Friday, March 13, 2009

More Coolness: Taylor Barstow's Kick-Ass "NYTExplorer" Puts Google Itself To Shame.

Hey, check this out. It's called NYTExplorer, it's on the web at www.nytexplorer.com, and it's totally off the hook.

Here's how it works. You type in anything and up comes every mention of it in the history of the NYT. Off to the side comes a long list of refinements that let you narrow your search. Then narrow it again. And again. It's the kind of killer app that would make Google even more indispensible, but hey, they didn't think of it. A curly-haired web dude named Taylor Barstow, who works at a place called Firelight Labs in Cambridge, set it up.

We heard about it this afternoon from Martin A. Nisenholtz, himself a super-smart corporate type who has had some compelling things to say all week (in the NYT's "Talk To The Times" feature) about the NYT's plans, and the future of journalism and the web.

Okay, that's it with all the positive stuff. But when you try it for yourself, you'll see why we just had to stop NYTPicking for a few, and fill you in.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fantastic!
Now can we find out why we have to go to the WP to get a listing of recent Congressional votes? Unless I'm missing something, it's a NYT feature from the past.

Anonymous said...

Yes, you're missing something. Nytexplorer started in late February.

Anonymous said...

It's pretty rad, but like the NYTimes article search API which it pulls from, it only goes back to 1981.

Anonymous said...

Also, to pick nits, it would be nice if there was a choice between oldest first and newest first.

Anonymous said...

It's worth noting that NYT Explorer could not exist without the NYT article API. Give the NYT props for that.