Here's our new website in beta: beta.thehindu.com

It is more impressive....very easy to read

Simply it is superb. I have been reading The Hindu from my tenth standard. I am a fan of it. The new web site that you have created is excellent. The options that you have kept are very useful.

I have been reading The Hindu for about last 45 years with certain interruptions. Although I am not much conversant or comfortable with internet, I am now happy to go through this portal. Thank you.

Great new site! There was a real need for a well-designed online Indian newspaper.

Are there plans to make the site BlackBerry friendly anytime soon?

A very good change to the website. Nice format. especially that you have a dedicated S&T and Education sections.

It is fantastic.

This is a great website, definitely the most readable Indian English language newspaper on the net. Keep up the good work.

Your new web version is quite absorbing. Unlike other magazines Hindu has its unique appeal in all aspects, viz, editorial,news,sports, useful articles of scholars, etc.., etc I have been an ardent reader of your magazine for the past over 45 years. Never had it bored me,instead I had only felt short of time to go through the whole issue. I had read some wonderful articles in the psst which I have copied in a separate note book for future reading. Congrates.

Please accept my belated congratulations for your excellent web edition. It makes such a pleasant reading. The quality of the print and the photographs in particular is far superior. This is an added incentive to read The Hindu of which I have been a reader and admirer for its mature reporting and excellent editorials and lead articles.
Manohar Rao

Nice website, I was really waiting for some website from our media.
What I liked is quality of content which is far better than others.
- A new reader of "THE HINDU" :)

good

The epidermics of the new webside is really a fabulous. And the newspaper is leading the whole country. It's education copy is really marvellous. This reveals the real situation. I think that The Hindu should provide the extra knowledge of Science and English Literature. And also provides Literary Terms. Thanks.

Looks simple and good, but not extraordinary

Impressive.

Wow!! Nice Design. Thanks a lot. I was missing The Hindu in Bellevue,WA. Now I feel one step closer to happenings in India.

Wow... this design and content presentation look cool. The Hindu is now looking competent in league of other world class papers on the Internet. I personally liked Le Figaro very much. Good to see Indian newspapers like The Hindu with so awesome look and feel..:) Keep rocking!

Simply Elegant. I love it.
Now I am a regular reader of this website.

awesome!

Please stick with this design.

Kindly do not use display ads and popups.

Thanks!

The new site's presentation is very good. You are moving in the right direction. I have a suggestion. Reduce the size of the ads. They seem to be occupying more of the screen estate than what would be considered non-intrusive. Good luck!

An excellent transformation but I have a question. I have social bookmarked (on delicious) many of your pages from your old site. What happens to those bookmarks once the content of the old website, including the archive, migrates to the redesigned one? Will I lose them? Thanks...

It's great. The redesigned website is easy to view and updates are also catchy.

I have encountered this site today. Kuodos to The Hindu team in showing their dedication as well as determination to provide authentic and well researched news to a large section of internet users as well in a very handy way. You have tried to make the look of the site as like the other leading newspapers such as The New York Times, The Guardian. Keep it up.

A long overdue fulfilled. Thanks a lot.

I notice that Comments section grows in the same page. Please seperate the comments section from the main article and introduce paging to show newest 50 comments first and options to navigate back to old comments. As like all other pages, make this just like Guardian.

the new site is easier on the eyes. The front page can do better with a little more structuring on right lower portion. The Top Middle portion would be a nice holder for latest news and updates...Just headlines, so users would not need to go way down.

and Maybe the Hindu Group publications such as Sportsstar etc on the lower right for easy navigation.

The color is classic yet the flow is of today...nice design

I have been following the website of 'The Hindu' since I got my new computer, which is almost ten years back. I am happy to see the new look of it but looking forward for a continuous improvement in terms of delivering information to the world, as the newspaper carries the pride of India.

Thanks for the new website. 'The Hindu' has been a part of my everyday life since my eigth grade. I'm happy now that The Hindu has launched its long-awaited user-friendly website.

The new web design of the much loved paper is simply brilliant & great. Apart from its core values the Hindu always remains the best.
My hearty congratulations to the team Hindu & the readers.

Can't you survive with just the text ads? At least move those flashy ads to the bottom in right column so that we dont find those ads until we scroll down while reading the article :P

Also please dont moderate all comments manually. Use open ids to login to your site and have report abuse/inappropriate buttons so that the number of comments to be moderated manually will be reduced. Provide rss feeds for the comments of a particular post if you really want to encourage discussion about a story on your site. This helps us to follow the thread easily.

Speaking of rss feeds, please provide the first paragraph of the article in the rss feed as opposed to just the first 50 word summary(which most of the times dont make any sense). This helps the readers to read what they actually need instead of clicking every article posted here. This definitely means a decrease in the number of hits initially, but it will really help in the long run in terms of increased viewership because of a friendly feature. You can always use ads in feeds if you feel like you will lose substantial revenue by doing that.

Also there are too many rss feeds at present in your site. Please try to cut them down if you can.

Wish The Hindu many many centuries of existence :)

It is really impressive and brilliant. But, I wonder where do find the state and district specific news which are easily reachable in the old fashioned one.

This is what I am waiting for. The older version was as good as beta in respect of delivering the news, but the beta scores on the look and feel front. Cheers.

Despite the improvement, I would like you to continue with the scrolling of Breaking/Latest news and also show the regional and specific city content.

I do not go to bed without viewing your site the previous day. I wake up and read elaborately. Congrats for the fonts chosen and the increased readability of the spacing and paragraphing.

I am really happy to see the new, updated, user friendly pages of The Hindu. As a matter of fact I always read Times of India. Now first news provider for me is THE HINDU.

The new design is fantastic. However, one small suggestion - Please incorporate the date of publication of the paper as I don't see it appear anywhere on the page.

Excellent work. Some suggestions: Like foreign papers can we have email address or contact name of all correspondents after the piece? Will the archives remain a connected site or migrate to this format? How about the supplement like Metro Plus? Please do allow for comments.

Finally, an Indian newspaper (and a really good one at that) with a great looking online site.

New site look is awesome. Latimes.com also upgraded at the same time and both looks the same

I am now 75 years old and have been reading The Hindu for the past 70 years. No other newspaper gives me greater satisfaction than reading The Hindu. During my frequent visits abroad, I keep reading the paper online. The new design is simply marvellous. Congratulations! You have proved that you will be second to none. V.Sethumadhavan, Acton, USA, MA. 01720

Now is not the time to rest on laurels. It is time to work on a iPhone version. See how well NYT reads on an iPhone. Cricinfo has done a nice job too. Hindu can't be far behind. There are some very good suggestions in the readers' feedback.

A comment about "Comments". One of the readers complained about the fact that comments will be moderated: I want to express exactly the opposite opinion. In fact, newspapers such as the New York Times or the Washington Post clearly lay out the terms and conditions for commenting and make it clear that abuse will not be tolerated. I have seen some rather abusive and racist comments posted on regional language newspapers - having explicit terms of use as well as moderation will help The Hindu avoid this. There is a thin line between free speech and abuse, and I hope that the Hindu's moderators take the guidance of renowned newspapers around the world in this regard.

Wonderful.Great for NRIs who have limited choice now for South Indian news.The site should cover the entire south.

During the past 28 years of my life in Germany I have been consistently informed about the events in india through the Hindu. I appreciate your objectivity in reporting.

Two things: 1. In the opinion section, you must mention the name of the writer in the main section itself (that is along with the headline and intro). As it is right now, one has to go into the main story to see who the writer is and that's inconvenient. 2. The colour of the mast needs to be deeper. It almost looks blurred at the edges due to the weak tone, especially the black symbol in between.

Looks impressive. Good luck. Just one request though. Please do not attempt to become No. 1 online newspaper, by turning this decent news paper in to sleazy tabloid.

A few suggestions: As the no.of comments on a article increase, there should be automatic pagination like <<1 2 3. And it would look much better if Ajax/web 2.0 is also used for things like in-situ zooming of images, news articles. It would be nice if a daily cartoon can appear on the homepage. Some selected comments of users can also be displayed on home page.

It has been a duty for me to read my favourite paper ever since I new what a newspaper is. Now it is a joy to read it anywhere in the world. Pleasing to the eye. Happy to know that The Hindu is keeping up with time along with its rich heritage.

I have been a reader of The Hindu from 1969. Happy to See the developments. I wish that this paper becomes the best News Web in the World.

I get my India news from The Hindu. I find that the new beta site is not designed with Mac users in mind. Or those with low vision. So when I increase the print, I can't see the entire story on my screen.

The new beta version of The Hindu website is awesome. It gives me the same feel as flipping the paper version. The new version covers more news with additional features. Kudos to the entire team.

The site looks good. But try to put one feature back: Breaking news region wise. In your earlier version, I used to go to this section to find out the day's happenings in Andhra, Kerala, Karnataka and TN. Now that is lost out in the new breaking news section.

