Introduction
FT.com is the electronic version of the well-known newspaper, The Financial Times. While the newspaper has an online and offline combined readership of 1.4 million across the globe, the website claims to have 7.1 million unique visitors. A website dedicated to world’s business news, views and opinions, FT.com ropes in quite a few business commentators for their comments and analysis.
Features
The categories of news on the FT website cover almost all aspects of the world business. The main tabs on the website are dedicated to the following categories: World, Companies, Markets, Lex, Comment, Business Life, and Weekend. Lex is a special column of the FT which they claim is an agenda-setting column on business and financial topics. Each piece of news displayed on the home page of the website has related links displayed below the headline.
The FT website lets you subscribe to the financial news, thus delivering daily news right in your inbox. The website’s homepage contains sections titled Interactive, Quick Links, Tools, Services, and Updates. These sections help the visitor explore the FT website thoroughly.
The website gives you up-to-date information on the markets around the world. The delay estimated between the actual market status and the FT status is said to be of minimum fifteen minutes.
The website lets visitors access videos and podcasts on financial topics. The website lets you register for free.
Tips and Tricks
In the About Us section you will get useful information for contacting the FT group and its media center, learning more about the FT group companies, the who’s who at the FT, its history and career opportunities at the FT.
Visit the Comment section of the website if you want views and opinions on financial news by the experts as well as the general public. The section is further divided into sub-sections such as Opinion, Analysis, Columnists, Editorial, Letters, Blogs, Debates and polls, and Ask the expert. The Ask the expert page lets website visitors get answers to queries related to business and finance.
You can get updates from the FT website on your mobile by selecting the appropriate option in the Updates section. The website also provides you a tool for currency conversion. This tool is available in the Tools section.
Clicking the Help link on the home page of the website will lead you to a page with a variety of information. Apart from a link for answers to the frequently asked questions, the FT website has organized website-related information in self-explanatory categories. The categories are: Markets Data & Tools, Search, Video and Audio, Subscription & Registration, RSS feeds, FT on your mobile, News by email, Business school rankings, FT Alphaville, FT Managed Funds, Contacting the FT, Security policy, and Browser Compatibility.
Newbie Friendly Rating
The website’s intuitive categorization will help a newbie browse through the pages. However, the spread of the information on the home page may appear cluttered to a first-time visitor. The website’s proposed new look promises to cut down on the clutter by providing collapsible sections. The FT website should get a newbie friendly rating of 7 out of 10.