EVEN as the historic impeachment trial of President Estrada is testing the country’s political and judiciary system, so too is the coverage of the Senate proceedings proving to be a testbed for converging new media applications.

More important, Inquirer.net’s new real-time features are driving this increased traffic. Based on the site statistics for Dec. 7 to Dec. 8--right after the Estrada impeachment trial began--the Running Account (www.inquirer.net/running/) of the Senate proceedings is second only to the site’s home page itself in terms of page views generated. The Running Account, a real-time, up-to-the-minute posting of the impeachment trial proceedings, already racked up 24,128 page views shortly after its introduction. This represents 2.73 percent of total site traffic, while the index page accounted for 213,496 page views or 24.23 percent of total site traffic for that period.

Meanwhile, the GMA Inquirer Video Channel at www.inquirer.net/video/ accounted for 12,367 page views or 1.4 percent of the total traffic for that period. This streaming video coverage of the impeachment trial proceedings has enabled Filipino surfers in the Philippines and other countries to follow the trial on the Internet virtually in real-time, complementing the text-based Running Account.

As more of our countrymen gain access to computers and the Internet, and as the Filipino news audience become more sophisticated and tech-savvy, it is a given that they will look at new media sites as major sources of their daily dose of news. Moreover, these new media websites will have to introduce new interactive features that would attract and retain the interest of these surfers.

As it is, the Running Account and GMA Inquirer Video Channel are just the tip of the iceberg as far as this emerging new media revolution is concerned. Still, their success shows that not only is the public thirsty for news, but is becoming comfortable with--and, in fact, demanding--novel ways of presenting news using the latest technology.

To gauge the impact of the running and video accounts, consider the site statistics for the period from Nov. 27 to Dec. 17. Even though the Running Account was only introduced on Dec. 7, this feature already generated 114,140 page views. Meanwhile, the GMA Inquirer Video Channel has already accounted for 53,562 page views.

True, in the Philippines, streaming video may still be hard to appreciate, given bandwidth limitations. Still, it should be remembered that the site reaches out to a worldwide audience, with almost 90 percent of Inquirer.net visitors located outside the country. It is this news audience in bandwidth-rich countries that can already fully appreciate the site’s existing and upcoming rich media content. Moreover, as broadband technologies such as cable modem Internet service and DSL (digital subscriber line) start becoming more widespread and affordable in the country next year, Philippine Internet users will be able to better appreciate these new media features.

After all, in the early days of the online world, who would have thought that the text-based Internet would evolve into the graphical and multimedia World Wide Web? If human history is anything to go by, it is safe to say that technological obstacles will always be hurdled. The challenge, of course, is to be creative in coming up with the content that would take advantage of new technology.

In the end, the trick is to continue putting the "new" in news.