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Gids replied on January 13, 2009 13:43 to the problem "Search field consistency" in BBC:
Hi,
Not a definitive answer, but some explanation. The BBC uses a standard page template called Barlesque of which the search box is part
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinterne...
However, some sites have customised versions of the template which they host themselves. e.g. iplayer/news/homepage which can behave and look different to other pages on the site. Normally where some special feature is required like scoped search for different parts of the site.-
Gids reported a problem in BBC on November 27, 2008 11:23:
'New Related Link' undescriptive/broken links on BBC NewsI have seen different articles on BBC News which contain related links with the dummy text 'New Related Link' it also seems to be possible to add related links which are strangely formatted and broken, so it doesn't appear there is very effective validation going on.
This recent news story contains a link titled 'New Related Link' with a weirdly formatted broken link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/g...
Google turfs up many more examples using this query:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&...
This should be possible to address at the CPS level with a couple of changes:
- Make the default link text blank and mandatory to fill in, rather than 'New Related Link'
- Validate entered URLs for an HTTP 200 (OK) response and warn if not received.
Could someone look at possible improvements, to stop these in future?
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Gids shared an idea in BBC on November 12, 2008 16:50:
Mobile friendly parser for bbc.co.uk desktop sitesI have been inspired by the google.com mobile option 'Format pages for your phone' and would love to see something similar on bbc.co.uk
When going through Google search on your phone this turns barlesque sites like /ouch and /programmes from an unreadable mess (entering the URL direct on my Nokia 5310,) into really usable mobile sites. It seems to have a number of tricks up its sleeve to do this:
*strips out extra style and layout information, so the page flows in a linear fashion
*resizes images to fit your phone screen
*Gives you the option to show or hide long bits of text, or complex parts of the page
*splits long pages into a few small pages
*gives you the option to switch between the mobile and original versions of the page
I would hope with some intelligent sniffing and a good mobile page parser (think betsie 2.0) we could do something similar for people that go direct to barlesque sites on their phone.
You can try the google mobile parser in your desktop browser by going to: http://www.google.com/m?source=mobile... -
Gids reported a problem in BBC on October 29, 2008 15:07:
Large news image bleeding into text in FirefoxThis news article has a large image, which is bleeding into the right-hand column in Firefox 2 and 3. It works fine in IE 6 and 7, so this appears to be a browser specific issue.
I'm not using any enlarged text size or page zoom, so I think the appearance should be consistent with what most Firefox users are seeing.
URL is: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_i...
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Gids replied on October 20, 2008 10:07 to the problem "HTML entities showing up in search results" in BBC:
This search query shows a bunch more results with the same issue:
http://search.bbc.co.uk/search?tab=al... -
Gids reported a problem in BBC on October 17, 2008 15:11:
HTML entities showing up in search resultsAs part of my job I search for disability related stories to appear on Ouch!
...So I see a lot of BBC News search results pages.
Just noticed that this quote character is appearing as a raw HTML entity '#34;' on a search results page. It appears to be missing the leading ampersand character which would make it appear correctly on the page.
URL is: http://search.bbc.co.uk/search?tab=ns...
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Gids replied on September 18, 2008 15:50 to the problem ""Sorry, no survey available"" in BBC:
Hi,
Please could you be as specific as possible to help someone track down this issue, as I couldn't see it browsing the site.
What is the website address (URL) of the form where you gave this feedback? What did you click on from the Bruce Parry site http://www.bbc.co.uk/tribe/bruce/inde... to get to that page?
It might be worth reporting the issue at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/feedback/tech_fa...
as well, because this site isn't a supported product on our get satisfaction site. -
Gids replied on September 17, 2008 19:45 to the problem "iPlayer mis-reporting 'Last Played' programme length" in BBC:
had another look at this and realise something less insidious is gong on. This series (The Essay) lasts 15 mins approx and is labelled that way in the 'show information' dialog. However, the recording goes on for 35:56, so that's the issue.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...
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Gids reported a problem in BBC on September 15, 2008 20:40:
iPlayer mis-reporting 'Last Played' programme lengthI listened to the programme 'The Essay: It's Big and It's Beautiful: The Rise of Retro Tech' (15mins approx)
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...) after it ended I shut down, when I returned to iplayer it showed last played The Essay: '17.08 / 35.56' this is obviously inaccurate as the programme is not that long! Any idea where iplayer is pulling this information from?
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Gids reported a problem in BBC on September 11, 2008 20:54:
BBC Null in iPlayer radio? Bad metadata?Any idea why 'All Bar Luke' is listed as being by 'BBC Null' in the iPlayer radio player?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4...
