News 5 website gets makeover
It is an increasingly important source of news for Belizeans at home and abroad…but of course we’re a little bit biased. What I’m talking about is our own Channel 5 website. And if you’re in the habit of logging on, tonight you’ll find a new look…and the makeover is not just cosmetic.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
After six years of serving up scripts and still photos to thousands of people cruising the information super highway, Channel 5?s website has undergone a technological upgrade. Fresh out of the cyber workshop, Channel5belize.com, according to service provider Netkom Internet Solutions and its chief Demian Solano, is now more user friendly than before.
Demian Solano, Chief, Netkom Internet Solutions
?Apart from the cosmetic changes, in other words there is a new look to the site, probably the most important feature is the archives section. We started this web site about six years ago and we have collected a vast archive of basically Belize?s history over those past six years. And now we?re making it more accessible by use of this website.?
Since its launch on January fourteenth, nineteen ninety-eight, the Channel 5 online database has grown to where it now hosts eighteen hundred newscasts and an impressive thirteen thousand news stories. Solano says while newer technology is being used to enhance the visitor?s experience, some of the old concepts have been incorporated into the new design.
Demian Solano
?One of the things that we have done is that we have kept the format of the original website in terms of how the news is displayed. Over the years, we have received many positive comments as to the user friendliness of the site, and we didn?t want to change that. What we have done is enhanced the way people can search for past news, which becomes a very important research and historical tool for Belize.?
Patrick Jones
?And how easy is it to use this research tool??
Demian Solano
?It?s as easy as putting in a search for a particular key word and it will search in that data base, through all of those thirteen thousand stories and bring you the relevant results. The site has a feature where like many other search engines there is a ranking. So at the top you will get the most relevant result for the keyword that you searched for.?
?One of the things that we did at the beginning of the project was to make sure that we categorised each news story. And that has allowed us to do this form of search where if you click on the foreign affairs tab, you will get all of the news relating to foreign affairs. Now you will get the latest news on the top of the results. But as you can see here you are searching at one of ten records out of three hundred and thirty three relating to foreign affairs.?
The search results are returned quickly, so visitors get their information faster and go on to browse other areas of the site. In the near future viewers will also get to watch the entire newscast on demand on their computer, as Channel 5 introduces a video streaming service. Patrick Jones, for News 5.
