What's new on Newser?

We're constantly working on new ways to improve Newser. Here's a summary of recent changes.

December 28, 2012

Superlative & Breaking Grids

Like to sift by section? Seven grids, previously only available on Windows Phone, for your scanning pleasure:

Breaking Grid:
Since the beginning, our editors have used red to highlight the most important headlines. Now, for the first time on the website, we're exposing a grid of these 'breaking' stories—check it out under the 'More' dropdown in the nav bar.

Superlative Grids:
We've long offered the option to "Share Your Take" on a story by voting it Brilliant, Hilarious, Intriguing, Depressing, Ridiculous, or Scary. Now you can view grids generated by these votes! Each voting category has its own grid—you can find them all under the 'Superlatives' dropdown in the nav bar.

April 12, 2012

Windows^® Phone

Suggest a Story

Because you hate to be without us, introducing new ways to consume and interact with Newser:

Windows^® Phone App:
Our development team has been working non-stop to bring a rich and powerful experience to the Windows® Phone. Our newly released app packs in all the features you know and love about Newser, like commenting, voting, rich media galleries, and sharing, plus optional toast notifications of breaking stories, updating live tiles, and alternate views of the news such as our breaking and superlatives sections. We’re proud to say that it’s our best app to date, and it's available here.

Newser by Users
Though our stories are brief (a Newser signature!), they're not always a breeze to write. We ultimately decided that Newser by Users was burying the fun part—finding a really excellent story that our readers should know about—underneath a lot of hard work. So starting today, we've decided to move away from the painstaking part by retiring NBU and getting right to the easy part by introducing Suggest a Story. We're so grateful to our NBUers for all their contributions, and hope they'll give our latest experiment a try.

Suggest a Story
We're excited to introduce a five-second way for you to clue us in on a really great find, and get "suggested by" credit on the story page for doing so. Newser's editors have the big news of the day covered, so we're specifically looking for great finds from local newspaper and TV stations and exclusive scoops. Think you've found something fascinating? Suggest it.

October 6, 2011

Mobile

Now you can take Newser with you when you're on the move.

iPad App:
We've been working hard to bring you a Newser experience tailored to the iPad in a simple but effective way. Our new app provides support for both landscape and portrait orientation to fit your reading pleasure. With native video gallery support, this is one app you have to see!

Improved Mobile Web:
Our new and improved mobile website has been updated to bring the Newser square to the page and provides a more similar experience to that found on Newser and in our iPhone and iPad applications. Newser will now detect when a mobile browser requests a page and direct it to the mobile website. Don't worry, if you prefer the desktop version of Newser, you can click the link in the footer to switch between our desktop and mobile website versions.

May 25, 2011

Slideshows

Newser just got a whole lot prettier. Our latest batch of updates includes some hot design tweaks:

• New Image and Video Slideshow Format: These just got a lot more fun to play with. Look below the photos or video and you’ll now see the three most popular slideshows, making it a snap to hop from slideshow to slideshow. On image slideshows, the photo preview area now includes the next most recent slideshow, too. We’ve also moved the story to the top of the page and made it collapsible, so you can more easily soak up every delicious word we’ve written.
• Updated RSS and Social Networks Pages: Keep up with Newser any which way you like. Our RSS page has even more feed options, including RSS feeds for our five channels: Top Stories, Great Finds, Politics, Opinion, and Tabloids. And on our Social Networks page, we make it even easier to connect to us via Twitter and Facebook.
• New Facebook Like Buttons: And speaking of Facebook, we’re using a cooler button on our story pages, which allows you to like, comment, and send in one place. Share away!
• More to Read: Newser surfaces only a fraction of the great Associated Press content we have access to each day. To give Newser addicts a little more fun reading, we’re now giving some of these goodies the Newser treatment, packing all the best details into two punchy paragraphs. To read up, just click “AP Highlights” in the MORE menu in the navigation or use this link.

March 30, 2011

Navigation

The snow is finally melting, which means it’s time to roll up one’s shirtsleeves and do a little spring cleaning … and we decided to tackle some organizational projects we’ve been itching to take a crack at. We’ve made some tweaks to our navigation and header that communicate what we do a little more clearly. Here’s the rundown:

• Channels in Navigation: At Newser, our editors toil away to curate an engaging mix of important and interesting stories. Our new navigation features five channels that call out the five types of stories that we’re determine to surface: Top Stories (the big important stuff), Great Finds (ones you’re not likely to see without Newser’s help tracking them down), Politics (DC and beyond), Opinion (everything from columns to movie reviews), and Tabloids (salacious gossip, crazy crimes). Each story is assigned to the one channel that best describes what we think it adds to Newser, and to your daily news diet. Click to see a grid of just those types of stories.
  
