British royal family gets new and improved Web site
By Dave Parrack
The British monarchy, one of the oldest and most austere regimes in the world, and the Web. Two things you wouldn’t really put together as being a marriage made in heaven. But the British royal family realize, in the same way as Barack Obama does, that the Internet offers a new and exciting way of reaching out to people, although in this case, the people are actually subjects of the Queen.
The British royal family has had a Web site since way back in 1997, when the Web was really only just getting big. So it could be argued that the monarchy has always tried to stay at the forefront of technology. But the look and outlay of that Web site were looking decidedly old, a bit like the Queen herself. Which is why it’s now been given a complete makeover.
Never one to miss the chance to throw a lavish party, the British royal family put on a do to launch the redesigned Web site. According to BBC News, the shindig at Buckingham Palace was filled with “senior people from Google, Apple and AOL, assorted professors of computing, web (sic) entrepreneurs and just about anyone else who you’d normally find at a techie networking event.”
In a bit of a coup, if having the Head of State unveiling her own Web site wasn’t enough of one, the father of the Web, Tim Berners-Lee was also in attendance. He actually gave a speech before the new site was revealed, in which he talked about the history of the site. Berners-Lee didn’t create the site though, as that was left to royal lackey, Emma Goodey.
What’s changed? New multimedia elements have now been added to the site, including videos from the royal family’s YouTube channel, which is already massively popular. There is also what is being dubbed Virtual rooms, panoramic, high-resolution photographs from the inside of parts of the royal residences.
The new Web site is definitely a vast improvement on the former. But what I’d really love to see is more interaction and a two-way conversation from members of the royal family, even minor ones. Prince Harry’s blog would surely be a must-read, and Prince Phillip using Twitter would be a joy to behold. He’d probably even secure more followers than Stephen Fry, which would be quite an achievement.
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February 14th, 2009
Will fascination with these “royals” increase or decrease when the next king/queen is enthroned? Not that I wish ill to the current Queen, I’m just wondering when (if?) you brits will tire of this needless relic of the past called monarchy? They seem (to us across the pond) more suited to National Enquirer than something seriously useful in this day and age.