Keynote Competitive Research released the first customer experience and technical performance study examining leading news Web sites.

The study contains two parts: an in-depth examination of the online customer experience and an in-depth examination of technical quality or “service levels” (site responsiveness and site reliability) of the leading news Web sites including AOL News, CNN, FOX News, Google News, MSNBC, USA Today, and Yahoo! News. The unique data and insights uncovered by Keynote Competitive Research are acquired through the use of the company’s commercially available Web performance and customer experience test and measurement products. The study is available for purchase from Keynote.

View Yahoo!'s Eric Miraglia on SYS-CON.TV during
his AJAXWorld presentation on User Experience

Customer Experience Rankings for News Web Sites
The Keynote Customer Experience Ranking for News Web Sites study examines the online experience of more than 2,000 consumers as they interacted with leading news Web sites. The study details how each site performs versus competitors across key business objectives, including customer satisfaction and customer acquisition, and captures more than 250+ metrics for each site. The study provides competitive rankings in dozens of categories, as well as specific and actionable steps to be taken to improve online performance, customer satisfaction, brand appeal and customer acquisition.

The company’s customer experience studies employ Keynote WebEffective, an on-demand software platform for conducting in-depth user experience research which integrates the best aspects of usability, behavior and attitudinal research.

Service Level Rankings for News Web Sites
The Keynote Service Level Rankings study examines the technical performance of leading news Web sites, including site responsiveness and reliability. The study uses Keynote’s Transaction Perspective® solution, the leading subscription-based service for measuring and monitoring Web site performance. Transaction Perspective mimics the actions of consumers and examines performance from multiple geographic locations, collecting more than 6,500 data points for each site to detail online technical performance. The study offers insight into technical performance relative to competitors, and provides detailed data on site performance across seven key measures critical to the operational health of an online business.

Yahoo! News Ranks #1 in Online Customer Experience
Yahoo! News was ranked as the #1 Web site in the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings with the best overall ranking across the 250+ customer experience metrics measured in the study. Yahoo! News was the top ranked site in terms of consumer satisfaction with news content and news search, and in terms of feature satisfaction and news credibility. MSNBC was a top ranked site in terms of news content satisfaction, news search and video news. CNN and Fox News joined Yahoo! News and MSNBC as top ranked sites in terms of video news satisfaction.

Yahoo! News, CNN Number One in Service Levels
In the Keynote Service Level Rankings study, Yahoo! News had the best reliability of all news Web sites, an indication the site was highly available and experienced little or no downtime. CNN had the industry’s best site responsiveness, an indication of how fast sites were in downloading pages and completing searches. The studies were conducted during the Summer and Fall of 2007.

Companies Included in the Study
The AOL News (NYSE:TWX), CNN (NYSE:TWX), FOX News, Google News (Nasdaq:GOOG), MSNBC, Newsvine.com, USA Today, and Yahoo! News (Nasdaq:YHOO) Web sites were included in the studies. For more details on how your organization can benefit from the study or for information on purchasing the study, please view Media / Entertainment Portals.

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