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Read the full post April 26th, 2007

Preview of this weekend’s ABCNEWS.com relaunch

ABCNEWS.com unveils its new look this weekend and, from the preview ABC’s media relations sent us, it looks like a major departure from the current site. The new ABCNEWS.com is much cleaner and easier to read and navigate. The upper right is dedicated to an embedded video player and the search box is prominent (as we’ve pointed out, that’s how people navigate). According to a memo sent from ABC News President David Westin to the ABC News staff this morning, “One of the important goals for the new ABCNEWS.com is to use the power of the community created on the Internet to take that reporting to new levels. We will actively seek participation by those with something factual to add. We will solicit from our Internet users the questions they want answered by those in positions of power and knowledge.” Below, a screengrab sent to us from ABC News.

5 comments April 26th, 2007

The second ‘Greatest Living American?’ Brandon Wirtz

LR reader Brandon Wirtz has humbly alerted us to this addendum to the Colbert Google bomb story. He is the second “Greatest Living American,” if you do a Google or Yahoo search. I consider this an even more impressive feat than Colbert’s since, no offense Brandon, Colbert has a slightly bigger audience. The more links Brandon gets, the higher his ranking goes. Who are we to argue? Here’s to Brandon Wirtz, the second Greatest Living American. He is also shooting for Greatest Undead American, so I’m including that in the body of this copy as well. I now issue this challenge: I want the LR Faithful to make “Steve Safran” the top result for “Laziest Man in America.” Let’s keep the meme going. Link to this story and include the words “Steve Safran is the Laziest Man in America,” along with whatever stupid stuff you have to do for SEO or Google bombing. Together, we can make a difference.

UPDATE: Will you look at that? One day later, and I’m #2 in the search rankings for “Laziest Man in America.” Yeah, second laziest is pretty lazy alright. But I’m in it to win it. Keep linking.

5 comments April 26th, 2007

MSNBC’s ‘Rate The Candidates’

As part of MSNBC’s continuing rollout of its theme to offer “A Fuller Spectrum of News,” it now has an interactive feature called “Rate the Candidates”:

You watch a video featuring clips of the candidates talking about their positions on key issues and then use the sliders to give them a positive, negative or neutral rating. Once you’ve done that, you can see the results of how other people have rated other candidates. Locals: learn from this. Many locals now have sections that feature the candidates’ positions on issues - and this is a fun interactive way of drawing people in to learn more and offer instant feedback.

6 comments April 26th, 2007

WSJ launches media/tech vertical site: AllThingsD

WSJ’s wise media pundits Mossberg and Swisher now have their own vertical site, AllThingsD. There are seven staffers, including the cool John Paczkowski. You’ll find blog posts and the ‘Digital Daily Video’ feature and, in the making money realm, there are video prerolls and one banner ad position per page. And, relating to the “To brand or not to brand” discussion below, there’s no WSJ logo at top. Yep, it’s it’s own vertical brand. The site’s about us statement…

Because the site is wholly owned by Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, we aim to adhere to the journalistic standards of the best of the mainstream media. But, because it is run autonomously as a small online startup, we aim to exhibit the fresh thinking and nimbleness of the best of the new media. We want to be first, and sassy, but also well sourced and accurate

Plus: What the blogs have to say about AllThingsD

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