HuffPo reviewed: Whose links are they anyway?

The latest hacking allegations about the News of the World have led some to call this a tipping point for UK newspapers - downwards.

But another event today may also contribute to that drift: the launch of a British edition of the hugely successful US news website and aggregating blog the Huffington Post (above).

Styling itself "The Internet Newspaper: News, Blogs, Video, Community", HuffPo, as it's widely known, has grown from humble beginnings barely six years ago to be the 93rd-biggest website globally in terms of traffic and visitors - only a few places behind the venerable New York Times. (The BBC comes in 45th globally). HuffPo's founder, Arianna Huffington, sold it to AOL in February 2011 for nearly £200 million and is now its Editor-in-Chief.

HuffPo carries core content written by regular contributors as well as unpaid bloggers - a source of some criticism - and it also aggregates stories from other outlets. That means you're never quite sure whose article you're reading. So, from the politics section, you get taken away from HuffPo to a page from the Daily Mirror criticising NHS reforms. Another link goes to a page on the BBC news website; and, finally, there's a page which is no more than copy-and-paste from the Press Association. How will readers react to this game of roulette?

As for its content, HuffPo has a lot of big names on its front page - the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Zac Goldsmith MP, Ricky Gervais, Sarah Brown, Alastair Campbell and Louis Susman, the US ambassador to the UK. Will future editions see such a roll call?

The social media integration of HuffPo is extensive, and the site is clearly aiming to build a network of readers through recommendations.

At times it can be overwhelming. You can 'Like' a HuffPo page on Facebook, share it with your friends on Facebook, tweet it, send it via email, give it a Google +1 (is anyone doing that yet?) You can submit a page to Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon. Regardless of which page you're on, the right-hand side of your screen shows which stories are most popular - and you can then choose to 'Like' them on Facebook too. You can also email reporters, 'Like' them, become fans of them...

You get the idea. HuffPo has collaborated closely with Facebook to come up with HuffPo Social News so that people can see the news their friends are reading and what they are commenting on. Indeed, it claims to take Facebook integration "to a new level... seamlessly weaving the news and opinion of HuffPost with the social networking capabilities of Facebook", according to instructions on how to use HuffPo Social News.

While readers have long been encouraged to comment on stories, HuffPo also invites them to submit corrections. While this is admirably open, it'll be interesting to see how open HuffPo is when it comes to dealing with those corrections.

Readers can click certain words (above) to summarise their feelings about a piece, to post a Facebook update along with a link to the piece itself. The choice of words remains the same whatever the article. You have to wonder how many people will use the option 'hot' to describe 600 words by Lord Weidenfeld of Chelsea about the Syria uprisings. 

The deal with AOL means some links on the main page take you away from HuffPo entirely, to content made by AOL - for example, Celebrity and Parentdish, a competitor to Mumsnet, and Asylum - which, despite its name, is nothing to do with displaced refugees; rather, it is a lifestyle site for men.

Sports fans will be disappointed: there is no content that I could find on any sport, which seems like a big miss.

There's also no mobile version of the website (although there are apps for iPhone, Android and Blackberry, which direct to the US version only), so some mobile phone users in the UK will still have to squint on their smaller screens - to read about Arizona and Alaska.

A final minor quibble: formats familiar to Americans are used across the site, such as headlines where Every Word Has Its Own Capital Letter Which Can Grate After A While.

The dates are also all Americanised, so content posted today, the 6th, is time-stamped 07.06.2011. (If HuffPo had launched tomorrow, no-one would have noticed for a day.)

So how might HuffPo do?

Its success in the US is a huge benchmark, but it is entering an online market already crowded with big players such as the Daily Mail and the Guardian which recently announced a move towards a "digital-first strategy".

Paul Bradshaw, Professor of Journalism at Birmingham City University, believes "there may just be a gap for an effective networked aggregator in the notoriously competitive UK market". In contrast, digital journalist Kevin Charman-Anderson wonders "just what HuffPo adds to the UK market apart from a new outpost in its namesake's global ambitions".

Emily Bell, former director of digital content at Guardian News and Media, has tweeted critically: "First #HuffPoUK #fail - 21 pics bylines on left hand side, 6 women, 2 writing about sports day and French men. @AriannaHuff can do better."

Let's see.