  If you want to see all stories sorted into the five channels at once, click the Channels tab (to the right of The Grid and Popular). You’ll now see horizontal rows labeled by channel. Want to view it this way all the time? You can set this tab to be your default.
• Sections in the Navigation: Some of our readers have expressed the desire to view news by section—something that was possible previously, but took a click or two to get to. Sections are now more visible, appearing directly to the right of our channels.
• Newser by Users (NBU) Gets Higher Billing: NBU has been elevated to full-product status, complete with its own navigation, and is now accessible via the upper left corner of the site. We’ve also added a “Contribute News” button above the grid, making it even quicker and easier to write your own Newser-style story.

February 15, 2011

Registration Enhancements

Just like Mom and Dad, Newser loves all our readers equally. But we give a little somethin' extra to those who register (it’s free). And good news: We’ve just made it easier to do so, and made more of our sweet features available by registration only. Here’s the latest:

• Better flow: Take a registration shortcut with our new Facebook and Twitter connect options. A click or two and ta-da! You’re log-in ready. (And there are some other plusses—see No. 3). If you’d prefer to register the old-fashioned way, we’ve made it easier to do that, too.
• More registration-only features: We’re always looking for ways to make your Newser experience a faster, better one, and minimizing cookie use will help us do that. By making our custom settings (like our hard-soft scale and the ‘mark stories I’ve read’ feature) available by registration only, our speed will improve.
• Sweet social connections: In addition to now offering Facebook and Twitter log-in options, you can manage the way Newser links to those accounts in our Social Connections area. There, you can adjust your sharing preference; for instance, you can opt to autoshare some of your Newser activity (like NBU stories you’ve written or stories you’ve voted on) with your Facebook friends or Twitter followers.
• Changes to commenting: Because of some difficulties we’ve had associating Newser and Disqus accounts for commenting, starting today you will need to register on Newser in order to comment on our stories. While we will still use the Disqus system, your Newser comments will not show up on your Disqus profile—but you can see them all in your Newser profile!

November 10, 2010

Save Your Place in the Grid

We know you'll like this one. Many of our readers have asked us to give them the ability to save their place in the grid so they don't have to keep scrolling down to pick up where they left off. In response, we've come up with (what we think are) two great solutions. Now, after you click any grid square, you'll be taken to an updated story page with two new features:

• Below the story, you’ll see the grid you were previously on, with your current story locked in the top left (with a convenient "you are here" marker), giving you another way to browse through the grid
• A mini-carousel now appears to the right of the headline, with your current story's grid square in the middle. Using the arrow, you can look at the next -- and next and next -- story in the grid. When one catches your eye, click on it to read it, or hit Back to Grid to return to the spot where you left off

With these two new features, there's no longer a need to keep scrolling and scrolling down the grid to find your previous spot. Now you can jump from story to story to get the news you need -- and want -- to know fast.

October 26, 2010

The Front Page

We’re changing things up on the User Grid. Previously, all user stories automatically posted to the main tab of the User Grid. But realizing that not all stories are created equal, we decided to put the focus on the really great ones. That’s why we created the Front Page, where you’ll find stories by approved writers -- those who do a great job of distilling the news into lively and efficient summaries. What you won’t find, among other things: copy and pasted stories, one-line “summaries,” or spam. It’s part of our effort to make the User Grid a smart and snappy destination for our readers. How do you become an approved writer? It’s easy. Learn more here.

Updated Profile Page

We also made some improvements to our profile page. Your public profile will now show the stories you’ve written in addition to the comments you’ve posted. More changes to come!

September 2, 2010

Comments

Our community is growing (that’s a good thing!), and we felt our comment area should reflect that. So, starting today, we’re dedicating a whole page to comments. On all story pages, you’ll notice a comment tab above the story text. Click it, and you’ll be taken to an entire page of comments about that story. In addition, we’ve expanded the number of comments shown on this new page so you can quickly see more comments than before. On top of that, we’re introducing real-time commenting, which lets you see new comments on a story without having to refresh your page. To turn this off, click pause in the area above the comments. Below the story (where the comments used to live) you’ll now see a quick view of the three latest comments, along with buttons to leave a comment or take you to the comment page.

Updated Story Page

Besides the comment area changes, you’ll also notice small tweaks scattered about the story page. We’ve consolidated the share tools, added the Facebook "like" button, and streamlined the design to create a faster, sleeker page. Enjoy!

