New and Improved - about time too!

Today I stumbled upon the official Taj Mahal tourism site. And to my utter surprise, I could not believe I was looking at an Indian tourism website! I mean, it was well designed, it had graphics, it loaded quickly, it was in one word "usable" - and that is to say the least. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would award it a good 8.5 for the quality of the work, information and presentation.



My experience has never been the same with other similar Indian websites. We are not talking about the rediffs and the indiatimes and the sifys here (they leave plenty to desire anyway!). I am talking about websites to do with the government and tourism etc. I have long been pained and ached by the fact that, having all the brains we do in India, a nation that is fast becoming the IT powerhouse of the world, it was disappointing (am using a polite word) to see some of the shabby websites that went up.




When the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation launched its new online booking system around 5 years ago, I was mega thrilled. But when I visited their website, I couldn't believe my eyes how stone age the website was looking, and the usability was disgraceful. When I saw this Taj Mahal website, my first instinct was to go check out the IRCTC website to see if anything had changed. And what came up, I was not prepared to believe! In actual fact, I closed the browser, reopened it, typed in the URL again. I was convinced I was in the wrong planet. I went to Google search, searched for "the official IRCTC website", and it still opened the same page! Surprise, Surprise! The all "New and Improved" IRCTC website!




The new IRCTC website, has dynamic HTML elements, much much better looking pictures - which does so much more justice to the beauty of India. I could not resist the urge to go look for more, and I found the official tourism website for the ministry of Tourism in India! And I was bowled over big time. First thing to strike me was the colours, bright, bold, beautiful, warm, welcoming, and it had that little x-factor - just everything India is!






It has got the whole works, and does me soooooo proud, I cant express enough! And about time too! I am over the moon!