Archive for the 'general' Category

itsmynews.com use increases dramatically

Friday, July 20th, 2007

itsmynews.com is experiencing explosive growth, thanks to all of you out there. itsmynews.com is now in the process of migrating to more powerful servers, with a top tier hosting/co-location company.

Over the next couple of weeks, the migration will complete. By the first week of August 2007 we will be up and running on our new servers. Please be patient and understanding in the meantime, as we work extremely hard to better your itsmynews.com experience.

As the new servers come up, you will also see many improvement, as well as new functionalities.

Thank you all for making itsmynews.com a success - please continue to support us and spread the word.

The entire itsmynews.com team

itsmynews.com adds “site of the day”

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

itsmynews.com has added a new feature!

Everyday, a “site of the day” will be featured on the itsmynews.com homepage. It is a selection from our editorial staff: interesting news and information sites; sites which broke stories in the recent past; sites we feel carry the spirit of accessible information for all; sites with new feeds available…

You get the idea.

itsmynews.com “site of the day” appears below - so you can quickly find it on your next visit:

site-of-the-day.jpg

The “site of the day” appears by default on the itsmynews.com entry page; once you log in to your account, if you want to see the “site of the day” on your page, do the following:

click “add content to this tab”:

site-of-the-day-add-content.jpg

In the drop down menu, click “add services”:

 site-of-the-day-add-service.jpg

The “site of the day” is at the top of the list. Just click on “site of the day” and it will be added to your current tab. Of course, as with every other selection, it will be automatically updated. You will find our editors’ choice everytime it changes.

Another great idea and design from the itsmynews.com team!

Enjoy.

itsmynews political tab

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

itsmynews.com has just added a default “US Politics” tab to its entry page.

This new tab features:

The caucus section of The New York Times, the Politics section of the Washington Post, the WSJ Washington Wire and the Daily Kos blog among others.

As with any itsmynews.com tab, you can add and remove feeds from it; and if politics are not your thing, you can completely remove it. See some of the previous posts for clear guidelines and instructions on how to do this.

Of course, I would not recommend the latter. What you are seeing today is but the tip of the iceberg; the new “US Politics” tab will soon bring an INTERACTIVE feature which EVERYONE will want to check out.

As soon as this feature becomes available, the new “US Politics” tab will also appear as a default tab in your personnalized interface (after you log in). I understand from our team of developers this new INTERACTIVE feature will become available in the next week or so; Keep checking out itsmynews.com for developments. Keep reading these posts for announcements.

itsmynews.com - your online source for personal growth through information… and some fun coming soon.

Chicklet…

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

In a recent post I announced that itsmynews.com had made available a button to simplify adding your own feeds to the itsmynews.com database. What I did not know then, but know now, is that such a button is called a CHICKLET(see the last entry in this link).

So let me rephrase:

itsmynews.com has recently added a chicklet to allow for easy addition of a site’s feed to its database!

Try itsmynews.com’s new chicklet and find out how it will drive traffic to your site.

We all learn something everyday, and itsmynews.com is the perfect place to keep on learning! 

How to delete widgets from your IMN page

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

To delete widgets you do not want from your itsmynews.com page, just look at the upper right hand corner of any widget. There is an icon there - an x within a circle, highlighted in red in the image below :

imn-widget-close.jpg

 Just left click on the circled X - and voila!

The widget disappears…

itsmynews.com makes it easy to publish your RSS feed…

Tuesday, May 8th, 2007

itsmynews.com has just released its “+ itsmynews” code. this will allow anyone to create a button to add their RSS feed - or feeds - to the itsmynews.com database. Just place the code on your site, blog or other, and it will  create the button below:

itsmynews.jpg

This button code was generated from the following page:

http://www.itsmynews.com/create_button.php, which looks like this:

 

 button-code-generation.jpg

Just follow the link and the instructions. In no time, you will add the RSS feeds from your site to the itsmynews.com database. This will make your site accessible to all our users.

Spread the word.

How to add a TAB to your page

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

itsmynews.com wants you to organize your information the way that works for you. At the top of the itsmynews.com default page, under the “banner”, you see 3 TABS.

GENERAL - default TAB. You find yourself in this TAB when you first enter itsmynews.com. Default news stories and sources are loaded. You can add to these by following the instructions in a previous post, “How to add content…”.

Today’s top stories - A second TAB, which is self explanatory.

Add a tab - Here is where the magic happens.

See illustration below:

add-tab1.jpg

Left click the “Add a tab” TAB, and a new TAB appears. Its name is highlighted and you can now name it whatever you want. Just type in the new name:

add-tab2.jpg

I have chosen “My stuff”:

add-tab3.jpg

When done typing, just hit enter or click anywhere in the page. Anywhere that is not a link, that is… Here is your new TAB:

add-tab4.jpg

You can select to navigate to the new TAB by left clicking on its name. You can then add content to this TAB, according to your needs and desires - just peek at the previous post “How to add content…” for instructions.

