Registered users on www.allarounddanville.com can not only be reporters and photographers, they can be editors. Clicking on myNews in the banner at the top of the screen will take you to your very own customizable news page.
When you first go to the page you’ll find a box showing the headlines and first lines of local news stories that appear on the Commercial-News website that day, but you don’t have to stop there.
Pretend you are an editor and have been given this blank page to build all of the elements of a news product that you want. No more reading over the parts you don’t care about. Click on Add Feeds. Here you will find folders with dozens of different news sources on a variety of subjects. You can choose from local feeds or national feeds. Danville Feeds gives you choices from the Commercial-News site including local news, obituaries, births, weddings, etc. National topics include Top News, National News, World News, Sports, Business, Opinion, Politics, Health, Science, Entertainment, New Media and Travel.
Let’s say you really like sports. Click on the sports folder and choose from feeds from ESPN.com, FOXSports News, SI.com, CBS Sportsline and Yahoo! News Sports. Click on any one to get a list of what the most recent stories are for that source and when you find the sources you like best, click Add to my page. Continue to choose feeds you like from that folder or from any others. As you add these feeds, they will show up in a box on your main myNews page. As news is updated on any of these sites, your news page will be automatically updated.
Now click on Add Widgets. Here you’ll find choices of other interesting features to include on your page. One choice is Epicurious Recipe. Click on this and say “yes” you want to add the gadget to your page. Now a box will appear showing a new tasty recipe each day. Add the Weather for your area, your Horoscope, a Daily Bible Verse, This Day in History, Movie Schedules, a Word of the Day or the game Tetris to name just a few.
If you are a Major League Baseball fan, track your favorite player with MLB Player Tracker. Trackers are available for NASCAR, Golf and Hockey too. You not only will see your favorite player’s photos and stats, but recent stories about them.
You can even add Live TV and receive streaming video from one of dozens of television stations around the world. Virtual Earth lets you put in any address and find a satellite photo of that spot.
Elements can be moved around on your page by clicking the grey bars at the top of each and dragging them to the spot you like best.
The best way to find what’s available is to jump in and play with the site yourself. If you fill up one page you can add other pages. It’s your virtual world.
