Auto updates for cricket coverage

Anyone following the third test match between England and South Africa at Edgbaston via the BBC's website won't have to keep refreshing the page.

The BBC has introduced an automatic update feature that means the page showing the text commentary will refresh itself unprompted.

The feature is still in its beta phase so the BBC is asking for feedback from users. It hopes to include the feature for its coverage of other sporting events such as the Olympics.

"We would like to offer you the ability to test this page and send us any comments you have, good or bad. Those comments are important us and will help us to develop our service," the BBC said.

Ben Dirs, one of the BBC's team of text-commentators, joked: "I'm bound to nause it up at some point today meaning the whole page will crash. Sorry in advance."

UPDATE 31/07/08: The BBC will not be using the auto-update feature for the remainder of the test match.

"We were trialling our new auto-refresh system yesterday with the Olympics in mind. It worked - some of you liked it and some didn't - but it was a bit of a nightmare for me so we're going to put it on the backburner until Beijing," said Dirs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/7534732.stm