Olympics site impresses the experts

The Herald Online's Olympic News continues to impress web surfers worldwide, and internet commentators have now added their praise.

During his weekly slot on National Radio, internet expert Paul Reynolds noted this morning that the Herald Online had rated in the top 25 most popular Olympics websites from around the world, according to research by Nielsen//NetRatings.

"Extraordinary," is how Reynolds described the Herald's performance.

"It just has to be an endorsement of the Herald's actual coverage…because they would never get in that ranking unless they had global eyeballs coming in."

The Herald Online held the number 21 spot in the global ratings for three days this week, just one point behind the BBC's Olympics coverage.

Russell Brown, a writer for Computerworld newspaper and host of Hard News on Auckland radio station 95bFM, has also been impressed by the Herald's efforts.

"The paper's coverage of the Olympics, both offline and online, has been classy. It's hard to imagine the Herald of five years ago doing anything like it," he told his radio listeners this morning.

Kerry Hawkins, Director of Sales and Marketing for AC Nielsen eRatings.com, said the Herald's success reflects the very high level of enthusiasm for the Games among New Zealanders.

"What we are seeing here is how, despite our relatively small population, a good New Zealand website is showing up alongside international heavyweights in building a strong following."

The global 'Web Olympics Index' provides a snapshot of web traffic to approximately 250 official and unofficial Olympics-related sites during the previous 24 hours from a global home-based panel of 165,000 surfers. The service is provided by ACNielsen eRatings.com (a venture between ACNielsen Corp., NYSE: ART and NetRatings, Inc., Nasdaq: NTRT), Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings, Inc. and covers 15 countries.


3rd day in a row: Herald Online in World Top 25 Olympic sites

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