I was not aware until I stumbled upon the site. Why was no publicity given for this event in your daily? Hearty congrats.

That is why this is THE Hindu. Dont think the colour scheme needs to be changed. This one is pleasing.

Till today readers could not post their comments online. Finally The Hindu has introduced the features. Good.

The Hindu's new website is very pleasing. Finally the richness of its content has been supplemented with a complementary design as well. Hope to see the other publications of The Hindu group also getting into the Web 2.0 mode and getting as rich as beta.thehindu.com. Waiting for the Frontline in particular to upgrade its site, have a stronger search facility and having more archives available on the net.

The Hindu is the one national newspapers providing news to readers using the most modern tools of communication.It was very appropriate to release the beta version on the 63rd Independence Day. May be soon we can read The Hindu on mobiles and ipods.

Dear Hindu,

The new website looks very impressive in graphics and online content. Great job.., congratulations..

Congratulations to Hindu on the new design. I understand the site is still at beta stage, but can something be done to RSS feeds? I have configured my browser to pull RSS feeds but doesn't work now (including the new RSS feed from beta site).

Looks verys user-friendly and pleasing. Nice way to go for my favourite newspaper . Hope this will come soon in Businessline as well

Excellent,Its another milestone to The Hindu. This is what we expected.
Best Wishes

Long overdue! But still a forward looking step. Design is aesthetic and simple but the content is the "King" here. Hearty congrats. My suggestion: please provide the email id of the correspondent in all the news items. It will be great to interact with them directly.

Great step forward! But, the design is not up to the standard of The Hindu. The print version design is world-class with a lot of attention given to details. The site looks too plain. One would definitely have expected a better job from The Hindu.

Good design.
Congratulations to all those involved in bringing up this change.
I also notice an improvement in the speed.

Dear Sir,

Your new website is nice and easy on the eye. The Hindu has always been the newspaper that I read for getting accurate and dependable information. I would like to make some suggestions to make it more readable:

1. Breaking news should be in different colour. Both the background and the letters.
2. The headlines of the print edition of the Hindu always carried importance. The same should be reflected in the web site too.
3. Inclusion of audio content so that viewers can listen to the voice of the reporters etc. will be a welcome addition.
4. Photos of film actors need not be displayed on all pages



Srilatha
Jamnagar, Gujarat, India

Congratulations to the Hindu's in-house design team as also to Mr.Garcia Jr. Brilliant! The site is a mix of the layout, design and features of 'The New York Times', 'The Washington Post' and 'The Guardian'. An aspiring journalist/writer with a passion for research in a wide range of subjects, I hope the archives from pre-2000 is also made available online. Now the web edition of 'The Hindu' is truly ready for the new wave of rising internet users in India.

For starters, I think the 'make a comment' box should be moved up. I had to scroll down a million miles before i could find it.

About what i think about the new look--it is good! I really liked the layout. Compared to your old look, this is 10x better. The pictures are very clear. The blue logo is superb. You are in the league of the top news guys like Wall Street Journal, Information Week, NYTimes. Congrats!

The presentation of the content has been excellent

Usually, the comfort of reading the Print edition is not felt while reading the Online edition. But with the new design, things have really changed as we now enjoy reading the Online edition than ever before! Good work by the Hindu team. Ram seems to be leaping ahead of others in innovative ideas!!!

Wonderful Mr. Ram and the Hindu team - A job well done
For long we loyal readers of the Hindu have waited for this - it is now on par with world class media websites and better than quite a few if u ask me. I was wondering where those useful tit bits located on the right hand side of your old website are located u know text of PMs speech, text of budget etc. - the made the website much much more informative hope u haven't dispensed with them. Oh and Mr. Ram, when are u launching the Hindu in other states. I am in lko and i really miss the paper here cos i get the Delhi edition only late in the evening.
Patrick
patjas@lycos.com

I am lost in the thick wood. Old web is quite easy to manoeuvre. Hindu copies the western media and it is not innovative.

It was high time The Hindu made a change to the Website. The new website is really good and very user friendly. The font is really good and very clear.

really nice...it is high time indian media takes the internet seriously

beta version of THE HINDU must be commended for its style and extraordinary layout .being a regular reader and lover of THE HINDU, i welcome its beta website which is as refreshing as a blooming flower. it goes on to prove that THE HINDU is not lagging behind when it comes to adopt itself to the changing times of present technology - driven era.

Beta version of The Hindu must be commended for its style and extraordinary layout. Being a regular reader and lover of The Hindu, I welcome its beta website which is as refreshing as a blooming flower.

Really outstanding. A serious reader of contemporary India cannot skip this site even for a single day.

Good to know The Hindu is catching up with the technology, I hope this site will be optimized for the mobile users like me.
Thanks
Indira

The 'choose your city' and 'choose your state' drop downs should be made persistent (managed by cookies). The website should remember which city and which state in between clicks. Right now when I select a city or a state and click away and come back it does not remember the selections.

I like the new website very much. A few suggestions: You could add scientific survey to the web page on hot topics to get the take from people. You could a site feedback link. clicking on images could provide enlarged version of their images

Very impressive and user friendly. Too soft to handle. Very soon it's going to beat other online news websites.
One simple request never fill your front page with some vulgar scene.
Fantastic work and I wish all the best to The Hindu family for future success.
Thanking You
Shashi Ranjan

Very impressive and user friendly. Soft to handle. Very soon it's going to beat other online news websites. One simple request: never fill your front page with some vulgar scenes.

Thank you for the new online edition. It looks great.

Few preferences of mine and for many I believe would be being able to,

i) customize the newspaper layout based on personal preference.

ii) see video clippings of important events.

Kudos to the entire team of Mr. Ram. The Hindu is The Hindu. It leads in each and every endeavour it undertakes.

As marvellous as a piece of art.

The new design is commendable, finally the form and content of The Hindu are in sync with each other. Kudos to the editor and designers. Please also give us direct links to our favourite writers like Vidya Subrahmanyam, Siddharth Varadarajan, P.Sainath, Hasan Suroor. Sometimes, when I am busy I would quickly like to read these names and come back to the rest of the newspaper gradually.

Congratulations! I love the new clarity of the photos

This change was long over due. However, the changes made now gives the Hindu a tabloid appearance with more emphasis on ease of navigation, eye candy, large pictures etc. rather than the content itself. For example, the main article on the frontpage does not get the treatment like one. The sentence below the headlines should itself be complete and should not be carried over to the next page. Secondly, the most latest breaking news should be like a ticker tape. This is missing. The font colour should be more black. Since this is a web edition, the last updated time should also appear somewhere on the main page.

Excellent UI. I was wondering from long back why Hindu website was lagging behind other news Agencies' websites. But, better late than never. It does not have any irritating pop ups as in The Time of India.

Fabulously new on Independence Day!!
The Hindu is moving with time.

Looks great. Hearty congratulations; will look for more innovations.

I would suggest you post your explanation for the reason behind outsourcing this new design related work at the top of this thread or as a separate announcement on this page.Many [mainly who wrote the accusing comments] would not notice your comment appearing in the middle of hundreds of comments posted by the excited users.

Surprised, No Commercial advertisements like other Indian News websites. Really Great approach and expecting the same throughout.

To the many readers who wrote in about "outsourced" work.

The CCI workflow solution and the Escenic web platform are enterprise product software - like Dominos, for example, or SAP, or Microsoft SharePoint portal services. We have purchased the workflow and web publishing solution from CCI Europe and Escenic respectively.

We have customised the workflow solution for our newspaper and website. The Hindu's in-house team has developed and implemented our website in the Escenic platform.

Enterprise software requires some support from the vendors and their involvement in the beta website is limited to that support and hand-holding.

'The Hindu' Team

Excellent format but no update on weather information of indian cities. Hope it will update very quickly.

Your ads really are making the site totally unusable. it is destroying the UI look and feel.

Noticed that date and time of hte comments are not published.

Finally, The Hindu is catching up with competition. The layout is much better than the old version but still some menu arrangement and one-click options to any section from all the pages should be made available. Instead of just copying/adopting the design from other leading international papers, The Hindu should come out with something unique. What I used to like about The Hindu is the professional and mostly unbiased editorials. I was worried that The Hindu would fade away into oblivion by not being a technology adopter. This is just the beginning and hopefully at least from now on The Hindu will adjust to the speed of the Internet.

All the best, this is a step in the right direction.

-Vetri

Wow!!!!!!!! finally you guys did it. it is fun to read the news now. keep it going...

I have been a reader of your online paper since the launch. The new website is more dynamic. Good work HINDU. However, It will be to see updates as and when you guys get news instead of waiting for the next day.

The new website design is awesome. Kudos to the technology team and the designers. Well Done!

