Being
a person who doesn’t look at the news very often, I will typically hear about
some big issue and go and google it. Naturally, I gravitate to Google because
it is what I typically use and because it is easy.
On
a closer inspection on what I think is ‘better,’ after a perusal of both sites,
I still felt Google won. Just looking at their ‘home’ pages, Google doesn’t
have the aesthetic appeal that Huffington Post does, but it is more organized.
Topics are grouped on Google, whereas there is just a jumble on Huffington Post
(ignoring the navigation bar) and I found myself getting lost in all the
pictures and headlines on The Huffington Post.
Google:
Huffington
Post:
However,
one on this same issue, Huffington Post does have a clear navigation bar with
categories that drop down to give you even more specific choices. Google’s navigation
is on the side and it isn’t as user friendly. People want the navigation bar to
be in the same place on every site. If it isn’t on the top (or near it), they
don’t see it.
Huffington
Nav:
Google
Nav:
I
get most of my news by typing it into Google and searching. On the Huffington
Post site, they have a tiny search bar below their logo, which takes more time
than I want to spend to look for it. With Google, it’s all about searching, so
it takes no time at all for me to navigate to the information I want.
Huff
Search:
 |
| The search bar is so tiny and hard to see crowded by all the other things around it. |
Based
solely on aesthetics, Huffington Post is better than Google. Huffington Post
focuses more on images and placement than Google does. The Huffington Post is
more creative with showcasing the popular news and not having all the stories
in a perfect grid (as the first Huffington Post image shows). Google’s layout
feels very crowded and they fill every inch of space with something. If I didn’t
just type in news to search on Google all the time, I think I would get more
overwhelmed with how it is presented on Google. It would be almost like
information overload, but at the same time, Huffington Post can feel like that
too with the over-emphasis on images.
Since
they both are trying to get the news across, I think Google is more effective because
they don’t overwhelm you with images, which people typically look at more than
text. Sure the images on Huffington Post grab viewer’s attention, but I find
myself just looking at the pictures, getting bored eventually, and leaving the
site because my attention span for news isn’t very long. If I’m looking to get
news, I don’t want to get too distracted with pictures, but I want to read the
blurbs that are provided, so Google comes out on top.
Talking
about the blurbs, Google rises above once again because the Huffington Post
mostly just utilizes catchy headlines, but doesn’t give any more information about
the article. I only have so much time to get updated on the news, so I want to
know that the article I am going to read will be relevant. Headlines can often
be misleading and I rarely want to trust them.
Overall,
I prefer Google because I like to utilize the search bar in finding news. The
site may not look as pretty as the Huffington Post site, but I feel like they
get you more information faster. There’s less navigation involved with Google
(mostly because Google’s purpose is to be a search engine that gets people the
information they want, faster). The Huffington Post is just a little too
focused on being pretty.
