yet to find anything which has made a better shot at the job. The people behind the bbc.co.uk website certainly know what they are doing and have put together an excellent route into the Beeb's entire stock of treasures.

For instance, I checked out the section relating to the recent BBC2 comedy show, The Office http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice and got video clips from all the shows plus wallpaper pics and a beautiful depiction of a truly wonderful comedy creation and that's typical of the site's approach. The BBC has a totally unique position in the life of the British people and they have successfully marked their entrance to the Online medium.

You could do an awful lot worse than marking this particular site down as being your own personal homepage because it represents a truly remarkable entrance to the amazing world of Internet browsing.

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