The newly designed website with special headings looks pretty good. At the same if you could eliminate the unnecessary advertisements, it would be very nice in readers point of view. Congratulations....

K.Sakthivel, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.

The format is good and covers the wide gamut of your publications. This is the best part of the site. Congratulations. Your are world class.

The format is good and covers the wide gamut of your publications. This is the best part of the site. Congratulations. Your are world class.

I have been reading The Hindu in print since childhood and online from the time I relocated overseas. It is great to see the redesigned site and it looks the same as the original print edition which is excellent

I really like the new look of the website but I have noticed that unlike the old site where news from the print edition is easily accessible, it is not so with the new one. It would be really helpful if you could have a section where news from the print edition is accessible.

This is very very impressive...High quality stuff..keep going

I read Hinduonnet.com and blonnet.com for my daily dose of news and business news from India. The Beta site is impressive, easy on the eyes and well done.

Finally The Hindu is catching up with the rest of the world. Congrats! The site is awesome... Innovation and growth is key in today's ever changing world. Going forward hopefully Hindu will be on the side of innovation instead of playing catch up with the rest of the world. Good luck!

I would like to have the Date and Time along with the masthead in the Home page. Otherwise its a bit difficult.

The design and presentation style of the website is superb. Kudos to team behind the project. The best Indian newspaper has now got the best website too.

It is wonderful to see this new layout for Hindu. I like it a lot. Hindu has always provided a very balanced news without sensationalizing it like many other news papers. This new look brings Hindu on par with some of the world's best news media websites. Congratulations!

I am a regular online reader and I would like to truly appreciate the effort for bringing out this change for the benefit of all readers. Aesthetically the new beta version has topped the old version without doubt. One of the key likeable features of the old version that I hope would not be compromised in the new version is i) intuitively being able to navigate to any section of the newspaper with few clicks (ideally 1 or 2).

I am a regular online reader and I would like to truly appreciate the effort for bringing out this change for the benefit of all readers.

Aesthetically the new beta version has topped the old version without doubt.

One of the key likeable features of the old version that I hope would not be compromised in the new version is

i) intuitively being able to navigate to any section of the newspaper with few clicks ( ideally 1 or 2 ).

I agree with the comment of "JJK" found above who had stressed this point earlier.

Thank you very much once again.

Good Website about time the best paper in India improved their website, befitting the great paper.

This is awesome! Hindu has always believed in maintaining the highest standards and this is yet another proof. Fabulous work. Keep it up! Best wishes :)

Wow! This has been a long awaited one. Looks perfect for a bright morning. Good Luck!!

Wish List: It would be great feature, if you could have on option to view enlarged version of the images on the site.

Great Layout. and I like the comment feature the best....

This is terrific! Well done. With "Life on the Go" these days I hope soon there will a iPhone version of The Hindu.

It was a long wait with a pleasant surprise. Nice. Next, add audio and video. Also, don't let your advertisers push spyware into our computers.

Very good facelift! 10 years overdue!

As an international reader, I was *HOPING* the Hindu put up something on par with the NY times and such. I must say the site is rather impressive and ready to kick some! And the article quality is as usual, TOP NOTCH!

At last. Ah what a great design. We have been waiting for the Hindu to come out of its old and step into the new. The only thing i hate about online Hindu edition is that they don't work 24 hours a day. Like other news website i would like to see real time news updates. I do not want to wait for whole night to get news updated. Good Job. Thumbs up.

Would like to congratulate the IT team for putting this together. Excellent work for testing it on IE,Firefox and Chrome. Also for engaging 3 different teams from 3 different countries for the solution shows that the newspaper has a "Global" outlook. A request - could you certify the Safari browser on the Mac also ?

The Hindu, always pleasing to the mind, in its new look is more pleasing to the eyes.

I am one of the serious readers of the Hindu (its print and digital version). I like the revamped website very much. I have a suggestion- If you archive the articles by author's name, then it would be great help for the readers in finding the articles of their favourite writers.

regards,
Bhagaban

This looks so much better. We've been reading The Hindu forever in its paper version and when I checked the electronic version, it was pretty disappointing. Well, this version makes up for all that. Great way to go!

Great !! It woudl be even better if you could remove those Google Ads .. They are very annoying !! It does not give the website a professional feeling at all !!

This new look of the Hindu website has brought an unique identity to the Hindu in addition to its quality articles and publications. I am a regular reader of the Hindu and this is a useful gift for all the readers as everything is perfect in this right from its fonts size, style, layout, design etc.

As you said in your note, the design and layout are easy-on-the-eye, with rich visual content, and easy navigation. It reminds me of NYT's home page. The font is also easy-to-read. The homepage needs to have more multi-media content, (as in ABCnews.com)and social media tools (using Myspace, Facebook and Twitter tools). These days video and multimedia are fundamental elements of any web presentation.

The Hindu has always been easily the most authentic and informative daily with high dignity and culture. While the media has compromised many aspects The Hindu never did it and it singularly stands out as the best.

Well this UI is much better than previous! Its more user friendly.
Please give my best regards to your team and keep up the good work.

One Suggestion: Comments should appear as is to begin with when the user posts it. Later on, give the option to any user to flag any comment. The flagged comment should go for moderation. Also, users can be controlled via login. Only logged in users should have the ability to post comments. Moderating a comment after users post, will slowly lead to lessening of interest among users since their comments will not be seen immediately.

It will be nice if you can provide an option to readers to provide their comments and views (similar to the option provided here for this information) especially for articles and essays in the Op-Ed section.

Congratulations. I must say that it is one of the best layouts I have ever seen. The one which comes close is the Guardian. So, it is really of international standard.

I have been a regular reader of The Hindu from the print edition to now online. This is just great.

Thanks, The Hindu. I am a regular reader of all The Hindu publications. Hope to see more on other websites as well (frontlineonnet.com , businessline, etc).

As a regular reader of The Hindu, I am immensely proud of this redesign!

Great look and feel, put this undisputed news source on par with International standards .. Kudos for great work

Congratulations. We have all been waiting for this. Yes there are some nit-picky things I want to point out, but I would say, this site looks as good as any top newspaper in the world.

This was long awaited and I am really happy to see an outstanding result.

Late but the latest. I am expecting the same for the mobile edition also. I would appreciate it if you could release I-phone apps similar to NYTIMES for iphone users, as it will reach the youth’s abroad.

There are a number of Indian Newspapers on the web, trying to provide 24x7 updates, but the popular ones have now become more or less tabloids - sensational with low credibility. That is why this major change from The Hindu is very welcome

It is great to see you guys in the new format. It reflects the changing face of the media and what users want. I have been wishing this for a long time ever since I started browsing the NY Times, Economist and Washington Past.

The newly designed site with speacial headings looks very user-friendly and helps to find the interesting news. The Hindu has once again proved that it is one among the best news papers in the world.

Earlier portal design was huge turnoff though I used to visit frequently for news. This new design is simple, elegant and I am sure to visit this one multiple times a day.

Finally a site worthy of its content. I was wondering when The Hindu will launch a real website, not just a bunch of pages strung together. Nice, simple and neat layout, easy on the eye. Reminds me of NYT. Some suggestions: I cannot find the Sunday Magazine and PropertyPlus in the new site.

Was pleasantly surprised to see the new website which I thought was long overdue. Bolt's record run and this made my day. Good work!

Please put KNOW YOUR ENGLISH separately. It is my favourite. Please highlight

Unlike others why don't you take initiative to eliminate advertisments in your only news website. Think different. You have no right to distract readers from reading, who visit this website only for news reading, not for any other junk stuff.

Just great! At last The Hindu has come out of its old style to catch up with the modern trends. I am a loyal reader of The Hindu print edition for over 40 years and web reader for more than 5 years.

Hope you could add a tool for reading the text, at least for the headlines

I felt bad about a quality news-group being unnoticed over the internet. This new interface will make Hindu rule the news field.

Its nice to see THE HINDU in a new digital design..
Its simple and marvellous and again Hindu proved that it will always change with the time...but not with the contents..
ALL THE VERY BEST...

Awesome and Real Surprise to see The Hindu in new beta version. Hearty congratz!! Hindu team. The new redesigned website looks very trendy and user friendly. Now it has come up with an international look. Best wishes .

The new website is wonderful. Hearty congratulations to your content and tech team.
Layout - The sections in the horizontal makes it easy for us to browse.
Fonts - The fonts are bigger and so good for our eyes
Background colours - Very pleasant
Navigation and exploring related topics - You could add some content like - fact files or background news.
But overall very pleased with the new site.
Thanks
Nathan

The new website looks much better than the old and it is in keeping with the trend to make the paper more in tune with the times and user friendly. But please focus on more serious stuff and avoid sensationalism. And please keep out the curse of modern India, the Bollywood and assorted other woods.

