Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Daily Freeman 2.0.1.02752893475WhySoManyNumbers

Regular readers of the Daily Freeman online might have noticed some slight improvements to the site recently. But if you haven't, here's some of the things that are new:

Better sharing interface:

Below every headline, you'll now see how many times the story has been tweeted, recommended on Facebook (it's awkward to like bad news), Digg-ed, shared on MySpace (yes, it's still around), and how many comments the story has. You can also print, e-mail and share on other social networks in an easier way.

The same sharing options are at the bottom, plus a nice compendium of videos. If you are in a sports story, only sports videos come up. Same applies to news and features.

Twitter feed:

If you scroll down past the main headlines on the front page, you'll see this:

This Twitter feed includes all reporters, editors, the publisher and the Freeman's main Twitter feed. There's no need to chase us around, we're all here.

Search:

Below the Daily Freeman banner, at the right, you can now performed an advance search. It's not as comprehensive as we would like. But it's a start. And we'll keep improving upon this.

Calendar:

Now you can submit your own events online. If you click on the calendar right now, you'll notice it's a bit bare, which is so because we haven't told you about this feature yet. But you asked for it. So there it is. The full calendar is in print, and online, so you won't be missing anything. But we'll be moving in this more comprehensive direction, as to serve you better.

Before you write your snarky comment, let me admit all these improvements are not earth-shattering or groundbreaking. But they'e long overdue, and we're happy to offer you the opportunity to join in and participate in the process.

Let us know what you think. We'll be tweaking the site in the process, and your input is crucial.

And, yes, there's a lot more coming your way.