Annahar’s New Website

Following the footsteps of Albalad and Assafir, Annahar now has a new website. Does it measure up?

After you type www.annaharonline.com into the browser, a screen asks you kindly to go to www.annahar.com. The step could have been automated, but Annahar wants you to memorize its new, simpler web URL.
 
You are then greeted by a clumsy, hastily assembled flash animation, complete with the kind of drama you can now expect from Annahar. That annoyance out of the way, is the main page’s new design just a re-organizing of old features, or are there some new, useful features?
 
To start, some of the stuff you had to dig deep for in the past, like the pdf version, is now nicely available on the sidebar. Some of the features that nobody (except the visually impaired) used before, like the audio version, are now repackaged in the form of an animated reader (pictured above). Although a gimmick, she can make a surprisingly pleasant companion to your cup of coffee in the busy mornings when you’re clearing up your desk and too busy to actually read the news. 
 
The layout could have been better, but now that Annahar has an RSS feed, who needs a good layout? I will make your life easier: You can get their feed from here, as it would be too difficult to find it online.
 
You get the feeling that Annahar is trying to lump too many new and cool technologies in its website. Just name one and you’ll likely find it there. An Annahar widget for Mac users? There. An Annahar Podcast for Itunes, You got it. 
 
The problem is, the website sometimes feels much more like a technician’s playground than like a serious newspaper. The Flash version is impossibly gimmicky with a an actual magnifier that you can move around to enlarge small bits of the tiny, animated newspaper, and a cup of coffee that you can drop (and un-drop). like many of the features of the new website, it can seem cool in the beginning, but gets annoying with time.
 
On balance, though, the new website could be considered a good step forward for the esteemed news company.