Personally, I think their new design is a helluva lot better than their old one. I’m glad they replaced the front page story rotation Flash and replaced it with DHTML, and it appears their RSS feed actually includes all the stories now. However, all the KTVZ.com stories I’ve linked to are now dead. Unfortunately it appears that all links to their old site went dead because of the new CMS. I personally think this is more of a big deal than most people believe, and did express that to Barney when he was talking to me about the new site last week. The 404 error page is mostly worthless, too, as it doesn’t include anything remotely useful to help folks get back to the front page now that every link to a non-front page from prior to today is now dead. When a CMS is changed on a major content site, I know not all URLs can be saved, but the 404 page should at least be useful to find the new site or old content. That’s probably my biggest gripe, as I typically use Google to find past news content usually linked to from blogs and such, and now I won’t be able to find anything on KTVZ.com without using their search engine. And since their search engine doesn’t include past stories (at least right now), then what happens? A good 404 with built-in search could help alleviate this problem.
Otherwise, the site is much faster loading and a much cleaner design. It doesn’t have a favicon in place like the last one did, and it could use some code tweaks here and there, but otherwise much better than before.
Their mobile URL doesn’t appear to work anymore (again, lack of useful 404), and mobile.ktvz.com is…well … weird. It looks like a default subdomain setup for the company’s clients, not something personalized for KTVZ. I did like their simple mobile news site for news updates on the go, so hopefully something useful will be implemented in the future.
What do you think? Likes, dislikes, gripes, etc…?
Comments
This is an Internet Broadcast (formally IBS) http://www.ibsys.com/ Content Management System. Worked with these guys for years…this will be a GREAT move for KTVZ… Once the staff gets accustomed to how it works, I think we will enjoy the change. (IBS handled the Olympics and huge market TV stations…they know what they are doing 🙂 )
Make sure you forward your question about old stories to KTVZ…nothing is gone forever!
Jake, the search engine DOES work with old stories, which ones can’t you find? I’ll pass your tech issue on to those who can do something about it – or at least reply to it.
I just searched for “poop”, which I know had to at least appear once in a recent story. I think a good, useful 404 page (Google has some recommendations) would help things a bunch.
But I’ll try again and see, but I still would love to see the URLs automagically redirect. 🙂
Love it Barn! I’m stoked that I get to enjoy the full site on my Android phone and not have to worry about Flash! Many thanks!
Ugh, I hate to think poop fell through the cracks, such a great story;-/ But I even searched Dillow (last name of ‘victim’) and only an older story showed. Darn;-/
Well, they should have at least put 301 redirects in place so all the old URLs would direct you to the new ones.
Jake, try m.ktvz.com, not mobile.ktvz.com….it’s still there.
p.s. I regret to inform, but our mobile site is not taking the feeds from IB, but from our old site, which is not updated with new content. Please be patient and know that we are working on a solution.
One more thing Barney. It’s about time that we actually get to view larger images. I’m sure that was at the top of your list as well. 😉
Oy yes, Nathan. And slide shows! Check the one on the Hwy. 20 crash. What I had to do to post larger pix before was ridiculous;-/
KTVZ Has An iPhone App?
Apparently so, and while it was having issues with content not updating with the change to their new site, it looks like they released a new version today that apparently…