Last year, I posted a rant titled Bad design from BBC?. In the post I complained about how the BBC website handled "errors" and suggested that perhaps it'd be best if was handled silently.

Almost a year down the line it appears that BBC has finally realised this bad design and described it as "confusing results". In this blog post on the BBC website, editor Steve Herrmann describes the changes which will be made to overcome "some potentially frustrating experiences for you, as well as some significant technical complications for us". Going forward UK and International visitors to website will see a different versions of the homepage. Whereas previously visitors could select which version of the homepage they wanted, now they will not have that choice anymore. I am not sure exactly how current system is technically complicated.The blog post gives an example:

For example, international users selecting the UK version might follow prominent links from front pages only to find messages saying things like: "Currently BBC iPlayer TV programmes are available to play in the UK only". (The BBC doesn't have the legal rights to show content on the iPlayer abroad though that may change in future).

From my experience described in the earlier post, it appears that BBC is already using geolocation. I reiterate, that if BBC already knows that you're and international visitor, then it's a simple matter of not showing the iPlayer! How technically hard is that? Using this silly example as a reason to determine which homepage you get is downright lame.

Small wonder then that the comments for that blog post are full of complaints. At the time writing, there were 610 comments and the 610^th commentator Glueman2 noted his complaint as "...nos.461 negative comment". Despite the complaints, I doubt BBC will stop from going through with the changes.