The font is too dull...can you make it brighter...also on the home page the lines are shaky..mainly because there is a running news script that interrupts the flow of the page...that needs to be looked in too

Excellent! The Hindu, always the best in content and professional journalism also leads in look & feel in Web..

Not just "India's National Newspaper" anymore, this has a truly international feel to it. Well done!

I am a reader since 7 years. It is a very good technology change the web site.

A wonderful independence day gift for all The Hindu readers indeed. I had been wondering for sometime why The Hindu would not move on to a more 'attractive' website. It does not matter a cinch to ardent readers like me but it might to those who are new to serious news coverage.
Some things in life one does not compromise and a piece of news from The Hindu is certainly one among them. That must be why I was a little perturbed at the jarring photograph of a film actor's one hour discomfort in New York. I sincerely hope my favourite news paper would not drift away from its core principles. Another point would be to keep the site as fast as possible considering the low bandwidth across our country. The site is a little slower but should not slow further.

Awesome and welcome change to the site.

Two suggestions - please ensure that people posting comments also include their email address. Secondly, moderation is good. It keeps the clutter out of the site. I have seen many sites that do not moderate before posting and all you see there are idiot elements hijacking an article to a totally irrelevant issue. Moderating after posting is not a feasible, scalable solution.

Keep the good work going. The Hindu is beginning to look a lot younger now :)

The new site certainly looks very pleasing to eyes and have information arranged in a very accessible way.

I was waiting for something like this for a long time and Hindu has yet again come out with the change, which is still not too late. The Layout looks good, simple and user friendly and will be great delight many die hard Hindu fans.
So having come out with crisp looking online edition, we shall expect Hindu to match this with most current news and new ideas in presenting news.

I am 50 and the over the last four decades have grown up with The Hindu. Exciting to see the refreshing change. Keep it up.

The site looks very good. Congrats to the Hindu for their resolve in bringing their new website and in many ways this is a strategic move. Needless to mention, Web is the future.

This was long overdue... Glad that you've finally taken this huge step forward...I don't want to list the negatives straightaway as you are still in the nascent stage of this venture. But do identify the areas where you can improve and implement the changes at the earliest because I would hate you to lose your readership. The readability and layout are commendable.

Finally a major newspaper has not only realised the value of a good web presence, but has managed this without the standard cluttered design.

Thanks to Hindu for providing new look to hindu online edition after long time. As a regular online readers it is good gift.

I was surprised to see the Hindu website in new design. Looks good ! OK

First when I opened the website I thought I opened the Newyorktimes one later I looked closely and was proud that the hindu could make it. Its good and user friendly. Its makes it easy to get the news at first glance.

Finally we get a really good front page of Hindu on line. Have been waiting for this for years now. I am impressed. Late though, better than never. Good job Hindu Team!!!

The only sad part of the new design was that it was done in the US and Europe What about the Indian expertise?

Thanks for bringing in the new look. It is refreshing. There are however quite a few chinks though that need to be fixed to make the site useful. Hope you would address these as soon as possible.

Pluses:
* Nice refreshing look, Consistent
* Very readable

Minuses:
* Can't find some sections. Where is the 'Weather' page, 'In the city today' pages?
* Typos - it should be 'Comments' not 'comment'
* The layout could be more optimised, the reading area above the fold is quite small, requires a lot of scrolling
* Several topic pages are empty, don't have headings, captions etc

"The Hindu" a name know from my Grandfather's childhood in print has made a great change.

I read Hindu (online) on weekdays in my office. A great surprise this morning to see the refreshing look and new features !! Great going.

Cheers !!

Excellent work,

Nice layout and presentation....Hindu is back on track now. Congratulations

Good design, very similar to Guardian, NYT.... can be modified to be more attractive with a splash of colors.. overall good..!

As a India heritage paper for over a century Hindu takes the pride to give news to the readers with less gossip and more up to date news. With the new change and more reader friendly navigation it makes the site a 'must visit' site to one and all. Its good to see the Beta site being introduced to public on "Independence day". However, I still like the idea of keeping the old site while working towards success of new site.

Thank you once again.

It is good to see that we have a website which every one was looking for.
One thing the color scheme for the links and background can be imporved,this combination is not attractive..pls consider changing it

On the appearance i can rate indiatimes site is better..we need more improvements and changes to match and excel it

I was really very surprised, its a perfect essential change or gift for the modern dedicated indians, especially for ias aspirants. Thank you all who were behind this and i have a small request that to have a section on upsc examinations and topics related to ias like success stories... thank you very much..

I congratulate the Hindu doing century long yeoman service to the society. The new site will add credit to Hindu.
Wishes

This new website of Hindu is Attractive and it will attract more customers

I always hated The Hindu website for poor architechture but now its rocking.

Sir,
The website at first glance seems to be user friendly but having been reading the older version for a long time, I find it difficult to navigate the website it looks like all kind of news are crowded into one page very much unlike the every day news paper we read. As one commentator pointed out the state/city specific content should be more easily accessible. I liked the conservative approach of the older website But I guess its time to move on.

There is no direct link to WEATHER

Hearty congratulations to Mr.N.Ram for bringing out the beta version of the `The Hindu', my most liked newspaper since last 50 years. This is especially useful for people like me, who frequently travel abroad. The Hindu has achieved excellence over may standard English dailies in USA.

Welcome step. I wondered when major Indian newspapers would make their sites more appealing: even The Dawn, realizing its reach and the power of the web, had a much better site than most Indian newspapers.

Wonderful. It will take little time to follow the news items in the new set up.

Thanks that you have updated the design of the Internet news items. I really feel happy that you have arranged to focus the immediate comments of the readers. It is a great advantage.

A great step forward. The existing site has flashy ads on the right distracting the eye from the article's importance especially the home page.

This is just great. Way way more readable and presentable than before. Now after the new website launch I really do hope you launch the print edition in Mumbai. Please please do.

What can I say. First glimpse...great, really great. I have been reading The Hindu from the age of 10 (just used to read sports section during those days and then Young World on Saturdays)and now 27 working in the UK, still browse The Hindu's website for Indian news. I take this opportunity to appreciate the neutrality The Hindu has maintained all through the difficult times.

I like the new layout. The color scheme is soothing to the eye. The typeface is easy to read. I like it!

At last The Hindu enters web 2.0. I have been reading The Hindu since my childhood. Its like a coffee for me in the morning without which I miss something.

Wishing The Hindu many more success.The design looks impressive and I am sure readers would be happy to see The Hindu in a new avatar.

Excellent. A visual treat to loyal Hindu readers.

Will reserve final judgments for later but a bad initial impression. I read The Hindu for content and like the easy divisions between International, National and State news categories. The flash is not needed, content counts!

The new look is simply fantastic. Happy reading

After the print edition got its new look, it was time for the web edition to get a face lift. Congratulations on the new look website. I still prefer the crinkle of newsprint with my morning coffee.

Hello sir, I am very happy to see The Hindu's new Avatar. I am from a remote area of Jharkhand. Here I can't find any newspaper. The Hindu arrives two days after it is published. So The Hindu online is the gateway to the world for me. And when The Hindu wears a new dress with the boom of news, I am very glad.

Whatever the Hindu does -it is for a cause. The cause is for the betterment of the readers. Just a few years ago, the century old newspaper had changed its layout to make the paper more attractive and lucid. It seems that the same logic is applied here. The revamped website looks great. It seems more interactive and impressive. I look forward to get all the content of the older site. Great work. Congratulations.

I am happy that The Hindu (web version) is sporting a new look. I am a regular reader, so first time around it took some time to get around to find the topics that my eyes are so used to, in the old version. But I am sure it will be a hit like the new look newspaper version. One recommendation: I like the colours of the actual news paper to be used where ever possible. An important question, will you allow free access to the online newspaper as does the other reputed publications in India and internationally? It's high time I am sure if the business model works for international newspapers, it should for The Hindu epaper too.

A wish fulfilled for a civil servant aspirant !

Moderating comments is not such a bad idea. There are some very unsavoury elements that hijack the site for their propaganda. However, as a previous reader suggested this can be automated for language and also for grammar (we expect the same 'Queen's English' (sic) in readers' comments too. Badly phrased comments take the joy out of reading. Enough said! The Hindu rocks in presentation - expected there would be no dilution of content in terms of relevance, accuracy and balanced coverage. Best Wishes!

Finally, the D-Day has arrived. Was waiting for this for a really long time. From now on The Hindu beta version will be part of my bookmarks.

Your new web-site in beta is really refreshing. The layout has come out very well and is more pleasant now to browse. Thank you for the innovations and improvements.

Good job. Much more cleaner and easier on the eyes. I have a minor gripe on some content information not being correct and image information weird but otherwise, good approach.

It seems very refreshing, attractive and very nice systematic presentation. We hope that we will see lots of new features.

Huge and very positive change. The older version probably was designed for people with smaller screen widths, but the new format is wide and makes reading easy.

