for the past few days i've been sitting in a meeting. today in the US is the superbowl (the national football championship game). i'm not much of a football fan, but i'm interested in the outcome so i don't sound like an idiot in conversations :-)
so while this meeting is going on right now, the game has been going on. i decided to take a look and went to *the* sport site, www.espn.com. they have a "gamecast" application which provided me some great "live" action on the game. take a look at the screenshot:
you can see a virtual field that (it isn't in this shot since it is halftime) shows the plays on the field, the chain markings for the downs, etc., etc. -- and it tells me about the last play -- etc. a great UI and great information -- no refresh, very slick (would have been nice to have this in a sidebar gadget!).
for contrast i went to msnbc.com -- here's their "live" play:
horrible. "select your refresh" setting at the top (read: no ajax style). very "html" looking. information in a scrollable page (not the 'first quarter' table at the bottom) -- so information not in a concise place. shame on msnbc :-)