The New York Times launched Beta620, a public beta site for its experimental projects, on Sunday.
Users can browse through, test out and give feedback on projects on Beta620 — some successful projects may ultimately “graduate” and go live on NYTimes.com.
The site launched with ten beta projects, of which here is a sampling:
Community Hub: This dashboard better visualizes user-generated content. It features commenting stats and a comment feed and is soon to include a user’s Facebook friends’ comments and a graphical representation of commenting history.
TimesInstant: This mashup enables instant search results. The app uses “NYTimes Article Search API, auto-complete functionality and a few other tricks,” as described on the project page.
Times Skimmer: This is an HTML5 app that offers users the “experience of spreading out a newspaper and paging through it.” It even uses the same fonts as the printed paper — a first for Times developers.
Beta620 — the number refers to The Times‘ headquarter address on Eighth Avenue in New York City — was announced and planned for launch last summer, but was delayed due to higher priority projects on the list, namely creating a plan for the metered paywall model.
The beta testing site seems to be a step up from Insights Lab, the company’s invite-only community, where members can give feedback directly to Times staffers. Unlike Beta620, which is open to the public, Insights Lab consists of a “diverse cross-section of The New York Times print and website readers who are 18 years or older.”
I happen to be an Insights Lab member, and from what I can tell from logging in, the community has been relatively inactive since the last “News Flash” update in January. It is possible that Beta620 is a replacement for Insights Lab — we’ve reached out to Times representatives for comment and are awaiting response.
Whether it is a replacement or not, the site signals a desire on behalf of The Times to continue developing its online product based on user feedback and suggestions.
What are your thoughts on Beta620 and its current beta projects? Let us know in the comments.
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Posted on Mon, 08 Aug 2011 08:30:39 +0000 at http://mashable.com/2011/08/08/nytimes-beta620/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/08/nytimes-beta620/#comments
Users can browse through, test out and give feedback on projects on Beta620 — some successful projects may ultimately “graduate” and go live on NYTimes.com.
The site launched with ten beta projects, of which here is a sampling:
Community Hub: This dashboard better visualizes user-generated content. It features commenting stats and a comment feed and is soon to include a user’s Facebook friends’ comments and a graphical representation of commenting history.
TimesInstant: This mashup enables instant search results. The app uses “NYTimes Article Search API, auto-complete functionality and a few other tricks,” as described on the project page.
Times Skimmer: This is an HTML5 app that offers users the “experience of spreading out a newspaper and paging through it.” It even uses the same fonts as the printed paper — a first for Times developers.
Beta620 — the number refers to The Times‘ headquarter address on Eighth Avenue in New York City — was announced and planned for launch last summer, but was delayed due to higher priority projects on the list, namely creating a plan for the metered paywall model.
The beta testing site seems to be a step up from Insights Lab, the company’s invite-only community, where members can give feedback directly to Times staffers. Unlike Beta620, which is open to the public, Insights Lab consists of a “diverse cross-section of The New York Times print and website readers who are 18 years or older.”
I happen to be an Insights Lab member, and from what I can tell from logging in, the community has been relatively inactive since the last “News Flash” update in January. It is possible that Beta620 is a replacement for Insights Lab — we’ve reached out to Times representatives for comment and are awaiting response.
Whether it is a replacement or not, the site signals a desire on behalf of The Times to continue developing its online product based on user feedback and suggestions.
What are your thoughts on Beta620 and its current beta projects? Let us know in the comments.
More About: beta, beta620, media, NYTimes, the new york timesFor more Media coverage:Follow Mashable Media on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Media channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Posted on Mon, 08 Aug 2011 08:30:39 +0000 at http://mashable.com/2011/08/08/nytimes-beta620/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/08/nytimes-beta620/#comments
