yahoo sports is close to what I am looking for.For instance, here is the Barbados team. You can click on the athletes and go to a bio page that includes races they competed in. If they are going on you can get to the scheduled races also.
The best part is my browser never bottoms out like on the NBC Olympics site.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
nbcolympics.com is top heavy
It might be because I am not using a Microsoft (Macrosplat??) browser or OS, but nbcolympics.com just does not do it for me.
First off is the behind the scenes data transfer that keeps going on. Yeah, AJAX is a great thing, but when there is so much background activity that it takes five minutes to get a TV listing something is wrong. In Firefox under Linux when the browser is waiting the window goes gray. I sat for five minutes not touching the mouse after clicking on a tv listing. The window went in and out of gray. Of course this was a busy time, Sunday morning at 10:00, so the site was busy.
The way I have to get a tv listing is pretty dumb. They have this grid with times across the top and stations on the side. So you have to click on a box that corresponds to a time and a channel. Eventually I got my tv listing for the local NBC affiliate for the whole day. Wonderful, totally worth waiting five minutes for :-P. It was hard to see it because it kept going in and out of gray. When it is gray there is no scrolling or clicking or anything that works. Why is there data transfer taking place?? I am not doing anything, just trying to look at what I called up.
besides that, why do I have to click on this time grid to get the whole day for one lousy channel. Why not have all the channels in a list folded up. If they are going to give you the whole day, you might as well be able to choose the channel you want unfolded, more than one to scroll back and forth to see what you are going to watch.
This is just carping,of course. What I am really upset about is the fact that designed the sight to show off Flash and AJAX. As usual, NBC forgot that the Olympic games are about the GAMES. I don't want eye candy, I want information about the athletes and the competitions they are signed up for or already competed in. It is next to impossible to trace an athlete through an event.
You would think You could click on a country and get a list of athletes, at minimum. Go ahead, click on a minor country like Barbados. Not much there except that they are not expected to medal in any events. Yeah? So? They are HERE are they not??? Show us who is here under their flag and what they are competing again. It would not take much to add a list to the bio page.
How about events? You have to know what days an event is to see the results. Why??? You should be able to click on an event and follow it through the heats and semifinals to the finals. That is not how it is. Click on Sports. Somewhere there after all the little videos you might find results and schedule. Then, after waiting for all the stuff to load on the next page you have to unfold the days and try to figure out where the event you are tracing is. Go ahead, Figure out what events Bradly Ally from Barbados was in and what happened. I watched him come in 3rd in his heat and qualify for the semifinals. I lost it there.
I have an idea for NBC. Hire some athletes to help you with the website for the next games you cover. Figure out what the games are about. Give people the ability to choose between eye candy and information. NBC has gotten better at broadcasting the games. Well, a little better. The website sucks
whatever. Like I expect NBC to do anything that makes sense.
Enjoy the games
First off is the behind the scenes data transfer that keeps going on. Yeah, AJAX is a great thing, but when there is so much background activity that it takes five minutes to get a TV listing something is wrong. In Firefox under Linux when the browser is waiting the window goes gray. I sat for five minutes not touching the mouse after clicking on a tv listing. The window went in and out of gray. Of course this was a busy time, Sunday morning at 10:00, so the site was busy.
The way I have to get a tv listing is pretty dumb. They have this grid with times across the top and stations on the side. So you have to click on a box that corresponds to a time and a channel. Eventually I got my tv listing for the local NBC affiliate for the whole day. Wonderful, totally worth waiting five minutes for :-P. It was hard to see it because it kept going in and out of gray. When it is gray there is no scrolling or clicking or anything that works. Why is there data transfer taking place?? I am not doing anything, just trying to look at what I called up.
besides that, why do I have to click on this time grid to get the whole day for one lousy channel. Why not have all the channels in a list folded up. If they are going to give you the whole day, you might as well be able to choose the channel you want unfolded, more than one to scroll back and forth to see what you are going to watch.
This is just carping,of course. What I am really upset about is the fact that designed the sight to show off Flash and AJAX. As usual, NBC forgot that the Olympic games are about the GAMES. I don't want eye candy, I want information about the athletes and the competitions they are signed up for or already competed in. It is next to impossible to trace an athlete through an event.
You would think You could click on a country and get a list of athletes, at minimum. Go ahead, click on a minor country like Barbados. Not much there except that they are not expected to medal in any events. Yeah? So? They are HERE are they not??? Show us who is here under their flag and what they are competing again. It would not take much to add a list to the bio page.
How about events? You have to know what days an event is to see the results. Why??? You should be able to click on an event and follow it through the heats and semifinals to the finals. That is not how it is. Click on Sports. Somewhere there after all the little videos you might find results and schedule. Then, after waiting for all the stuff to load on the next page you have to unfold the days and try to figure out where the event you are tracing is. Go ahead, Figure out what events Bradly Ally from Barbados was in and what happened. I watched him come in 3rd in his heat and qualify for the semifinals. I lost it there.
I have an idea for NBC. Hire some athletes to help you with the website for the next games you cover. Figure out what the games are about. Give people the ability to choose between eye candy and information. NBC has gotten better at broadcasting the games. Well, a little better. The website sucks
whatever. Like I expect NBC to do anything that makes sense.
Enjoy the games
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