June 8, 2010

Click for More Stories

We've heard from many of you that scrolling through our grid was a less-than-perfect experience, so we've created the option to click for more stories instead of scrolling. You can turn it on by clicking here. You'll then see "More Stories" at the bottom of your grid. Click it, and more stories will appear. Be sure to let us know what you think!

Updated Menu

We've consolidated our navigation menu to make it easier to see what's on Newser right now. Click on Newser Grids and you'll see Sections, Hot Topics, and Sources together, along with an easy way to access advanced grid settings.

Newser By Users

We're happy that so many of you have tried out Newser by Users. To bring even more people into the fold, we've fleshed out our explanatory text, giving you clearer guidelines on what we allow, how to write a summary, and what it takes to get promoted to the main Newser Grid.

April 7, 2010

Meebo

Meebo makes it even easier to share stories through Twitter, Facebook, IM, and email. To try it out, mouse over the thumbnail grid square on any story page (right next to the headline) to activate "Drag to Share.” You can also share and communicate with friends via the Meebo Bar at the bottom of the page.

March 16, 2010

Newser by Users

Newser by Users lets you write your own Newser item (a headline, picture, short summary – you know the drill) using our easy setup. Once you submit your story, we’ll immediately publish it in our user grid, now under the main grid on the home page, where you can find more stories written by other readers from a wide range of sources. And if your story does a particularly good job summing up the original article, or if it’s a really great find, we’ll promote it on our main grid, giving you credit for the story you wrote.

Since our beta launch, we’ve added a few features based on your feedback. You can now crop your photo, getting the perfect shot for your square. Additionally, you can edit your story after it’s been published so you can take care of any pesky typos (click Edit Story under your headline). Learn more.

February 18, 2010

New Comment Features

We’ve switched to Disqus, a comment system that lets you easily track and manage the comments you've posted around the web. Specifically, on Newser you can now:

• Comment using your Twitter or Disqus account (of course, you can continue to comment using Facebook Connect or your Newser account).
• Subscribe to a story’s comment thread via RSS or email.
• Edit your comments.

February 4, 2010

New Items in the Grid

We’re shaking things up a bit on the grid. Starting today, we’re sprinkling in some grid squares (those with a full roofline at the top – see pic at right) that will take you directly to source articles we think you should check out, whether it’s a great Off The Grid post from Newser founder Michael Wolff or a just-for-fun gossip story from one of our favorite sites. Of course the majority of the grid will still be Newser stories – short takes on top news – but we’re hoping these new squares will give you a quicker, alternative way to access the news you want.

November 30, 2009

Story Voting

Ever read a Newser story and think, what a brilliant article! Or catch yourself rolling your eyes? Now you can voice your take on a story and see what other Newser readers think about it, too. Hilarious? Infuriating? Click on the appropriate word just to the left of the story (under What’s your take?). Then, click to share your take with Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

November 5, 2009

Sources Update

After many hours of debate (don’t you wish you were there) we've decided to remove source logos from our grid. Some sources complained if their logos weren't featured; some if they were. Besides, many of our stories pull details from multiple sources—something we think adds a lot of value for readers—so it didn't make sense to feature just one. Of course that doesn't mean we've stopped crediting our sources: On the story page, we’ve given them what we think is better billing, to the right of the story (under SOURCES, highlighted in red), as well as embedded in the text of the Newser story. Both work as links.

Multimedia Stories

In other Newser news: Since video is creating more and more buzz, we’ve given it more prominence on stories where seeing the clip is the most important thing. When you hover over these stories on the grid, you’ll see a large play button (or a camera for slideshows); click it to view on our new multimedia story page, which features a large and in charge player for both video and slideshows.

October 22, 2009

We've Dropped the Gray

Newser has shaken off last year’s gray and gone bright white. Let us know what you think on Facebook or drop us an email.

Source Links Have Moved

Source links have moved from below a story to the right (under Sources, highlighted in red). On many stories, we'll also link directly from within our text to the source article.

September 30, 2009

Newser Emails

We've created new, timely ways to get Newser highlights by email.