Enjoy your customized itsmynews.com page.

How to add content to your itsmynews.com page

Thursday, April 26th, 2007

itsmynews.com is menu driven. It is as easy as “point & click” to add the content you like to your page. We have about 50,000 sources of information.
Look at the top left hand corner of the itsmynews.com page - whether you are logged in (a registered user - see previous post) or not - 3 lines below the itsmynews logo. You will find the “+ Add content to this tab” link - as shown below:

add-content.jpg

Left click on the orange “+ Add content to this tab” link. The following menu appears:

add-content2.jpg

This menu allows you to select where the content you want to add comes from. You can choose four different ways to add content (plus the “ADD SERVICE” item which we will get to in another post):

“BY MEDIA PROPERTY” - If you left click on this item, a list of all the newspapers, magazines, blogs etc. which are in our database appears. They are listed in alphabetical order. You can then navigate to the newspaper, magazine, blog, web site of your choice. Please refer to the illustrations below:

add-content3.jpg

The alphabetical list shown is one letter at the time. In the above illustration, it is the letter A. As you can see, there is a scroll bar immediately to the right of the names which appeared. Individual letter lists can be very large and you will need to use the scroll bar to navigate to the bottom of the list.

Find the name of the “MEDIA PROPERTY” you are looking for in our list. If it doesn’t appear, let us know and we will do our best to add it. Once found, left click the name. Another menu appears - as illustrated below:

add-content4b.jpg

There is only one category in this new menu in the above illustration. There could be many. By left clicking the category of your choice, you will get another menu. This menu may give access to sub categories. Or it may list the available items (feeds) to add to your page. If another menu of categories/sub categories appears, just left click the category/sub category you want to add from, until you get a choice of items (feeds) to add. Please refer to the illustration below:

add-content5.jpg

Just checkmark the items you want to add and click “save”

The dialogue box disappears. Your new item loads in the tab you’re on.

We started by focusing on the “+ Add content to this tab” sub menu: BY MEDIA PROPERTY.

As mentionned, earlier, there are three more (plus “ADD SERVICES” which we will get to later):

BY TOPIC, BY MOST POPULAR, and ADD YOUR OWN. These are all menu driven, as above. They give you alternative ways of selecting information you want on your itsmynews.com page.

BY TOPIC lists the categories and sub categories mentionned above, first. It then offers a list of newspapers, magazines, blogs web sites etc. which offer these categories.

BY MOST POPULAR lists the most popular feeds into each categorie. From the categories, you can choose the information you want to appear in your customized itsmynews.com page.

ADD YOUR OWN allows more advanced users, who know what an RSS feed is (definition), to add feeds by url. If you do not know what an RSS is, do not worry about this feature. As you get more comfortable with itsmynews.com, you may want to revisit this.

Regardless of how you add content to your itsmynews.com page, the process is always the same. Just refer to this posting to refresh your memory.

Enjoy itsmynews.com, and customize your information.

You can repeat this process as often as you want.

To keep yourself and your information organized, itsmynews.com gives you TABS. As with everything on your page, TABS are customizable.

Watch for another post on how to create new tabs and edit their content.

What is the advantage of registering

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

Unregistered users can customize their page at will. Registered users can save their customization, and access their itsmynews.com page from ANY internet connected computer.

Click on the register button on the top of the page. We ask only four pieces of information : a valid email address, a screen name you want to use, a password and a valid zip code.

That’s it.

Now you can check your news selections from any computer connected to the internet, anywhere in the world.

Itsmynews beta is live

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

Two years ago, we came up with and developped a web based RSS aggregator. Initially, it was Flash based. We never released it as a public beta. Ajax came along and we felt the need to redevelop itsmynews.com (concept name). To achieve this, money was necessary. We approched venture capitalists with our Flash beta and our new plans. Redhills Ventures became our partner.

Less than a year later, itsmynews.com is live. It is your one source for information and news from disparate sources – be they newspapers, magazines, web sites, blogs, TV and radios. Our focus is news. We have compiled 50,000 sources, technically referred to as rss feeds but you don’t need to remember that. Our sources are from North American media companies. And the number is growing daily.
Menu driven, easy to navigate and intuitive, itsmynews.com does not ask you to have any technical knowledge. Just point, click and save to your customized page.

There are many next steps to improve itsmynews.com. We are working, for example, towards adding sources from various countries. And, the most important is to hear from you, our users. Tell us what you want.


Close
E-mail It