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One New York Times Website Trick You May Not Know About

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This is a guest post by Aseem Kishore, a technology enthusiast and lead blogger for Online-Tech-Tips.

I get my daily news from multiple sources, and my favourite online news source is the New York Times simply because it has the most well-written and engaging articles. Also, they cover just about every topic under the sun in great detail.

The New York Times is not only a great way to get news, it’s also a great learning tool. You can do everything from reading product reviews of digital cameras from CNET to researching stocks and mutual funds. You can also find jobs, find real estate, and look for new and used cars!

However, there is one feature of the New York Times Website that I just love. It’s is probably the most useful out of all the features on the site. So what is this great feature, you ask?

Go to the New York Times website and click on any article to read it. Now read it until you hit word that you don’t know or understand. If you want to get more information on that word, simply double-click on it! Yes that’s it! You can get the definition of any word by just double-clicking on it. That’s probably the neatest feature ever!

Once you double-click on a word, a pop-up window will appear that automatically passes that variable to a search query against Answers.com/Reference. You get the dictionary definition always, and depending on the term, you will get other information that is related.

For example, I double clicked on the word synapses and I got a pop up with a dictionary definition along with links to jump to the Columbia Encyclopedia entry for the word, a Science dictionary and Medical dictionary definition also! Now that’s cool!

Double clicking on a different word will pull up different resources, along with the definition. For a tech person like me, this is a great use of newer web technologies.

Get personal computing tips, tech news, software reviews and more by subscribing to Aseem’s blog at Online-Tech-Tips.com.

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Written by Shankar Ganesh

May 2nd, 2008 at 8:58 am

Posted in how to

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  • http://techmalaya.com Syahid A.

    That’s cool! Looks like the NYT is giving their readers a quick way to improve their vocab while reading news.

  • http://www.online-tech-tips.com Aseem Kishore

    Syahid, that’s exactly what I said when I did it the first time!! All news and research sites should have a feature like this. I wonder how they did it though!

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com Shankar Ganesh

    Yep, I’d love to see more news sites embracing new web 2.0 stuff. The BBC, for instance, seems to be improving their site these days. There’s a start page on the BBC website where you can add modules customize according to your interests.

    Can only wish more news sites follow. Most of them are trying to improve though.

  • http://www.nirmaltv.com Nirmal

    I think this feature can be implemented in all websites, there is a plugin or code for it. I had tried it on my blog last year.

  • http://www.aravindjose.com Aravind

    That’s great.
    I love it.
    It’s always nice to have a handy-quick-reference

  • http://blogote.com Rockstar Sid

    I think they are using the linking method.. But extensive each word linking is really tough i guess.

    They must have spent millions of that!

  • http://www.sizzledcore.com Haris

    Interesting. Never knew about this.

  • http://www.nirmaltv.com/2008/05/02/how-to-enable-answertips-on-your-blog/ Enable Word meanings on Double click

    [...] one of my friend Aseem has written an article on KillerTechTips where he has mentioned about a feature in Newyork times by which you can get the meaning of any [...]

  • http://www.whoismadhur.com Madhur Kapoor

    This is good. I should start checking out New york times

  • http://www.techzilo.com Sumesh

    It is probably achieved using a JavaScript file or function…Does look neat indeed.

    Nice to see you here, Aseem.

  • http://www.online-tech-tips.com Aseem Kishore

    Sumesh, good to be here too! I’ve been working on utilizing time better, so I can stay in touch with the tech community. Full time job, family, and blogging is tough!

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com Shankar Ganesh

    @Arun: Yep I love that extension and I’ve used it on Firefox 2. But it’s not compatible with Firefox 3 Beta 5 at the moment, and since I’m using it, I need to wait :(

  • http://twopeasconsulting.com Dave Lalande

    We released a website in partnership with PR Newswire (United Media) using a similar technology we filed a patent on a while ago. We have a news site called http://www.tipmynews.com and recently we rolled two iPhone applications that use the technology, http://www.tipmyphone.com and http://www.tipmynews.com/iphone

    We are in the process of rolling additional apps. You will find that our technology is superior to what the NY TImes is doing because we allow you to search ANY Internet domain including the NY TImes or even your own Website.

    We did a sit down with a New York TImes owned news paper and some of their people many months ago. I guess they liked the idea…

    Our technology should work on any browser, BTW.

    Check it out.

  • http://www.online-tech-tips.com Aseem Kishore

    Dave, it’s pretty cool…but it’s very annoying…for some reason every word in the entire article is a link. The New York Times feature is much more subtle and a lot less in your face. I like the whole idea of using any site you want, but the entire post or article being converted into a link is definitely not something I would use.

  • http://www.reviewsaurus.com/tips-tricks/link-attack-on-fellow-bloggers/ Link attack on fellow bloggers! | ReviewSaurus – The Techie Dino!

    [...] Aseem kishore tells that why he loves new york times at Killer Tech [...]

  • http://datafox.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/itip-iphone-press-releases-or-tipr-has-a-twist/ TIP iPhone Press Releases or TIPR has a twist « A Mind’s Diet

    [...] back to the app, did anyone happen to upon Killer Tech Tips’ post about Thiings you didn’t know about the New York Times?  If you didn’t you might want to read it.  It sounds a lot like TIPS but just for their [...]

  • Sharla McBride

    Here are the facts and what is really annoying about this new linking technology currently being used on the New York Times, and CBS news webites – It does not work.

    The New York Times and CBS news were sold an old clunky java script that does not work at all on PDA’s, Apple IPhone, Blackberries and chokes on most web browsers giving bizarre results!

    A real programmer would write this code via a inline compiler not a web 1.0 unstable java.

    The only in line text technology that works on moible phones and most web browsers is TIPP, the only in line technolgy that allows you to pick your search source on the fly is TIPP, the only in line text technology that allows you to convert ANY WEB SITE to a in line text site is TIPP.

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  • http://blogcreativity.com Sumesh from Blog Creativity

    Congratz on hitting 2k subscribers, Shankar…

    Finally ;)

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com Shankar Ganesh

    @Sumesh: Yep, thanks :D

  • http://www.askTheAdmin.com AskTheAdmin | Karl Gechlik

    Great find! I will use this daily.

    Warm geeky regards,

    Karl “TheAdmiN” Gechlik

  • http://www.intowindows.com Tweakwindows

    Interesting information.Thanks.

  • http://traxru.com CrinnaLeafe

    гиг порно

  • http://www.newyorkshotell.se/wall+street+-+financial+district/ Staten Island

    Think autumn or spring for that matter in New York. Its not to warm or not to cold just wonderful weather and having the chance to walk around in New York and take in all the sites, such as Central Park. It can’t get much better than that.