Among them:

• 9@9 The 9 most recent stories, in your inbox by 9am ET
• Lunchbox The most recent gossip stories, for dessert
• Two Cents The day's best opinion pieces
• Happy Hour Six-Pack The day's most popular stories, in time to unwind
• Off The Grid An alert sent whenever your favorite Off The Grid writer posts
• Keyword Alerts You pick the words (Michelle Obama? Megan Fox?), we alert you whenever Newser runs a story that matches them
• Daily Digest Political hound? Gossip fiend? You name the sections you care about, we send you Newser's roundup of stories from them

Go to My Newser Emails under My Account and sign up for your favorites

September 15, 2009

Facebook Connect

Newser just got a whole lot more Facebook friendly. We’ve added Facebook Connect, a service that lets you create a Newser account using your Facebook login information in one simple step. To try it out, click on Connect with Facebook or check the box that asks Post this comment to Facebook? on any story page. Once the Facebook prompt appears, log in with your Facebook username and password. Already have a Newser account? Use Facebook Connect to merge your Newser and Facebook accounts together.

That’s it! You’ll now be able to share comments you post on Newser with your Facebook friends. Note that while the login process only occurs once, moving forward, you will always have complete control over which comments you share with your Facebook friends. To try it out, log on to Newser with your Facebook account, comment, and share away!

Twitter and Facebook Sharing Features

We’ve made it easier for you to share those need-to-know (or just love-to-know) Newser stories with your friends on Twitter and Facebook. On each story page, you’ll notice larger Twitter and Facebook buttons. Click on the Twitter button, and we’ll automatically feed the story URL into your Twitter account. Click on the Facebook button, and you can choose to post the story on your wall or send it as a message.

June 11, 2009

AP News Wire

Only the day's most interesting and important stories make the grid, but if you want to read more, our expanded AP news wire has you covered. This below-the-grid area presents the latest stories from the Associated Press, divvied-up by section.

Comments

Your two cents just got a little more visibility. We now spotlight the best recent comments on the homepage—they appear to the right of our Today's Most Popular control, which also got a makeover. Click the By Comments link to see the 10 most talked-about stories, as determined by the number of comments they've received.

April 28, 2009

Comment Enhancements

We’ve updated the site to make comments more visible and more dynamic:

• Comments default open so it's easier to read them and post one yourself.
• You can now rate comments. Vote up comments you like. Vote down those you don’t.
• You can upload an avatar graphic to personalize your posts.

Media Section

We've created a separate section for media stories, from newspaper bankruptcies to Twittermania, Rush Limbaugh to Rachel Maddow.

February 26, 2009

Billboard Square

Newser’s home page has a new look: a larger square at the top left—we call it a billboard—that features several of the most compelling stories of the day. If something important happened earlier in the day, it will still be featured there, along with a selection of interesting finds you might otherwise miss as they move down the grid. The stories still have pop-up summaries, and the images in the billboard cycle just until you»ve seen them all once. But if you prefer the Newser grid without the new feature, you can turn it off. Just click Turn Off Billboard above the grid, or go to My Settings.

Social Networking Links

We’ve also created a Social Networks page. Use it to follow one or many of our Twitter accounts—we’ve made it customizable so that you only get the Newser tweets that interest you. Or, become a fan of Newser on Facebook. There are lots of ways to share Newser with your friends. Check it out!

January 5, 2009

Design Update and Streamlined Navigation

As you've probably noticed, we've given Newser a sleek design update. You'll see a newsier typography and color treatment. Most important, we've streamlined our navigation bar. It looks less cluttered, but we've actually added more ways to slice the news, in new drop-down lists.

• The HOME page continues to include all Newser summaries.
• The red tabs directly to the right of HOME take you to grids dedicated to stories dominating the news right now.
• The SECTIONS tab now houses our subject-matter grids—World, Arts & Living, Politics, etc.—in a drop-down menu.
• The HOT TOPICS tab features the most-frequently appearing topics from the past 48 hours. Browse the list for a snapshot of the subjects that are generating the most heat or click an individual topic to see a grid of related stories.
• Under the SOURCES tab you'll find the top news sources featured on Newser in the last 3 days.
• The MORE tab bundles some tasty extras, including local news and a link to Michael Wolff's Off the Grid blog.

December 4, 2008

Larger Videos

The news just got sharper and larger: Our new video player gives you an enhanced view of the late-night and late-breaking clips that everyone's talking about. Just click on the "View Larger Videos" link below the video on the story page to play in super-size mode.

October 30, 2008

Newser for your iPhone

Need to know what’s going on in the news while away from your computer? Newser’s got you covered. Now you can use your iPhone to access a sleek, easy-to-use version of our site, designed especially for the iPhone.

• Quickly read today's top stories
• Easily browse sections and pictures
• Share stories with friends

Best of all, it's free. Just go to m.newser.com from your iPhone, click on the (+) icon, and choose "Add to Home Screen." It's that simple.

