When you select a news based website to get your currency and financial news from, you want to be sure it is going to be a reliable one. That is one of the main reasons for highlighting www.forbes.com in our list of news related websites – the other main one being that it has a global view that is hard to beat when you need a good source that doesn’t limit itself to one region or country of the world.
There is plenty here to keep you occupied, regardless of what kind of financial news you are after, so it’s essential to take some time exploring the site to make sure you don’t miss anything. The home page really is the window on something much greater here – and while our interest is in financial news you may well find other items that are useful as well.
So let’s take a look to see what there is that is worth looking into in more depth.
Starting with the home page
The simple but strong blue heading is indicative of a site that always keeps its goals front and center. The blue immediately makes you feel you can trust this website to deliver the goods, and it certainly does that in more ways than one.
There are several quick benefits to this home page before you even start reading the actual content. Within that blue bar at the top of the page which contains the Forbes name, there is also a search facility which allows you to select which type of information you are looking for in addition to your search terms.
You can click on the link below that search facility to claim your free issue of Forbes magazine, and you are also prompted to either bookmark the page or even better make it your home page every time you sign on to the internet. It is clear that they want to become a regular part of your internet experience – but the one thing that will really do that is the level of the information they provide.
And they certainly deliver the goods there, which is painfully obvious even before you leave the home page to search other areas of the site. The home page shows you the overall top news stories at the moment, and as you scroll down you will also see the main stories in each section, including the markets and personal finance sections. This allows you to make straight for the area which interests you the most.
There is also a link to a well known and reputable financial dictionary part way down the page, and it is also well worth taking a look at the RSS feeds page – accessible via a link at the bottom of the home page. We will take a look at this in more detail in the next section.
Finally you will also see a quick snapshot of how the stocks are doing, along with a running belt of news headlines in this arena underneath. This is certainly a winning home page which does all it can to reel you in – and it does a very good job of doing so. There is plenty to get stuck into and it gives you a good taster of what to expect from the rest of the site. Despite the amount of ground this page has to cover it does a remarkable job of keeping everything separate and simple, and doesn’t disappoint in any way at all.
What sections are there to explore?
Starting with the RSS feeds page, you will see that you have an amazing choice of feeds that you can subscribe to. You can also put these on your own website if you wish, provided the content relates to your site and you meet all the terms and conditions of using them.
For your own interest the RSS feeds about markets news, Wall Street, personal finance, investment newsletters and finance are probably of the most interest, given the financial related content of these.
There is also a finance section in the entrepreneurs part of the website, which gives a different view on the topic of finance altogether. This is just another example of how this particular website does an excellent job of taking the financial news and views and looking at them from a totally different viewpoint altogether.
The comprehensive personal finance section also includes pages on everything you would ever want to know about your own financial situation, including more current stories on investment ideas and how they are affected by what is going on in the news.
If you have an interest in finances then you will also want to pay the business section a visit, since this is particularly interesting when you reach the Wall Street section. There are videos, opinions and views here that really round out the page well, and offer you a number of ways to get a more in depth look at what is going on in Wall Street today.
One notable feature you will see on the home page is the changing visual message which appears near the top left hand corner. This goes through five different mini pages at equally spaced intervals, and features reports that the website has undertaken to give you a better idea of what is going on in the world at the moment. To give you an idea of what to expect, recent stories included a look at the current situation regarding stocks in America, and a look at the success – or otherwise – of senior business leaders. You can then take a look at these stories directly by clicking on the relevant page when you see it. You can also see all these pages by hovering over the appropriate number in the bottom of that mini page.
This is a great showcase of the best that Forbes.com has to offer each day – a handpicked selection of stories that are well worth reading.
You can also reach two other main sections via the menu bar at the top of the page, and both of these are worth a mention because they demonstrate how the website is pushing forwards and including new dimensions to help it move into the future.
The first of these is the blogs section, featuring a number of blogs you can follow regularly, and a couple of these have some relevance to financial matters – in particular the Science Business blog (which despite the title does have a lot to commend it). There is also a section on this same page which shows you a snapshot of current posts made on other blogs that are worth looking at, so make sure you give this some attention.
The second section is the videos part of the website, which gives you access to a huge choice of programming – and some of these are related to many monetary and financial matters. There is a photo section of the best shows coming up in the next few days, which you can add to your playlist to make sure you don’t miss out on them.
You will notice that the videos are organized according to subject, making it easy to glance through them and select the ones that interest you. Again this is just another way that the website manages to appeal to plenty of different people by taking advantage of as many different methods of getting in touch as it can use in the modern world of the internet.
There are also a number of columnists you might want to stay in touch with, and these can be found via the Opinions tab on the main menu. This is another facet of the website that allows you to somewhat personalize your use of it – no two people who visit this site are going to take away exactly the same experience of it in any way, shape or form, and that shows just how comprehensive and large the www.forbes.com website really is.
How user friendly is the website?
It definitely has its users’ interests at heart, concentrating on providing additional features and small added extras here and there which really make all the difference.
A good example of this is the fact that you will see a small box appear every time you go into a news story of some kind. The box contains a message which offers you the chance to get news items on the same subject free of charge by signing up below. All you need to do is fill in a few simple boxes and you can be receiving the exact type of news stories you want directly to your email inbox every day. It is this kind of tailored approach which really makes all the difference when a website is trying to appeal to you in more ways than their competition does.
The almost obligatory site map is included and can be found at the bottom of every page, and it is very easy to navigate since each section is headed by a shaded bar and all the sub-sections are listed below it.
The menu bar across the top of every page is also very user friendly, since you don’t even need to click on the section you want to see what is included within that section. You simply need to move your mouse over it and all the sub-sections will change automatically without needing to change pages at all.
The sections themselves are also entertaining to find your way around.
What is the single best feature?
Once again we are spoilt for choice, but the main one could actually go unnoticed if you weren’t careful. If you visit the home page and scroll right down to the bottom you will see a link called investment newsletters, which takes you into a page revealing the wide range of Forbes newsletters that are currently available.
A lot of these hold a great deal of interest for anyone with a hand in the financial markets, since they are often financially motivated. Some of them require a paid subscription to gain access to them, but while the amounts asked for can sometimes seem quite steep you are actually getting a good bargain since the newsletters usually run for a whole year and they contain a lot of in depth information.
There are a number of free weekly newsletters as well however, and these are delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as you send them your email address and name. If you are undecided over one of the paid subscription only newsletters then it’s a good idea to start with one of these and carry on from there.
All in all this gives you access to a huge repository of just the kind of information that Forbes is known for, and it’s well worth taking a look around.
In conclusion
There are a multitude of reasons why www.forbes.com is a notable entry in this section of financial websites. Not least the fact that it is a name which is known throughout the world as being a reliable one for this kind of news.
But it is also notable for the sheer amount of resources that it provides you with. Whatever interest you have in the financial markets you are sure to find something here that gives you a greater understanding of it, or leads you towards useful charts and analysis to deepen that same knowledge.
While some websites need a site map to help you get around, Forbes.com doesn’t – although it does provide one as a matter of course. The truth is that the website itself is a joy to use and you should always make sure you have one eye on the time when you arrive, because it is very easy to lose track of time and end up spending longer on the website than you intend to.
It’s nice though to have a downside to a website that is actually a testament to how good it is overall – and that is certainly the case with www.forbes.com.