Congratulations on a well-designed website. I am glad to see that true to its reputation, The Hindu has opted for a template that lets readers focus on the news rather than the illustrations, advertisements and other sleazy content, which seems to be the MO of other popular news portals. In this age when media forces their opinions and agendas, it is heartening to read your unbiased reporting.

The only reason I didn't read The Hindu was because the online interface was so terrible, not anymore. Thanks!

I was expecting The Hindu's site makeover for a long time. And I was not let down.

Good Visual presentation and the contents are neatly arranged. I hope your site becomes the standard for web site development.
Wishes,
RAVI N.J.L.

1. Use of more white space to give a clean and clutter free look and easy on eyes feel is excellent.
2. By keeping the ads right in the small corner has made reading of any article pleasant, unlike other newssites where popping ads distract you to no end
3. The system of intelligent tags has ACTUALLY made browsing intuitive (many sites claim intuitive browsing but here it actually works). Despite loads of information, this feature makes time spent with the site quite productive
4. Somehow the designer has been able to capture the feel of Print Edition of The Hindu (not even e-hindu comes close to that). So I will not miss Print copies of The Hindu much.

Thanks a lot to the designer and The Hindu team for getting it right the very first time.

Good ambience . The look and feel is fair. Bet part of all, the page doesn't take ages to load over the internet like the contemporary online news papers. And yes layout does even resemble NewYork Times(NYT) online edition. It would be great if you could a facility to look up a word as does NYT tenders.Which is a welcome and would to the alacarte.

Atlast a new look for the hindu. The hindu is 130 years old but still it is young in the hearts of all Indians. The hindu is the pride of India. Iam happy that new version was launched when India celebrates its 63rd Independence. I appreciate all of them who are involved in this project.

I really liked it, and am sure that more people will be visiting The Hindu now onwards!

I take this opportunity to congratulate the team and Mr.Ram in bringing out the web-site edition on par or better than an international news paper. I am an ardent reader and fan of The Hindu for more than 40 years. During my childhood and school days, we have been often told to read The Hindu to attain grammatical skills and the authenticity of the news. During school days, on receipt of the paper, our hands would turn to page 14, the sports page on the coverage of cricket or any other game. There would be competition among family members to grab a piece of the paper and go through the news. The Hindu has been a pioneer in bringing new technology in news publishing at different intervals of times, which I remember to be showcased in their stall in the Annual Book Fair in college grounds, Chennai. The printed news paper also stands out in quality paper and print in comparison to the others. The advent of the internet and the web enabled the news readers abroad. Perhaps we get the opportunity to browse the newspaper earliest ahead of our counterparts in India. Of all these, one of the highlights which I have noticed that is news or article is still left to be read on any given day in the Hindu, as one cannot complete the news paper in entirety. Thanks for making this happen and wish Mr.Ram and this team the very best.

I always like to have more information and at precise time lines as well. I prefer your old layout which is more informative and easy to switch to various news items. The only advantage in the new layout beta is colour and font size.

"The Hindu" is the most contemporary newspaper (as its tagline says). I have never missed reading it right from school days (sometimes at least get the feel & touch of this newspaper). I would say this newspaper has its own share of successes in placing me where I am. Thanks a lot.

Sounds like a great idea for me, being a visually challenged person now I have more acces to the site.

As an ardent reader of this prestigious newspaper right from my childhood, this new website shows how The Hindu keeps the blend of tradition and modern day going. Kudos to the entire team. If I may add on to the comment of one of the readers, the city news is not 4 clicks away, but only 1 Click in the right hand side corner of the new web page.

At last Hindu has a web design on par with other newspapers! Well done. Hope future changes and improvements in web design would be done in a timely manner.

Sir,
I have been disappointed that Hindu my favourite Newspaper did not participate in the web 2.0 revolution. Now i feel proud and happy that the wait though long has been worth it.
I look forward to more such innovations where people can participate the 'e' way.

I was disappointed that The Hindu my favourite newspaper did not participate in the web 2.0 revolution. Now I feel proud and happy that the wait though long has been worth it.

Looks impressive and nice... congrats :)

Great leap forward. Catapults to the global class. The Hindu deserves to be there. Kudos to the team and Thank you.

Congratulations! The redesign of the website of The Hindu is fantastic.
I was dumbfounded, full of joy, great done. The new website will attract young readers.
The Hindu is up-to-date, it is a pleasure to browse and to read it.
I am very grateful for the new layout.


Best


Kurt

Hindu news paper continues to maintain the standard. I am sure the same standard will be maintained in this online version too.
The URL: www.beta.thehindu.com needs to be made more popular. All the best!!!

Good see our Hindu changes to international standards and still keeping the old traditional ENGLISH news, it is refershing.

One sugesstion, keep some space between news headlines at the bottom of the page, it looks like a paragraph.

Finally a website more worthy of The Hindu's quality!

THUMBS UP!

As a subscriber of The Hindu daily for several years I find the editors are innovative in terms of new technology, though not editorial vision. It is like a conservative senior citizen in Mylapore wearing Fifth Avenue make up.

why the site cannot be developed in india and we had to use The design is by Mario Garcia Jr., of Garcia Media, Tampa. Florida, USA. The workflow solution is by CCI Europe A/S, Denmark. The web publishing system is from Escenic A/S, Norway

Great Stuff. However, it tends to look a lot like NY Times. I think the print edition of The Hindu has enough "original character" to make this version, a "variant" The thickness of the font also needs to be increased.

It has been long overdue ... well done!
"The Hindu" maintains the ethics of jurnalism which is in impressive contrast with others!
I have been reading "The Hindu" since 1960 .... quality is maintained always!

MSR Ayyangar,
MUMBAI.

new design is really great, we all have been waiting for something like this. congrats Mr.Ram

This overhaul was long overdue! Now that it is this good, I hope this does not cannibalize the e-paper!

I am a reader of Hindu from my childhood and still reading it everyday.Hindu always comes out with innovation and Quality of News content. This change is a blessing to all its readers across the globe. Good job.

Muralidharan Ranganathan
California, USA

the website is good and progressive with time.but, i felt it more like similar to indian express site.
work till good becomes better and better the BEST.
cheers,
baiju

Thank God you changed :). New design is well layed out, good readability and pics presentation.

The Hindu, the pride of South, takes the next step in modern technology with its root on the sound principles of Free, Fair and Firm. Wishing you many more milestones, not only in technology but also in the field of fair journalism. One piece of humble opinion: Please do not get defaced like some other Indian English dailies whose face is dotted with...

Dear Editor,

I am a regular and voracious reader of your paper for the last few years. Since you are asking for a feedback on your new layout, I beg to submit that this one is far, far worse than your last one. Change for the better must be welcome, but change for the sake of change must be ruled out ruthlessly. Being the oldest English language news paper of India, why did you have give a foreign company the contract to deisgn your layput. Wasn't that a stupid idea, as foreigners, espcially Americans, come to us for such work because of our excellence. Does someone of your editorial staff have a relative working in the Company that was given the task of designing the new layout?

From what I read above, you seem only to be looking for flattery in the comments you receive, so mine will never get to see the light of the day I am sure, well I am used to that. But I am still wasting my time making them, just for the record.

You will soon be changing it again, I bet.

Asamanja GHOSE, Paris
aghose@free.fr

Excellent. Was waiting for long for this. Please remove old stories as it becomes difficult on which one is new when we visit subsections.

Our family used to time the morning coffee according to the delivery of The Hindu on any day, the day just could not start before reading it. My dad and I used to share the main and magazine, or the first page and the rest. The online version so far was definitely a disappointment for such avid fans, now the new one is so refreshing! It lets expats like us to be still connected to our country, state and hometown with The Hindu.

Fantastic makeover to the site. With this facelift The Hindu now comes in the league of The Guardian, New York Times and Washington Post. A perfect gift for the Independence day. Kudos to the whole team who worked on it. Keep up the good work

Thank you very much. It is very good and easy on the eye as promised.

Surprised that you couldn't find an Indian company to do the same job.

Excellent design, less clutter, very ergonomic. keep up the good work Hindu.
Ram kameswaran, Ottawa, Canada

Website looks good....I believe it is a long needed change. I hope now you'd offer free epapers like other major Indian newspapers in English

And in the slideshow pages, either move the slideshow controls to the top or stop changing their positions as users navigate from image to image. That's just terrible usability.

Looks good. But rename 'Breaking News' to 'Top Stories' or something similar.

I was waiting for this for a long time. When Times Now, NDTV, Indian Express have changed the look of their portals, change in the appearance of The Hindu was long over due. I hope The Hindu would also introduce streaming media reporting soon.

First of all, Welcome to the 21st Century.

