**** Practical 6 ****

Evaluation for Internet Resource 1

Title of Internet Resource: NPR – Music Home
URL: http://www.npr.org/music/

Purpose

The aim of the website is introduce various genres of music to the teenagers, judging by the homepage itself. This website provides different varieties of music. It constantly updates the teenagers with the new music albums and. In addition, the latest information and news are updated regularly.

Coverage

The coverage of the website basically covers about the buzz on the music industry. This website is very comprehensive as it includes the various type of music, such as popular music, Jazz and Blues, classical and rocks. It also shows some latest information like when the concerts will be held on, the news about the popular singers and also includes the best selling CDs of the year. In addition, the teenagers can listen to the music through the ‘live stream’. This will allows the teenagers to preview their songs before they decide to purchase the album.

Lastly, the website has a search engine feature for searching music information and other resources conveniently. The users can manually browse for the artist using browsing the artist name through the ‘Browse Artist A-Z’. This way, the users can search for their favourite artist according to the first alphabet of the artist’s name.

Authority

This website is an authoritative source. It is developed by the NPR (National Public Radio). NPR is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of non-commercial news, talks, and entertainment programming.
Accuracy

The fact of website is accurate. The basis of the site comes from the activities of the celebrities and their latest music. The content of the website contains no political, ideological and biasness. The contents are based on the latest news of the music industry.

Currency

The information from this website is up-to-date. It is because the website update regularly base on the latest updates on the music industry. For example, the website can show the latest information about the concert that held on 25 January 2008 by Back Door Slam. Base on the layout of the site, I can tell that the site is well-maintained. The arrangement of the content is very neat and orderly. It allows the users to obtain the information conveniently.

Accessibility

The website is easy to access. The images and contents of the website are loaded quickly. However, some images will need a few seconds to load it sometime because of the image using flash type image. This website does not require for any registration and log-in. thus, the information that I accessed is free.

Presentation and Arrangement

The information in the website is well presented and organised. The information is clearly stated out, consistently and logically presented and arranged. There have a search engine provided to let the users search the information or other related resources conveniently. Therefore, the users can obtain information within the website and not rely on external sites.


Usability

The website is easy to use and navigate around. It has a navigation button to link back to its home page in every webpage. It allows the users go back to the home page without clicking the back button.
In addition, the website also provides podcast for the users to let them listen to the latest music. It allows the users to stream music live via online such as official music stations. This way, the users can listen to radio via the website.

Overall

In my opinion, this website has provided the latest information about the music industry to update the teenagers about the latest news from their favourite artists. It also provides up-to-date information about the music industry and the artists. It also includes a music list on the latest composed music released for the time being.

Evaluation for Internet Resource 2

Title of Internet Resource: Lycos Music
URL: http://entertainment.lycos.com/music/

Purpose

The aim of this website is to introduce music videos to teenagers. It updates them of new music videos and information that have surfaced recently. This website also provides information and news of popular artists that teenagers idolise. The target audience of this website are teenagers between the ages of 18 to 25.

Coverage

This website covers on the latest music videos of artists such as Sons and Daughters, Big Noyd and J. Valentine. It also displays latest news of popular singers and the music charts of top songs for the week. In addition, the website also provides music charts of that year. It also shows the latest trend among the youths throughout the year.

Furthermore, the website also provides a search engine for searching music information conveniently. The users can search directly with the artist name. This way, the users can save time on browsing through the entire database.

Authority

This website is created by Lycos Inc, a reliable and widely used search engine throughout the world. This website provides functions for users when they face problems while using the website such as how to contact customer service, tips concerning unwanted "spam" messages and etc.



Accuracy

The facts provided by the website is accurate because the content matches other search results from other search engine. Also, it does no contain political, ideological and biasness of any sorts. The website is factual as it displays true and current information to users. It does not contain any comments and opinion. Grammatical and spelling errors are not present in the content.

Currency

The information from this website is up-to-date because the website is updated regularly. For example, there is a date to every update made on the website such as 30 January 2008 which is recent to this date. The arrangement of the content is very neat. It allows the users easy to read the information easily.

Accessibility

The website is quite difficult to access as the internet connection takes to long to connect to their server. This website does not require registration and log-in. The links are well labelled in the homepage for easy navigation. Moreover, all the information accessible are free. The copyright of the website is registered trademark of Lycos © Copyright 2008.

Presentation and Arrangement

The information is arranged and organised in boxes. However I feel that this is not professional and quite untidy. The site map tab is at the bottom of the website at the footer alongside the terms and condition and others. There is a search facility to search for the various lyrics, this will enable user to find a direct match if he/she is too lazy to browse through the database.


Usability

The website is easy to navigate. It has a navigation button to link back to its home page. It allows the users to go back to the home page without clicking the back button. It also provides a search engine facility to allow the users to search for relevant information. The website allows the users to preview songs for free.

Overall

In my opinion, this website provides information on the latest artist in the music industry today. It allows the users to search for their favourite artist’s biography and latest news and updates regarding them. The website provides features such as viewing videos via online and download functions from their software that require to be installed on the users’ desktop.