News, special features now more prominentWashington, D.C., April 6, 2009 - VOANews.com has revamped its home page to give news a more central role on the page.
"One-third of the people who visit the site said they wanted more news on the landing page," said Michael Messinger, VOA Internet director. "The idea is to provide people with the news they want - which is the reason they come to VOANews.com - and to offer the best user experience possible."
While the home page retains many of its current special features, including links to all of VOA's 45 language services, it improves navigation to the various features that allow people to access VOA on different platforms. It also prominently displays links to interactive features, including podcasts, RSS feeds, mobile services, and links to the T2A web chat and unique video footage.
In addition, the new page makes it easier to visit VOA's pages on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, where 25 VOA language services have individual channels in addition to the main VOA Video channel, YouTube.com/VOAVideo.
VOANews.com had 117 million visits in 2008, with many of the visitors accessing the site at least once a day.
The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 134 million people. Programs are produced in 45 languages.
(VOA)