I have been an avid reader of The Hindu ever since I was a child (first it was the dead-tree version and then the online version for the past several years). Having originally hailed from TN and having migrated to the US, The Hindu is both nostalgic and way to "keep in touch" with what's happening in home-town and state.

Anyways, here are my comments on the redesign:

1. It's long overdue and brings The Hindu upto the early-2000 standards of Online newspapers.
2. My favorite online newspaper is The New York Times and I like that you have "borrowed" a lot of design cues from them. Kudos to Garcia Media of Florida.
3. I still get the feeling that The Hindu just considers their website as just a "me-too" play where all the articles are re-printed from the print edition ahead of the print circulation. I'd like the Hindu to consider as another auxiliary media publishing platform where you have more interactiveness with your customers.
4. You had mentioned that more social networking aspects are going to be rolled out. I wish that you let your excellent editors and reporters to have a lot of blogs. I would also like to see you take comments on not all articles but the ones which generate a lot of water-cooler conversations.
5. I'd also like to see a lot of video/audio stories from you.
6. More higher resolution pictures, please? It may not be possible to have more than a single picture in a print article - but you can have more than one in an online article. So publish those unselected ones in the online article.
7. I'd like to see the byline of each article mention the editors and reporters who worked on that story by name. If an article is syndicated from a press agency (PTI, AP or AFP), please mention so.
8. Last but not the least, keep up your credibility. It's not who's first in reporting a news story - it's who's got the most accurate information and most thorough fact-checking on a news story.

Good luck and congrats to the technology team behind this effort!

I have been a loyal HINDU reader since i was a kid. The new design is pleasing to the eyes and the site is easily navigable at the first look it self.Good Work..!!!

I really like the re-designed website. I have been a reader of this paper for the past 15 years! I just hope like before, there aren't any annoying pop-ups; although I surely don't mind the ads on the side or somewhere else of the page. I understand that revenue is vital for running this website.

A suggestion: You have the main headline and a short paragraph following it, can you also include the authors name between them. It makes it easier to follow authors I like to read.

After an impressive re-designing a few years ago, this is yet another attempt to move ahead with time and technology. Surely,a brave decision to reach out more readers. Kudos to the team which made it possible.

Yo! Great going The Bindu. Please make sure this is visually-impaired friendly. Probably provide a classic version

The Hindu ventures into the technology world to find new ways of presenting news to its readers. This new developement proves to be the best of all such successful attempts.

I really surprise after seeing your new website. It's really great work. Please you create some pages for NRI section. It will help us.

Sweet surprise from THE HINDU... though its long overdue... the website looks good and very user-friendly.

Awesome....
Am 23, I've been following Hindu for the last 10 yrs or so.. and i clearly remember Hindu having had a revamp in its paper edition by few years back by Mario Garcia.. The online edition too is equally impressive.. It's in line with Reuters, Guardian and others.. An apt date to release the new version.. Keep it up! and keep it going.. Fabulous :D

Congratulations!
I do not mind the site is moderated. Many comments on newspaper sites contribute nothing worthwhile.
I also do not mind that a Danish company has been hired for some of the work. It looks good. I think that the visual impression is better than what several Danish news sites offer.

I'm a regular reader of The Hindu. Even though I may not agree with everything that the Hindu editorial writes nevertheless I eagerly look forward to reading your thought provoking and insightful (a little too Left wing bias may be at times) opinion page. The new look The Hindu web site is a breath of fresh air and welcome redesign.

I consider The Hindu to the New York Times of India. May I suggest more balanced representation in the Opinion page for greater balance and more acceptability with the diverse audience of India.

Overall a nice looking new web site!

It was truly a gift on the 63rd Independence Day to have my favorite news daily get a new avatar in the form of such a beautiful site.. The navigation is real simple and the visual quality, a treat to the eyes, while retaining the content quality and mesmerizing language..

NEW online edition is Simply smart . But the lead (News Item) color is very dull. Please change that silver color into any alternative and attractive color.

Congratulations! Well thought out design, looks fresh and modern. I read your paper for quality and balance, and now it will be easier to read. If you are able to go truly national and cover all the states, I for one will be very pleased.

When I came to know about your new beta site I was out of station. All throughout my journey back home I was so eager and excited to see The Hindu online in its new avtaar. What I saw as soon as I opened the site was awesome. The site looks so fresh, so user-friendly. I love everything about this newspaper.

Finally! This looks good and I can't ever compare the beta with the current site which is nothing but a set of organized links. I know you are still in beta, but here are few things I noticed while browsing the site. The menu options at the top and bottom could be little brighter. It's looks as if they are disabled now until I do a mouseover. Even the blue colored link to articles could be little brighter. Site Map organization can be easily improved. The search probably needs some work. It's not bringing the relevant results to the top. I had to navigate to few pages before I could even see some relevant articles. You can allow tagging (for every article) to the registered readers. That way it would be far easier to index the pages and produce excellent search results.

Simply Superb. Hindu has done it again what other Indian News papers has not done it and this has proved that Hindu values customer more than ADVERTISING. Keep it up Hindu!! Great design and excellent layout!!

WOW!!!!!. That's the first word came from my mouth after seeing the new site.

This is the best possible independence day gift The Hindu can give to readers. This was long overdue.
I know many people (including me) who liked The Hindu for the quality of content and trustworthiness, but never liked online edition due to the unpleasant static look.
Being abroad and forced to spent majority of the time with computers, online edition is the place people like me look for news. So, this is a great gift to us.

This design change will bring The Hindu online edition on par with the kinds of New York Times and Wall Street Journal. In this internet age, not just content, presentation matters as well.

Thank you so much and keep up the good work.

Please make similar changes to Business Line as well.

Regards,
Bijesh, New York, USA

The new format is a good presentation. Another good reason to still continue to read "THE HINDU" in the morning. It started when I was around 10 years old (of course, compelled by my dad) but it is like a tradition now, 15 years out of the country and across the globe from Chennai.

Great addition. Was waiting for this. Very clean and elegant layout. I can see parallels to the new york times.

One comment on the states section though. Going to news and then states and then selecting the state is a bad idea. Too many clicks and the select menu is a very cumbersome tool. It would be better if the states are shown in separate links, one for each.

Overall, long due development. Congrats

At first, on entering the old site I saw the message about the new site launch and felt horrified thinking I might miss the news, genuineness and feel of THE HINDU. But after going deep through the new edition it felt good, THE HINDU didn't change but got very good new look and more information.

I always wondered why The Hindu didn't have a website like other leading newspapers and magazines around the World. It really annoyed me for unable to share some of the wonderful articles on Facebook and Twitter with my friends. The first thing I do every morning is to open The Hindu website to know stories from India. I was caught by surprise when I saw the new version of The Hindu website this morning. It was indeed the best gift I could receive on the independence day.Congratulations!

This was awesome. I used to love reading The Hindu, but after I moved out of India, the web edition became painful. This certainly makes it easier to read. Would love to see the Crossword take a Web 2.0 form.

130 years but not much in the archives ...pl do something about it.
David

The new site at first glance looks excellent. The old site was boring and functional/

I have been living abroad since 30 years and Indians and their prowess in Technology have always been admired by one and all.... so I am wondering why you had to choose 'phoren' for your website makeover. I regret being cynical, however, this just goes to prove that being 'independent' is an extremely relative term.

Excellent design..its very trendy...professionally done to the core..congratulations ..and thanks a lot..

This is what we need. The Hindu is following a very impressive path to woo internet readers too. Please make Business Line site also like this.

Happened at last !!!

I've been complaining to everyone that 'Hindu' has the worst possible websites among all leading newspapers.

Right now, the new version looks much better. Hope you introduce many more features and make it more user friendly.

Internet is the future.

Other than Indians in India, most of NRI's depend on online versions to get updates. It is very difficult if a trusted publication like the Hindu does not have a proper site.

Amazing visual qualities for enjoyable reading experience, The Hindu Always the Front Runner!

Elegant and intuitive. Simply impressive. Congratulations!

One remark: Please show the name of the columnist in the home page of the opinion box

Elegant and intuitive. Simply impressive. Congratulations! One remark: Please add the name of the columnist under opinion box in the home page.

I have been reading this newspaper from my childhood for its quality, non-hyped, consolidated content. The new portal is very user friendly and clean. Great work long time fan of "The Hindu"

Dear Hindu,

Congratulations to Hindu's new look. But I am surprised to see the resemblance of the site with latimes.com which also made the changes few days back. Is it a coincidence?

Simply superb!!!

Great... specially the subtabs in each page. So now if I miss reading the Lead page article for a few days, I will find them all in one click. Otherwise it was really messy to go for each day's newspaper and click on its article. Same is the case with other tabs like reader's editor and OP-Ed.

Although easy to navigate on a PDA too, I am still waiting for a PDA version.

Impressive. And long overdue. The site will very well be patronised by the loyal Hindu readers.
Ram Srinivasan, United Kingdom

Just Great. Long due for the most reliable news source in INDIA. This new change in presentation is just wonderful.

