Net users vote BBC best

The news site was the favourite of Web User readers

BBC News Online has been voted the internet's best news site by readers of Web User magazine.

It was one of four top awards won by the BBC in the readers' poll.

Our aim is to be the first with news around the clock, backed up by in-depth coverage and plenty of interactivity

Pete Clifton
BBC News Online editor

The BBC's Budget 2002 website was given the magazine's top Gold award.

BBCi, which includes BBC news and sport, was voted the overall Website of the Year with search engine site Google named as the runner-up.

And the BBC Learning site won Best Free Reference Site.

Successful mix

Pete Clifton, editor of BBC News Online, said: "We are delighted to pick up this award, particularly as it comes from the users.

"Our aim is to be the first with news around the clock, backed up by in-depth coverage and plenty of interactivity - and it's great that the mix is going down so well.

"The Budget has always been a big event for us and this year will be no different."

The site would "pull out all the stops" to ensure people understood what the Budget meant for them, he went on.

"Users can give the "ready reckoner" a go, and then send us their verdict and vote on Brown's performance!"

In-depth analysis

The magazine said the Budget 2002 website "excels at breaking news and explaining what the Budget means to you, and this year the Beeb will be beefing up the multimedia and interactive features to spice up the analysis and figures".

The fortnightly magazine Web User held its readers poll in January when users were asked which websites and online services they favoured - and those they most disliked.

The magazine surveyed readers in January

Microsoft's Hotmail site won the best Free Web Email Service award.

MSN's UK site got a joint winner award in the Best Entertainment section with the US movie database IMDB.

But Microsoft's MSN was voted the 'website from hell' by readers.

Readers rated Smile best for user satisfaction in the online banks sector with Nationwide a close second.

Telewest's ISP Blueyonder came top in the ISP Satisfaction category.

Previous awards

The latest accolade for BBC News Online follows a host of awards given to the site.

In November it was named best European news site on the internet.

The BBC was said to have distinguished itself in its use of the world wide web as an interactive medium, especially in its coverage of the war against terror in the Interactive Publishing (IP) Awards.

The site was also named Best News Site at the annual Baftas in October - the fourth such accolade in as many years.

And it won Best News Site at the American Online Journalism Awards in San Francisco the same month, where it also took the award for the best coverage of a single story - the Concorde crash in 2000.

The site's health and environment teams have also won major awards.