The new website: Getting the keys back

Imagine that for the past decade you've been driving around in an old jalopy. It's comfortable in the way of a ragged jumper, a part of you almost, but it's approaching its use-by date, as everyone that travels in it points out. That one-way trip to the wreckers isn't far off.

After a few nights researching a replacement online, and too many weekends plugging up and down Sydney's Parramatta Road, you stumble across a car yard that appears to have what you're looking for.

The dealer comes to the party, offering a good price on a reliable, economical vehicle that should see you through the next five years at least, in style and comfort. With thoughts of chucking out your old CDs and plugging your iPhone into the dash, you hand over the money and wait for the keys. Then you wait, and wait some more.

You see, the car has a few problems but the dealer's service team isn't so keen on fixing them up. A stand-off ensues, and a frustrating few months pass when not much happens. Eventually, the dealer hands over the keys and you set about fixing the problems yourself but in the meantime more delays occur.

This scenario neatly sums up where we are with our new website. In January, we purchased a new car but it wasn't until a few weeks ago that we were able to open the door and climb into the driver's seat.

No excuses

None of this is to make excuses. The fact that we haven't met the expectations set in a recent Director's Cut, What now for the new website? is no one's fault except our own. But there is some good news.

First, the list of fixes is now being addressed by our own in-house development team (more on this below), in which we've made a considerable investment. Six staff are working on the fixes you've requested since the site launched in December. Once they're out of the way, future improvements will be quicker and easier to roll out.

Second, the new website means we are prepared for the future. The old site delivered a very poor experience on mobiles and tablets and was written in a dying language. Finding staff to support it was nigh-on impossible. The entire business was built on the back of a dinosaur.

The new site offers a great mobile experience and is much easier to work with. It allows us to get our research to you more quickly; it talks to other sites, which means we can incorporate more useful data feeds and online tools; and it's more stable, flexible and reliable. Best of all, developers to support it are plentiful. There have been teething problems but finally, we've got what we hoped for.

Improved search

You may already have noticed the first and most important of these changes; an improved search function that allows you to refine the results by content type, date and relevance. Searching for 'Director's Cut' for example, returns a list of articles and questions where that phrase is mentioned, and the many articles with that title. In the menu bar to the left, simply click on the type of content you wish to view.

You'll also notice that the home page now features eight rather than four of the most recent articles (we're still considering whether to add more). Duplicate articles no longer appear on the home page and 'Most Popular' covers a two-week time frame. Pages load more quickly and site uptime is improving.

Financial data

Many more improvements have been made at the article and company page level, the most important of which was launched yesterday. Financial data on every ASX-listed company is now accessible from the company page.

You'll also notice that in the recommendation box at the top of every article both the current share price and price at the time of the review now appear. The display of this information still needs some tweaking but as of now, it's all there.

One part of this page isn't especially intuitive and requires an explanation. If you're reading an article and want to see all the Q&As, financial data, announcements, reporting dates and dividends relating to that stock, simply click the company name in the recommendation box. That will take you directly to the company page, from which a host of other features are available. At the bottom of each article you'll also find four of the most recent related articles. These two issues were the source of many complaints and it's good to finally knock them over.

Getting there

Bit by bit we're getting there, although we recognise that the delay in getting these issues addressed has been as frustrating and irritating for you as it has been for us. For that we can only apologise and thank you for your patience.

Now that a lot of the most pressing irritants have been dealt with, please let us know what you'd like at the top of the To Do list. Leave your comments below or email us at info@intelligentinvestor.com.au. Now we've got the keys to the car back, future changes will be easier and quicker to implement. Once again, we appreciate your patience and understanding.