Video Review: My Times Launches – Calacanis Gets a Semi-Default Feed

The New York Times has released their portal to the world. Named "My Times" it is basically the same type of portal that was around in the early Web 1.0 days except it has feeds and ajax'y goodness. There are several good reviews including:

• Silicon Alley Insider – Cool, But Ten Years Too Late
• Read/WriteWeb – Launches No-Frills Start Page
• Mashable – has more widgets and more options than the initial test
• TechCrunch – "MyYahoo"

This is a perfect start page for the average Internet user. As Richard says, it's no-frills. What it does is help to keep a NY Times web site visitor on the network as long as possible. More page views equals more ad impressions and that's what they need. This is similar to the LA Times and the USA Today "My" sites launched earlier this year.

There are a large number of semi-default feeds including the Jason Calacanis Weblog. I don't get this one at all. Outside of him, Jeff Jarvis is the only other individual listed. Jeff seems to be somewhat in the newspaper arena so maybe that one makes sense, but (and this is nothing against Jason) I don't understand why this blog is listed. I am sure there are more oddities in the other categories including some in the NY Region which are actually from California! It would be interesting to learn how all of the semi-default feeds are listed.

Here is my video review including commentary on the blog reviews I listed above (Warning: I get a bit fired up):