Off the Grid

OFF THE GRID, written by Newser founder and Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff, is about why the news is the news. Here are the real motivations of both media and newsmakers. Here's the backstory. This is a look at the inner workings of desperate media, the inner life of the publicity crazed, and the true meaning of the news of the day.

Large Image Gallery

See the most influential and talked-about photos up close in our new Image Gallery. Just click on the "View larger images" link below the picture on the story page for a super-size look at each photo. Choose to view as a slideshow, or click on the thumbnails to the right to see an individual shot.

September 11, 2008

Change in Pop-Up
Summary Trigger

Responding to your complaints that summaries sometimes pop up by accident, we've made the area that triggers them more focused. Move your mouse over the word MORE, in the top left corner of each square, and they'll open.

Customize!

We've moved the settings for customizing your Newser experience to the home page to make them easier to access. In the customization panel, you'll find the most popular options to choose from, along with the ability to turn many features on or off.

Expanded Grid

Can't get enough of Newser's grid? Now you can make it as wide as your monitor will bear. You can add up to three additional columns in the customization panel.

Newser Widget

A shot of Newser on your web page will keep you in touch and entertained. Customize our widget's appearance and install it on iGoogle, Facebook, Pageflakes, or any other spot that could use a news pick-me-up.

August 28, 2008

Redesigned Pop-up Summaries

Our pop-up summaries—which allow you to see the first 60 words of each Newser summary without leaving the grid—just got cleaner and easier to read. You'll notice:

• New placement: The pop-up summary is now centered in the grid.
• Updated design: Sources are now right under the headlines, complete with logos. Text no longer wraps around pictures, for a quicker, clearer read.
• Easy off: Click the "Stop showing pop-up summaries" button, and they''ll no longer appear. To make them reappear, go to My Settings.

July 31, 2008

Story Page Updates

We've made two enhancements to our story page:

• In addition to images and video, you can now read the best quotes from a story. To see them, click on the quotes tab above the media box.
• We've moved our Editor Recommended links directly under our media box, making it even easier to access hand-picked related reading for each story.

The Section Formerly Known As Pundits...

Based on reader feedback, we’ve changed the name of our Pundits section to Opinion. You’ll still have the best opinion and analysis stories from all over the web at your fingertips.

June 11, 2008

Updated Navigation

We've added a second line of sections to our nav bar, to give users some new ways to slice the news.

• Major Stories becomes Must Reads: Stories we don't want you to miss, now on the second line.
• Gossip: Same great content, new location.
• NY Times: Need to know what's in the New York Times, but don't have time to linger? Newser culls the stories people are going to be talking about, and gives you a crisp summary of each on the dedicated NY Times grid.
• Best of the Glossies: So many magazines, so little time. Get a heads up on the most compelling stories by thumbing through our Glossies section. We give you the top line, and an idea what you might want to curl up with for a longer read.
• Best of the Opinion: You know the facts—now know what people are saying about them, by checking out our daily roundup of the best opinion, analysis, and commentary from all over the Web, housed in our Opinion grid.

A Story Page Shift

We've made a small change to the story page to relocate the Share and Print controls to the Comments bar directly below the story.

A New Addition
to the Grid

The first square on the grid will occasionally be used to highlight stories elsewhere on Newser, as well as new features and functions on the site. You will be able to control whether you would like the message to stay on, or be removed from the grid.

Local News

Now you can go to Newser for the latest news, and traffic reports for your region. Just off the grid, you’ll find the top stories from the best local sources in your choice of metro areas. Learn more.

April 22, 2008

Tell Us What
You Think

You asked for it, and we answered! By popular demand, you can now comment on stories featured on the site.

March 10, 2008

Design Updates

We've made several design changes to the most trafficked areas of our site to improve its performance and visual appeal:

• Crisp, white background: Our homepage and story pages are now brighter, more navigable and faster to load.
• Larger images in the grid: Photos are bolder, making it easier to find stories you're interested in.
• Summary of related news on story pages: Now we not only link to related news, but provide a summary of the associated article.

Must-Read Stories

Not enough time to read every story? No problem. Find news our editorial staff thinks you should not miss on our Major Stories page.

Breaking and Developing Stories

News is now featured as it's happening in colorful banners above the Newser grid.

See What You've Already Read

A new feature in the Newser grid makes it easier to see which stories you've already read and which you haven't.

New Sections for Crime and Gossip

To increase the breadth of our news coverage, we added two sections to Newser: Crime and Gossip.