What Is a Web Ticker?
Navigate to the website of any major news provider, and you'll see a web ticker on the front page. This ticker is an animated slideshow that displays headline stories on the news provider's website. Most tickers are visually stimulating; they attempt to catch the reader's eye with a bright image and a one- or two-sentence summary.
Other People Are Reading
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Types
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The three main types of web tickers are top story, photograph and text-only. Top story tickers conserve space when multiple articles are worthy of a featured spot. Photograph tickers, which you can often find on personal websites and social networking profiles, show thumbnails of recently updated images. This is a useful tool for photography or photojournalism websites. Text-only tickers, like news tickers on television, provide a steady stream of information such as the weather or stock prices. Text-only tickers can also double as extra advertising space. Bear in mind that a hit counter, which tallies the total number of site visits, is not a text-only ticker.
Function
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Web tickers enable users to view a lot of information at a glance. News tickers maximize valuable visual real estate by allowing multiple authors to share the front page, rather than competing for space. This is particularly useful when a website is hosting several feature articles, as it saves the news editor from having to select the most newsworthy story. Text-only tickers provide necessary information without any fluff. Customizable desktop tickers serve the same purpose, enabling power users to streamline their Web experience. A desktop ticker can summarize your email, weather, news and entertainment in one quick slideshow.
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Identification
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Identifying web tickers can be difficult unless you directly examine the source code of a website. Many advertisements mimic tickers in an effort to fit in with the surrounding Web content. Look for an area of the page that continues to change after the page has loaded. Tickers may look like a slide show or movie. Some sites feature interactive tickers which will not move without user input; move the mouse around the page and look for changes in an image or text block.
Choosing Content
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When selecting content to place in a ticker, consider your choices from the perspective of the reader. Web tickers should highlight the usefulness of your website. If you have a new story, outstanding blog or great photo, it belongs on the ticker. Limit the number of ticker items to 10 or fewer to prevent visual and contextual clutter.
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References
- Photo Credit New paper headlines image by janaka Dharmasena from Fotolia.com
