The New York Times is Awesome

I am a big fan of The New York Times (specifically the online version, in fact I cannot remember the last time I picked up a physical newspaper).  Interestingly The New York Times is one of the few websites that I have not subscribed to receive RSS feeds from (which considering the number of feeds in my Goolge Reader is quite impressive), the main reason of which is because I just really enjoy visiting the site.  I’ve been reading The New York Times almost daily now for about the past five years.  I first started reading it in college while I was working at the circulation desk in the library.  At this point in my life it has actually become a part of my daily morning routine, accompanied by my drinking of coffee.  On weekends I always try and stop by at some point to see if anything interesting has been reported.  Granted I don’t read every single article but I do tend to find several every day that I take an interest to.

While reading one article earlier today (which I wrote about in this blog post) I discovered a feature that I had never noticed before, that being if I highlight a word on the online New York Times I am provided with a little “?”  If I click on the “?” I will be promptly provided with the definition of the highlighted word (or if it is a well known personal or place a brief description of them will be given).  I think this is awesome.  Considering how often I visit The New York Times I have to assume that this is a relatively new feature (or I am forced with the possible reality that I am just not that perceptive).  All and all a cool little feature that can potentially help a reader out.  I am of the type who likes to know what a word means if I don’t know it and this saves me time from having to navigate or open a tab for another page like Dictionary.com or the OED.

~ by Nathaniel on October 22, 2008.