THOUGH you probably have access to about 50 channels on your cable TV, subscribe to a daily newspaper and maybe even listen to the news on the radio now and then — you may not have browsed too many news sites on the web.
But for many who spend most of their day sitting on an office desk facing piles of papers and the computer — finding the time to catch on the local and international news may not be as easy as one may presume. Hence, last week I took an expedition to find some reliable online newswires.
We’re not going to talk about the common news portals such as CNN, FOX et al — this is more about those online papers that have a pure online existence as opposed to having a paper or TV counterpart. And a hunt to find comprehensive news sites that have these characteristics is not as easy as it may appear.
We begin the news exploration with http://www.enewswires.com/. This is more of a glossary of sorts listing a hundred plus links to a number of news websites. You can browse through categories of Top Online News Sites, Health News, Business News, Weather, Entertainment, Sports and more. There’s a smaller section that lists five Online News Links such as News Minute at http://www.newsminute.com/ and NewsMax at http://www.newsmax.com/. Most sites are big on the news in the U.S.A. but they all carry sections on Overseas News so there’s plenty you can catch up on. NewsMax also features daily jokes and cartoons..that’s for those who like to add some fun to their news-browsing time, plus you can also sign up for their e-mail alerts to make sure you get the news as it happens.
Moving on to another popular newswire http://www.salon.com/. This site carries headlines and hundred of articles written by their journalists spread across the world. Opinion articles, News & Politics, Tech & Business, Comic strips and plenty of other stuff. The appealing aspect about this site is that it doesn’t look dreary, it isn’t as if you’ve just stumbled across yet another boring and dry news page. This site makes you want to browse, read and browse some more. Perhaps, the variety of articles makes it more easy to read. Salon.com talks about just everything in just about every written tone - so you’ll find some extremely serious and analytical articles on politics or international happenings but then you will also find pieces that talk about the same issues in a much lighter tone. Of course, in the article pile-up you will find some articles that are..well..not quite right but then it’s all about freedom of speech so that’s one thing we take in our stride. On the whole, it’s a good place to browse and catch up on the international scene.
I recently discovered a local site www.peshawar1.com that is updated daily and carries national news. Pleasantly surprised, I eagerly browsed the site and it is indeed a great effort on their part to put the news up everyday - we finally have some local newswire! Other than featuring the daily news, the site also has sections that include opinion articles and links to other news sites. It also has sections on Music, Counselling (we will come to this in a bit), Business and Fashion. Counselling intrigued me so I clicked and the page that loaded was one that had further links to Career Guide, Immigration, Family Affairs and IT.
Each section has ‘experts’ addressing related problems. The sadness steps in when you click on the topic. The following page contains none of the problem solving content but in fact extremely absurd e-mails from random surfers. Other than being absurd, they don’t even talk about the topic in any dimension. This, I suppose, is an oversight or lack of effort in keeping the web site updated. Counselling is a brilliant idea - specially in a country where one looks for solid, local inputs that are free! It is hoped that the management running this site will rectify this mishap. Other than the disappointment in this particular section, the website is an example that locals are finally catching on to the newswire bug.
A leading news web site in our neighbouring country http://www.rediff.com/. This as essential as a news portal gets — it provides information that includes news, communication and entertainment. The site offers a comprehensive resource of information covering the latest world news, business, sports, entertainment and a Net Guide section. This particular section has links to sites of a varying nature — from reference to yellow pages to education and technology. Rediff.com has become a popular website for good reason - it’s easy to browse, has all the right sections and is updated daily. A good place to stop by now and then.
Perhaps I was a bit out of it but I had no idea that Google had its News Page on http://news.google.com/. As comprehensive and efficient Google is as a search engine - the news section is equally commendable. The page is auto-generated every four-minutes so you’ll never wait too long to get the latest news. It has the same sections as any newswire — World, US, Business, Science/Tech, Sports, Entertainment and Health. There are some excellent articles in the Health section — covering the latest research developments, tips on how to stay healthy and more. Basically, tis section is one that should be frequented if you are keen to stay up to speed with the latest health news.
By no means does that mean that the other sections are lacking in content — quite the contrary. Although not the first place you’d think of getting the latest news — it’s the first site I’ll think of browsing for news from now on. The search directory Yahoo too has a news site is http://news.yahoo.com/. Comprehensive and current - this site is as good as any other online newswire. In fact it has a very interesting section called “Oddly Enough” which has a bunch of news on the strange and the absurd. Things like “Italian police said on Saturday they had arrested a 69-year-old Italian man who bought an Albanian baby given away by its father in exchange for a television.” I did say it was strange and absurd. But it’s a refreshing change to read real news that isn’t just about politics, war and fumbling economies. Other than this unusual section, the site has the same that all news papers have — this includes crosswords, comic strips and of course — the news.
And that brings us to the end of the news web sites tale. Perhaps, now you have a clearer picture of where you would like to go next time you’re looking for a site that isn’t just drab news.
THOUGH you probably have access to about 50 channels on your cable TV, subscribe to a daily newspaper and maybe even listen to the news on the radio now and then — you may not have browsed too many news sites on the web.
