World passes by UK.gov websites

Hooliganism a bigger draw than Heritage

Posted in Bootnotes, 8th December 2005 11:18 GMT

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Web surfers may be interested in working in the UK, but don’t give a fig about its world heritage sites, if figures wheedled out of the government by a LibDem MP are anything to go by.

The Guardian’s technology section reports today that a series of questions by Brent East MP Sarah Teather has revealed that some sites were attracting plenty of traffic. For example, www.workingintheuk.gov.uk attracted 3.7m visits last year. Perhaps they'd have gotten even more if they ran a webcam showing Brits actually doing some work themselves. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s site, www.odpm.gov.uk pulls in around 434,000 a month, while the directgov portal sucks in 716,000 a month.

Other sites seem to have escaped the citizenry’s notice, however. A site set up to investigate football-related violence, www.ask-the-football-fans.gov.uk, attracted a measly 867 visits last year, The Guardian reports. Hardly surprising – there’s no scenes of hardcore rucking at all, never mind a forum where competing hooligan generals can arrange their Saturday afternoon face offs.

However, the most dismal performance disclosed by the government is www.ukworldheritage.org.uk, which pulled in just 77 visitors a year. Given that the UK apparently has 25 world heritage sites, that’s a grand hit rate of just over three visitors per site. Hardly surprising though. The site itself is about as lively as the “Heart of Neolithic Orkney”.

What the beleaguered heritage site does have though is an interactive map, plotting the sites. Now, a quick bit of coding, a little cross pollination with ask-the-football-fans, and we could have a very nice interactive map of some crucial historic events. The great Kings Cross affray of 1984, the Arsenal/Tottenham Derby of 1995, any Old Firm Game…. Well, you get the picture.

More details at The Guardian here ®

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