US: NY Times opens ‘MyTimes’ to public

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on August 24, 2007 at 4:04 PM

After over a year in beta, NYTimes.com has opened its ‘My Times’ service to all registered users. It serves as an entertaining and sticky incentive for users to stay on the site and personalize their page.

My Times, still in its beta version, includes a few widgets such as the much-appreciated NYT Crossword, weather, or movie showtimes. Users can also add their own widgets.

Users can add bookmarks, look at journalist’ picks, or add their favorite sections or content to the page.

“My Times is not designed to take the place of the edited NYTimes.com front page. Instead, it literally is a service designed to keep people’s attention, making the site useful beyond its own news and stickier,” commented paidcontent.org, echoing the Times’ press release.

This can be in part explained by new metrics centered on time spent on websites.

Source: paidcontent.org