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Where Do We Find New Material?
That's simple. People like you send us our best material. We also crawl the web searching for new content. Event coordinators also send us a chunk of media offerings. What we don't do, however, is accept solicitations from advertisers. We may include sites that are commercial in nature, but we base our choices solely on the opinions of our editors.
What Is New?
With thousands of new sites produced every day, new doesn't simply mean newly hatched or radically updated. The editors of What's New also believe that new means timely and topical information. For instance, when A Day in the Life of the Web is broadcast, we want to give you advance notice. The web is more dynamic than web pages, so we'll send you not only to the best sites but to the best events, discussions, and forums.
How Do We Pick the Best of the New?
We base our selections on two criteria: Content and Design.
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Content
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Content is by far the most important barometer. We judge a site's content based on personality, relevance, utility, and links.
- Personality
When it comes to new sites, personality goes a long way. Even a site devoted to new and improved corn oil can offer fascinating information that's packed with humor and punch. On the other hand, exciting information should steer clear of hype and cliche (unless, of course, it's appropriate to the site's objective). We look for language and graphics that are engaging not obnoxious, informative not boring.
- Relevance
A new site can't be so enamored with itself that it fails to address its subject matter. The overt mission of a site is to communicate its message quickly, effectively, and playfully.
- Utility
Like any well-designed web site, a new site needs to impart some worthwhile information. If readers can't figure out what they are doing at a web site by the time they say to themselves, "What am I doing at this web site?", the objective is not being effectively communicated.
- Links
The amount and quality of links are important to even the most comprehensive sites. With so much information on the web, users appreciate links that take them to other sites with exceptional and useful content. Likewise, users appreciate not being sent to useless or worse yet, inactive sites.
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Design
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Of course, the best content is meaningless if isn't presented in the right package. Great web design will exploit the medium of the web without getting bogged down in unnecessary graphics and information overload.
- Clarity
A site should convey its intent simply and coherently. Good design will expose the bare soul of a site quickly and intelligently, while still maintaining an imaginative user interface. Successful designers will also factor in such engineering concerns as what size monitor a typical user owns.
- Relevance
A graphic can be worth a thousand pages of HTML text. Graphics and the page design need to be tightly focused and integrated, understanding what will attract and what will deter a reader's eye.
- Accessibility
A great site needs to be organized in an effective and consistent manner. Users must be able to wade deep into your site without getting lost. If a site has good architecture, users will have a mental map to guide them through easily.
- Speed
Web design must consider some basic engineering concerns. Web pages including graphics need to be designed to download quickly, taking advantage of the open standards of the web.
The inclusion of content within Netcenter's What's New area is based upon the opinion of Netscape's editors. Netscape is not responsible for the content contained in the third-party sites reviewed in What's New, nor any errors or omissions in content, or for any loss or damage resulting from a user's use of, transactions based upon, or reliance on information obtained from Netcenter's What's New or any sites to which it links. Netscape does not endorse or sponsor sites reviewed.
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