Fans of the "Share this story" function featured on every story page of roanoke.com now have three new social networks to use: Google Bookmarks, Facebook and Reddit. Each Web site offers unique ways to share content published on our site with friends, family and complete strangers.

We've also reworked the functionality for sharing stories with some of the existing social networking sites. Users should now have to fill in less fields than before with some services, Digg being one.

If you haven't explored the use of the "Share this story" function, I encourage you to give it a try. All of the social networking sites are free to use, and all offer value for staying informed -- Digg, Newsvine, Reddit, Technorati -- while others can improve productivity -- del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia, Google Bookmarks and My Yahoo! Facebook is, well, just for fun.

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• Posted by Patrick Beeson in New online features ::
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We've launched a Holiday page that combines a variety of content from different areas of the site into one (hopefully accessible and easy-to-find) section. The Holiday section features our Christmas Tree guide, holiday-related events from our calendar, a call to submit holiday-themed photos to our yourpix.roanoke.com site and our Google-based holiday lights map.

Take a look and let us know if you find it helpful. And if you're lighting up your house for the season, drop us a line to get listed on the map. Happy Holidays to all

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• Posted by john jackson in New online features ::
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Take a look at the home page of roanoke.com, and you'll find three new features prepared just in time for some holiday Web browsing.

The old "online exclusives" area has been made even more so with the latest blog entries and comments, as well as a redesigned space for the latest multimedia items. So I suppose these features aren't technically "new," but it feels that way doesn't it?

Use the horizontal scroll bar directly below the latest multimedia section to view additional items. Blog entries should flow in dynamically via the wonder of RSS -- subscribe to any of our feeds listed on the RSS index -- and we'll occasionally swap which blogs' comments are displayed. If you've ever wanted to grace the homepage of roanoke.com, just comment on a blog post and you'll get your chance.

As always, if you spot any problems with these features please post a comment on this blog, or send me an e-mail.

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• Posted by Patrick Beeson in New online features ::
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The TimesCast has gone international with a recent article on the South Korean news site busanilbo.com.

The article was penned after a journalist from that country visited The Roanoke Times to learn about the TimesCast and our other efforts online.

Make sure you check out the accompanying video interview with several members of our news staff.

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• Posted by Patrick Beeson in Multimedia ::
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OK, so I waited until the day after the day after to talk about our Election Day coverage. But it was a long night that bled into Wednesday.

In a nutshell, Roanoke.com broke some new ground on Election Day with the TimesCast Election Special. The plan was to provide some results and analysis and get it live quickly. Going in, there was no idea how many would be produced (I would have been happy with three). We ended up publishing 13 into the wee hours on Wednesday.

Lots of folks contributed, but special shout outs go to Lindsey Nair, Dwayne Yancey, Daine Vineyard, Seth Gitner and Hunter Wilson.

As with any experiment, we learned some things to apply the next time. Stay tuned for our next venture.

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• Posted by john jackson in Multimedia ::
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Since the official launch of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7, we've been working to get roanoke.com up-to-speed for users of this new browser.

If you've upgraded already, and see anything on our site that doesn't look correct, please post a comment here or send me an e-mail.

And if you haven't upgraded your browser lately, you have many excellent (and free) options to chose from: Firefox 2.0, IE 7 and Opera 9. If you're using a Mac, try Mozilla's Camino in addition to Apple's Safari browser.

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• Posted by Patrick Beeson in Technical issues ::
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Rob Curley, the brains behind Lawrence and Naples News' Studio 55, said his favorite newspaper site in the U.S. is roanoke.com.

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• Posted by Patrick Beeson in Editorial process ::
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