In an effort to diversify its reach to its customers the New York Times launched an experimental project website called Beta620. This website will harbor projects created by the team of New York Times and will also allow its readers to suggest ideas, try out these new projects. The idea is groundbreaking, but I don’t see it creating ripples, especially after the advent of myriads of websites with almost similar concept.
New York Times claims that this initiation will better its interaction with readers and would provide a platform for suggestions and breakthrough ideas. It is difficult to say that if the world’s largest newspaper website is trying to find extraordinary means to cater to its readers or is it just tracking the foot prints of a rat race, ever since Google launched Google Labs others have been following the trend under the name of innovation. At the moment Beta620 has a minimalistic look with only a few selected applications like TimeInstant, a space to invite suggestions and recommendations on the new happenings at Community hub and Crossword HTML5 Web Application hosted by New York Times and Community hub.
The TimeInstant application is a search engine which may garner some attention because of its simplicity and the urge of the readers to try out new applications. It is difficult to predict the future of this website as the competition is cut-throat or should I say the competition is Google Labs. It is safe to say that Beta620 is more or less a mock up of Google Labs and to make it equivalent to the latter the engineers of Beta620 await the feedback of its users.