Very pleasing and welcoming. Love the rich visual content and bold colorful photos. I need to get used to the updated navigation and so still searching for my usual links!! Noticed the missing "Hindu wishes the readers a Happy Indepdance Day".

Krishnan
Kansas, US

Good and it is high time too you changed. Easy on eye and subject.Keep continue the good work .Rayudu kowtha ..NH/USA

What was wrong with the old style which it was simple and one could glance through all topics on one screen most of the time?
Do we have to change just because "That is the style" dictated by other international news papers
SRao

It looks quite nice and elegant with easy reading. Congrats for a job well done.

The Hindu has been my 'only' newspaper. Earliest of newspapers to embrace the Internet. The Hindu has always been a paper that produced news better than any Western newspaper. Unlike them, hopefully The Hindu will not take the path of pay per view. Keep it up and I am still your fan.

Darwin, Australia

It really looks very impressive. I feel similar looks of washington post and Huftington post. It has now a much better presentation style. However, India being the software capital of the world, none of Indian companies were used to build the website is my concern.

Congratulations!

Bala Palaniswamy
Washington D.C.

It will take some time to really get used to the new design.At the outset, it looks very neat and very 'international'.The space given to the advertisements could have been reduced a bit.

Thanks a lot!!
The design is simple and easy to browse! Good work!
Browsing the existing online version was really a painful exercise when compared to the other newspapers. I am sure the hits will increase exponentially now!

Dear Sir,

Congratulations on giving importance to layout and style finally. I had always like to read Hindu for its thought provoking content but that meant going through a web pages where content was crammed as if there was shortage of web real-state (la Mumbai!) but now I can troll through these pages at ease.

Happy writing/publishing.

Regards,

The layout is impressive, need to wait and ses if they make it under subscription basis.

Great to see this. Has a nice look and feel in terms of colour combination and layout in general.

But, Only worry is the need for pressing page down button a lot ? Somthing similar to what NY Times & Wall Street Journal (www.nytimes.com & www.wsj.com) forces! But I guess Newpaper content does not give too many options I guess !

- Sairam Gopalan, New York, NY

Very impressive. The website in the new formate is another feather in the cap of my favourite newspaper.

It has awesome clarity and reader friendly. Innovation keeps your readers both online and hard copy intact. Keep innovating and keep going...

A hearty congratulations for team of web designer for introducing this freindly version.Cheers

More than Happy to see the new site. I could see a true international standard. Congrats to the team !!!

A much awaited one coming in with a brand new look and features!!! Kudo's to all ur hardwork for making this happen....
Best Regards, yogesh

You are replacing intellectual classicity with a contemporary facelift.
As long as the content is similar, it should be ok. But why do you want
The Hindu, with its long history of great content follow the look and feels of others. Earlier simplicity was great as the print version.

Congratulations!
I am a reader of Hindu from my childhood and still reading it everyday.
Vilas
Ras Al Khaimah

Most impressive and nice look on the screen.
Easy to read and more visual displays.
Moving with the time.
K.Balachandran
PNU,Busan, South Korea

congratulations .it is too good ,undoubted along with editorials now web page make read more and more articles ... excellent

The cosmetic changes are in with the time.
But where is the "Hindu" contents of the yester years,editorials,exposures in the overall interest of the public,which is now limited to few politicians and political parties only not in power.
May be the next generation of "Hindu" family might bring back the oriuginality of the "Hindu"

Hindu always had the best content.. and it has a very good layout to make it among the top in the league. Thanks for doing such a wonderful service.

I was waiting for this since ages. Perfect gift on the eve of Independence day. Try to limit the damn adds later.

Great step forward! Nice to see that Hindu is changing to be in tune with the 21st century. It is now easy to read this site with minimal pop-ups and jarring ads.

Keep up the good work! Congratulations to all who helped in creating the design and layout.

Mukund Narasimhan
Jackson, MI

Congratulations!! Congratulations again to everybody inside and outside The Hindu who made this possible.
It is refreshing. Keep up the great work. Above all, maintain your core values: independence, objectivity, research, truth in reporting, and, most of all, the journalism values that The Hindu has maintained throughout.

This looks great and reader friendly.

Congrats! A jump to college from Kindergarten. Hope it remains free.

Looks very 21st century..esque. I'm sure the readers will love it. I know I do.

Vande mataram!

Hello sir,

I am a regular reader of the young world in the Hindu it is a dare idea bringing this beta version.
Thanking you,

E.Nandhakumar,
Fourth std
Tnpl school
Kagithapuram.

The Hindu's beta website is on par with international news paper editions. It is a pride for Indian media and India. Please have the editions in locale langauages as well. Kudos to hindu management for exercising this with full confidence and spending money on improving things. An important tip, the website should be maintained well with rich and valuable news content, not with too much flash.
-Arul.Jaganathan, ROCHESTER,NY,USA

The layout is nice and easy to navigate. Good job

Dear sir,

Best wishes and congratulations for this beta version and it is wonderful idea and very much useful for us.

A.Elamurugan,
P.Velur
Namakkal dist
Tamil Nadu.

Hearty congratulations to the design team. But honestly, it looks more like a BLOG.

A Very Happy Independence day.

Nice website long awaited.

To echo Sriram Krishnan's remark, is there no Indian company that can do this ? Seems very surprising.

simply superb.. really you are now at par with new york times, guardian, wall street journal..
congartulations . i was simply waiting for this one. it really looks nice.
thank you.

I wish the new website could be accessible for the totally blind users with their screen reader like Jaws for windows, window eyes and so on.

How can one find the updated Weather report (not for 11.30 Hrs daily) with satellite pictures, as was available under Breaking & Updated News?

Long awaited & worth for it.
Long Live Hindu.

Congratulations. The look and feel is very good.

Please bring this change on to your "Business Line" as well at the earliest.

This is Fabulous. keep up your good work.

I am a reader of Hindu from my childhood and still reading it everyday. Your new web page is extremely good. Keep up the good work THE HINDU is doing for more than a century to strengthen our democracy and enrich our cultural diversity. Happy Independence Day!!

Welcome move! Keep up the spirit!!

The new website looks very different and more attractive! I am a regular Hindu News Reader, ever since my childhood. For the last sixty years, I start the day with a coffee and The Hindu in front of me whether in Trichy, India or New Jersey, USA.

As a retired Professor, I advise my children and grandkids to read The Hindu for authentic news. Of late I use to watch the Breaking News the first thing at 6AM EST and Updates often, before going to other news like IBNLIVE, Timesof India, Rediff.com, Asean Age etc.

Best Wishes on this Independance day to Mr Ram for making this big change! Long Live The Hindu!

Dr Durai Sabapathi
Prof-Emeritus, USIP
Phildelphia, PA

Clean, slick and simple. Good redesign!

Good Looking, the same needs to be done to the 'Today's Edition' too.

Woooooow...!!!Wht an impressive look The Hindu has got today!!! & wht an excellent date of launching this new version!!!Now Our Hindu is looking very beautiful than before.& we wouldnt have to move for news of different tastes from one page to another now.Nice!! Happy Independence Day to all Hindu group & all Indians.Jai Hind...Jai Bharat.

EXCELLENT START INDEED.CONGRAJULATIONS,THE HINDU!!
VARDHATAMABHIVARDHATAM!! SUBHAMASU!!

I have been an ardent reader of The Hindu on web and admired it for not having a website like other Indian newspapers such as Hindustan Times or Times of India which are like tabloid with gossip and film news. As a purveyor of serious factual news I loved old Hindu. The set up of new Hindu is attractive but I sincerely hope it retains the factual mission of newpaper to report news and analysis much like the web edition of The New York Tiimes.Only time willl tell.

sir,
I welcome the change in your new format.But, pl avoid too many changes, as we always like THE HINDU for what it was in the past.
KBabu

very impressive. a welcome surprise on Indian Independence Day for the readers of The Hindu.

It is very impressive and attractive.

First impression? Good design. Very easy on the eye.


Sorry to rain on your parade, but please fix the mistake in the blurb in the Shah Rukh Khan story:" Terming the incident a "little embarrassing" for a self-respecting like him, the actor said it had to do with his Muslim name declined to term the incident as "racial profiling".

Nice upgrade!
PDF Export of articles would be very helpful...

Pl include in Beta version Agri News also in addition to Business News.Your Agri News coverage in the earlier version was very useful.

This is much much much better

Please launch good language dailies also in Tamil and other languages with lay outs similar to The Hindu .
Calcutta print edition needs a lot of improvement and is very boring now .

Also in the new web edition , news under segments like different states , foreign etc need to be given . Slowly more improvements on the site can be introduced
vijay

Impressive and long overdue. Well done. At the same time, I'm curious to hear from the Editor-in-Chief the reasons for this job being outsourced to a US and European based company. I'm pretty sure there is enough capability in India to do this sort of work.

