Launching of website - The New Social Times

**NickH** · 11-13-2011 09:05 PM

How are you guys doing? This past week I launched a web startup (The New Social Times) with a close friend of mine and I'm quite glad to announce it here in the forum because this place has been a great source of inspiration throughout this entire process.

The website is thenstimes.com

About the site:
The New Social Times is a way for users to use social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) to follow their news. Think Tweet Deck meets The Huffington Post. By visiting the site and clicking on a story, a user can use the entire social media landscape to discover what's trending across the web about a particular topic. We realized over the previous year that people are beginning to use social media to follow their news & interests more so than conventional methods like online publications. The concept of the site is to put all of these sources in one basket. Why visit 10 sites to check out something interesting when you can just use one?

We have great expectations for the website and look forward to implementing a lot of cool features. We're sure you will find the site interesting and welcome your feedback.

Please, I welcome you all to check the website out and have a feel of it. Thanks for your time. It's greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,
Nick

**ksam** · 11-13-2011 09:52 PM

Hi Nick,

It's a great concept but a few things I'm a concerned:

1) I don't really know what your site offers when I get there. It seems like a news site but the text in the middle is annoying enough to make me leave the site right away.

2) I'll have to flip a page for one news. Most of the times I'm not interested in the news (cuz it's not categorized enough). I will probably leave the site after a few news that I'm not interested in. Maybe it is better to separate the news into different category so that I can go into the categoy that I'm interested in (World, Sports, Life style ... etc.)

3) I'm not sure if you can capture more news than yahoo so that I'll leave yahoo news for your site.

Good sites tho but I believe it needs a few twists here and there to make it work. Good luck!!

Sam

**NickH** · 11-13-2011 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by ksam

Hi Nick,

It's a great concept but a few things I'm a concerned:

1) I don't really know what your site offers when I get there. It seems like a news site but the text in the middle is annoying enough to make me leave the site right away.

2) I'll have to flip a page for one news. Most of the times I'm not interested in the news (cuz it's not categorized enough). I will probably leave the site after a few news that I'm not interested in. Maybe it is better to separate the news into different category so that I can go into the categoy that I'm interested in (World, Sports, Life style ... etc.)

3) I'm not sure if you can capture more news than yahoo so that I'll leave yahoo news for your site.

Good sites tho but I believe it needs a few twists here and there to make it work. Good luck!!

Sam

Hey Sam -

Thanks for checking us out.

1) Our site is a way to use social media to follow your news. We're not intending to compete with larger news publications. The point is to offer a full spectrum of the entire social media experience via news. If you clicked on a story about...let's say Manny Pacquiao, you would see what everyone on Facebook & Twitter we're saying regarding the fight; every YouTube video connected to the story and all of the related articles from major publications. Most conventional news publications don't do this.

2) You can access the story by clicking on whatever story/image you're interested in. You can toggle between the top ten by using the arrows on the side or the arrow on the bottom.

3) We plan to implement search in the immediate future. So users will be able to find their own social media results.

**DigitalPalette** · 11-14-2011 01:29 AM

The loading in the middle might throw some people off. Also this is more web 2.0 of an idea so the current dark design doesn't suit it as well as say a white/light green or blue.

Cool idea but there are many news feed apps for facebook as of now.

**kappaknight** · 11-14-2011 02:08 AM

I think Flipboard already does a great job with this - and your service doesn't appear to be easier to use than that.

**NickH** · 11-23-2011 09:51 AM

Originally Posted by kappaknight

I think Flipboard already does a great job with this - and your service doesn't appear to be easier to use than that.

Well, I appreciate the honesty. I actually use Flipboard and have done so for a while, however there are a few differences between the two.

Flipboard is basically a micro version of what we're doing. It lets you put together a social magazine compiled of different news topics from a variety of mediums (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Like one story from NYTimes, one interesting newsfeed from Twitter, etc.

The New Social Times is a macro view of social media. Our site lets you see what everyone is saying across multiple mediums about one topic. Like the Republican Debate last night in Washington. We would offer real-time commentary from Facebook, Twitter; video feeds from YouTube and articles from reputable publications all on that story.

All this said, I still want to thank you for taking the time to go to the site.

Nick,
The New Social Times
thenstimes.com

**Mabu** · 11-23-2011 10:43 AM

I like the idea; however, I would do couple changes to your site...

1) If possible I would change your font to either Verdana, Arial, or Calibri which are more common for news pages. Your current font looks kinda boring for me and seems like an unnecessary advertising.

2) Make your website design more professional and follow Digital's design tips.

3) Let people know what your site is all about on your first page

It's a great idea and may get you somewhere...

**NickH** · 11-23-2011 02:57 PM

Originally Posted by Mabu

I like the idea; however, I would do couple changes to your site...

1) If possible I would change your font to either Verdana, Arial, or Calibri which are more common for news pages. Your current font looks kinda boring for me and seems like an unnecessary advertising.

2) Make your website design more professional and follow Digital's design tips.

3) Let people know what your site is all about on your first page

It's a great idea and may get you somewhere...

Thanks for the input. I bolded this one because I keep receiving this response from different sources. I thought I did a good job (about section, description) explaining the purpose of the site but, I guess I need to look into to making it more noticeable. Again, I appreciate you taking the time to check us out.

Nick
The New Social Times
thenstimes.com