Times Wire

News junkies rejoice! Yet another way to get up-to-the-minute reports on what’s happening: the New York Times now offers its content in the form of Times Wire, a kind of “river of news” web-based flow that gives you headlines, the first line or two of the story, and a block of photos with popup text for those who like things pictorial. You’re able to fashion your own flow, to some extent (no tick box for law — why is that?), choose the business & technology tab, or elect to drink from the fire hose of “all news.”

There’s an RSS feed, of course. But clearly the Times wants you to stay on their web page because they’ve made the the thing update your browser window automatically, announcing, as you see in the graphic above, how many updates there have been in the last 20 minutes. As well, there’s a text clock beside each item giving you it’s “age.”

We can expect more of this sort of thing, as the traditional print media struggle to engage us through the internet and hold our fickle attention.