The font displayed below the main image(on the left-top side of the layout) is odd. I would like to see it just as other fonts appear!

Looks simple and impressive. I was waiting for something like this!

Looks both simple and impressive. I was waiting for something like this.

Good and impressive.

Looks great! Easy on the eye. Easy navigation. Appears similar to the NYT. Congrats for moving to a new and contemporary design.

A fresh look. Cheers

My hearty congradulation to The Hindu for launch the new site. A welcome change and change is constant. The grey balance in the site is pleasing to the eyes. Impressive. Best wishes for this pleasant surprise.

I am a regular reader of hinduonline. Since the day I went to the US I rely on the Hindu. Great change. The Hindu has once again proved that the 'change is essential for growth'

Its Nice... gr8 wrk! but y it took so long time to give us this?

I am a long time expatriate in Jakarta, Indonesia. Not a day passes without my browsing The Hindu on its website. In India, I grew up with The Hindu, and for almost 50 years, I have been a reader of The Hindu. My foremost English teacher was The Hindu. In my teenage years, we used to call The Hindu a gazette, where no mistake could possibly occur. Unless we check the exam results in The Hindu, we wouldn't be satisfied. Even now, whenever I visit India on vacations, the first thing I look is for some of the printed copies of the previous issues, and I continue reading the newspaper every morning till my departure from India. I was pleased when The Hindu introduced Readers' Editor column. The new web edition is welcome. Wish you many decades of service to Indian readers.

Congratulations. Good looking. No hasstle to read / search .

Finally I can share an Indian Newspaper website with my British colleagues. The look and feel is just perfect and the flow is good too! A good gift on Independence Day !!

It is really a wonderful effort and fabulous look to our 130-year-old The Indian New Paper on the auspicious moments of 63rd Independence Day.

My Hearty Congratulations to The Hindu and its Tech Team

Uploads fast, very light - meaning pictures, slides moving like a well oiled machine. Beautiful refeshing colours on the pages. Content as always very good. Congrats! NDTV websites can learn a lot from you guys.

Good to see Hindu make this transition like any Western newspaper. Very impressive.

Good that you have taken a decision to change your web content. Still, the name looks slightly larger than necessary toattract the eyes.

Not at the best...the hindu lost its charm in presentation...

Very nice site, almost feels like seeing the physical paper!

Indeed it is long overdue. Looks impressive. Exploring the new look and feel of the Hindu. Thanks and Best wishes to all @ The HINDU.

In any field changes are always nice and welcome. When it is from an establishment like The Hindu it will be worthwhile. I congratulate each and everyone who worked for this new version.

The new redesigned website looks and feels good interms of content presentation and usability.Additinal features like listing historical Op-ed pieces/articles by author names would be good. Well done and keep up the good work.

Aha!!! i was waitin for this site to be a lil' renovated n here it is!!!! :-) but im waitin for the content n archives which are on the old site!! i hope dat it will be on this site soon!!! Thank u!!

Good one, looks like a UK newspaper website.
Keep up the great work.
Thanks,

My Hearty Congrats to THE HINDU and tech Team...

Keep Rocking Guys...

I am a regular reader and contributor to the Hindu for over 50 years from 1959. The Hindu is the best and leads in every field. Congradulation.

Fantastic. My day starts with the Hindu website only. The first website I open everyday is the Hindu and today it was a pleasant surprise. Thanks for the news, content and user friendliness.

Congratulations!
You are setting a bench mark now.
Beautiful and very pleasing.

Back again with a few suggestions. Hope they help. Here is the link: http://www.nikatrex.com/blog/?p=324

As one young lady steps into 63 year of her birthday it is nice to see another young lady who was a partner, friend, guide, critique, parent, sister also takes on a new role at the young age of 130. Our heartfelt good wishes to both the youngsters.

We as your child are happy to be part of this great parentage.

Sir/Madam, I have been a regular reader of "The Hindu" right from the mid 1980's. I am very happy to see your esteemed newspaper keep up to the highest standards it has set for itself over the decades both in content in presentation.
I wish The Hindu good luck with this new initiative and expect that you continue to plesantly surprise your readers in future.

Whatever THE HINDU does is always unique. This new website is one more feather in the cap. Kudos to you.

I am a regular reader of the Hindu website. I hope this new dimension will attract everyone.

Impressive indeed

The Hindu has outdone itself ! The new looks compare with International dailies such as New York Times and the likes. About time too...It was the common opinion of the regular readers of the online version. Kudos to The Hindu.. !!!

Thank you for this gift on the eve of the Independence Day! Let the values and principles for which THE HINDU stands flag higher.

Oh guyz...!!!
You have made my day..!!

This is what I had been waiting for quite a long time..!
Truly, 'The Hindu' is the best..!!!!

Also would like to appreciate your 'outta the box' design which is very much unique!!

Cheers

HEARTY CONGRATS SIR. WE R AWAITING FOR THIS. THANK U VERY MUCH. EXPECTING MORE.

Change is Constant. Congratulations!
Also please sustain the sactity of this great newspaper.In an attempt to be heard let us not fashion ourselves too much.

Beautiful! Do the same for Business Line too, please!

Great design with a 2009 aesthetic. Please note what's called a 'workflow solution' in the above article is more widely known as 'Information Architecture' where the information is organized for easier navigation and browsing.

The new look is very attractive and looks sophisticated. Feels like reading a print edition. Congratulations to 'The Hindu' team.

Pleasantly suprised to see a brave, new Hindu site. Hope the good features of the earlier one are not dispensed with. may I suggest that you scan some of the major developments in the last 130 years and put them on your site> It will be a great help to research scholars and journalists.

This is was long overdue. Looks great!

I see that comments are moderated. This is not really a good idea. This causes a delay in the comments appearing on the site and hinders interaction between users. If you really want readers to visit your site and comment actively, it will be prohibitive to have a human read and approve every comment. Simple software that looks for abuse words, spam coupled with a system that allows readers to report abuse should be the way to go.

Congratulations for the new website, and congratulations for our Independence Day to all of our viewers. I will love to have a pdf file of all the classifieds for me to view or download. All the Best.

Simply superb and reader friendly. Congratulations.

I congratulate THE HINDU for this new website which is excellent in every aspect.

The new website looks neat. Comments seem to be enabled only for some articles. Is that so?

I just went through the website a few minutes back. It looks great. But long time readers of the old site like me will have a tough time browsing the site. I look for state specific news or for metro plus, friday review issues, etc. If I was to look for Kerala news the old website took me there in one click while it takes four clicks here. This website is great for casual news readers who want to get a preview of catchy news from all over. The old website was a mirror of The Hindu newspaper...this website is definitely better but I would love some of the features of the old site to continue.

Amazing. This is a time to celebrate for loyal readers and surely attract a lot newer ones.

Late by a couple of years. The layout reminds one strongly of The Guardian. Am guessing it will be another half an year by the time it is complete. Hope The Hindu will make up for lost time.

This is very good news indeed on the Independence Day. I wish all the best to The Hindu. Yours is one of the very few online Indian News website with no annoying pop-ups. I hope this will continue in the new website. Ads are good for revenues but they should not annoy the reader. I also wish to see more sections dedicated for youngsters and probably a section for NRIs once in a while. All the best, Kirubakaran. V, Los Angeles, CA

Wow, this is really awesome as you always set standards for the entire Indian media Industry. Another major milestone achieved on 15th August 2009.

A job well done on a very slick design. I encourage you to keep it uncluttered, without overdoing advertising, as it is. I humbly request that you honour all old links, without serving 404 pages for links that have been linked via blogs and search indexes. Introducing keywords is a plus. I would also like a "Recent articles" box/links so that anyone reading, for example, today's editorials, would also be able to see yesterday's articles or previous articles by the author. On a side note, authors/reporters should blog within the site, to increase readership and also report on unprintable news, such as news nuggets(not masala) which are effective with a first person account.

Sir, Please reduce the size of the banner photo in the beta version. Transformation of the print is good but translation of services is bad. You change the readers' editor area by incorporating 'blog comments ' like options

Very well executed, neat and very responsive. Impressive effort in the right direction.

Simply brilliant! My personal congrats to The Hindu (especially to the team at CCI Europe and Garcia Media). The beta site is a perfect blend of technology, innovation and journalism. Do expect me to expect more.... god bless

This website looks more impressive and user friendly. I am happy to see Hindu is Progressing with time.

Ah! I was waiting for this. You are now in the league of newspapers like 'The Guardian', 'The NY Times' and 'The Economist' (I mean in terms of online content presentation). Very impressive. Keep the news coming. A perfect gift on Independence day...

Cheers
Nikhil Hullur

Looks awesome. Like the white and blue color. Its simple and effective.