week9


 * Yahoo.ca



On the Canadian Yahoo web portal, the top section of the page is the internal search engine. After going through the search engine and seeing how it is laid-out, it is very clear that the design of Yahoo's search engine is a similar duplicate of Google's search engine, in terms of layout and usability. The main page has a small list of daily news, scrolling through things of importance that is accompanied with images and brief descriptions. There is a wide range of links on the left side of the page, depending on what topic you are interested in. There links work appropriately and I did not see any links that were broken. Ads are also very minimal and strategically placed within the pages, so the reader is not overwhelmed with any pop-ups or unwanted ads covering the content. Overall, it is a very good website to get the daily dose of information you need, but I feel it may be a little too overwhelming with the amount of content and text that are being displayed all at once.

Wikipedia.org



The Wikipedia home page starts off with a globe-like puzzle in the center, along with different languages a user can use from and a search engine that also provides the choice of language. By having this feature of language selection on the home page, it allows users of every different language to all go to the same website, instead of needing to find a separate link essentially for the same webpage. As you proceed in the language of your choosing, Wikipedia presents you with the daily featured article, along with interesting facts, news, and featured picture. The left column has a miniature search bar that allows you to look up different things constantly, while still having an entire section on languages. Clicking on a subject of interest will lead you to its own page, where the right column will usually have an image of the subject, followed by brief specifications and details relating to the subject. The page is also separated into different parts, with a contents section that allows you to select whichever topic within the subject you would like to view. The bottom of these pages will usually have the works cited, showing everyone where the information came from, as well as clear and understandable privacy policies that anyone can view or check up on. This site is highly successful because of its ability to allow users to be the ones to edit and add content for everyone to see, but it is even more successful because of the amount of administrators working to ensure that the content that is being put on the webpages are accurate; therefore having to constantly maintain the site and ensure that everything is in order. **