UK election: Guardian.co.uk vs Telegraph.co.uk

Just as RTÉ showed in 2007, there's nothing like a general election to get online news sources to try out new things. Here, I'll compare the use of multimedia election coverage of the Guardian and Telegraph websites. Multimedia isn't the be all and end all, of course, but it's a start in assessing which website is embracing online capabilities more.

What they've got

Both websites have a graphic-heavy constituency map and swingometer. The Guardian offers more ways of viewing these, including bar charts and geographical maps. Their swingometer allows you to swing across all three main parties at once, which The Telegraph doesn't (you can only do two at a time). The Guardian published the itinerary of the three main leaders, and linked these to an interactive Google Map. They also have a graphed tracker of reactions to the ITV debate. The Telegraph has a 'how I should vote' feature, and a comprehensive Flash-based poll tracker. The Guardian's Flash poll tracker is several weeks out-of-date, but goes back to the 1980s.

The Guardian has videos and daily podcasts. The Telegraph has an election liveblog, a photo gallery, and a two-minute video summary. Many of The Guardian's stories didn't contain images. All of the Telegraph stories I could locate did. There are plenty of text articles, some of which are web-only (the blogs for instance).

Verdict: The Guardian. Although both websites have an election section, The Guardian's are more neatly organised. Their video, 'interactives', constituency maps and podcasts were easy to find and navigate. Locating the Telegraph's video feature took a little bit of digging - it's most prominent mention appears as a text link so it can get missed relatively easy. Despite the Telegraph's upper-hand on the polls and 'how I should vote' features, the Guardian simply offers more. The Guardian also wins hands-down on their constituency map.