Originally published at Computer Help. Please leave any comments there.

I used to like reading the news from ninemsn.com.au

But lately, ninemsn has become increasingly annoying to use.

What I find most irritating, is how pages will refresh:

You are happily reading a story… maybe half way through, and suddenly the page will refresh and be re-displayed from the top… so I then have to scroll down to find where I was reading.

Of course the spontaneous video popups, a huge number of ads, and the portal “look and feel” makes the site increasingly difficult to use.

So I thought I’d try the first few sites that google gave me when I search Australia for “online news”.

I got:

• abc.net.au
• news.com.au
• skynews.com.au

At first glance, they have a similar layout.

But then Sky spontaneously started playing a video.

I have had situations where I’ve quickly opened 4 news stories (in separate tabs)… and after a few seconds, I get a barrage of different voices and music… and I need to stop all the videos/sound.

Sorry sky: you’re out!

news.com.au has the same annoying refresh problem as ninemsn… ok, news.com.au is out

That means that ABC news wins. And they have no commercial ads! … ok they do self-promote a bit, but its not unbearable.

I guess I’m showing my age, but the ABC news site is not overrun with gossip and sensationalised videos and articles, so I can read the interesting bits (and not just indulge in voyeuristic entertainment)