• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, April 4, 2006

Faced with intense competition from rival news sites and Web portals, The New York Times expanded its Web site's horizons on Monday, debuting a widened and cleaner page layout; a further embrace of multimedia, blogging, and "favorites" features; and a new "topics" section, which gives topics broached by the Times--from Madonna to Mars--their own multimedia pages.

What's more, the Times this month will gradually begin inviting members to create their own "My Times" pages--a service that directly challenges the threat posed by news aggregators and Web portals like Yahoo News and Google News. As with such services, Times members will be able to personalize their pages with favorite Times sections, and other news feeds from around the Web.

Beyond their standard access to Times archives, TimesSelect subscribers will also be able to tag stories on their "My Times" pages. The feature, dubbed "My File," is the first instance of the Times tapping the tagging phenomenon that is generating so much excitement among Web developers, bloggers, and other proponents of collectively influenced Web sites. Tagging, also known as bookmarking, is a popular way for Web communities to locate, classify, and/or rank Web content.

In part because the additional space on the page lets the Times fit in more ads, the redesign should prove especially appealing to advertisers, according to Alyson Racer, the site's vice president for sales. "We're using more what we call half-page ads and advertisers have a wider palette to work with," said Racer.

In addition to giving video its own clearly defined section, the redesigned site also carries video right on the home page--a particularly coveted spot for advertisers. Added Racer: "There're much, much more inventory--advertisers definitely have a big thirst for that," referring to online video.

Responding to its readership, the Times is expanding its "favorites" feature beyond "Most E-mailed," to include "Most Blogged," "Most Searched," and "Most Popular Movies." "It became the most popular feature on our site--the "Most E-mailed" section," said the site's product manager, Rob Larson.

Larson said the redesign would not have been possible without Web engineer Philippe Lourier, who the Times brought on board late last year when it acquired his company, BlogRunner. "He's been core to the creation of the site."

What caught the Times' attention--according to Martin Nisenholtz, senior vice president of digital operation at the Times--was AnnotatedTimes.com, a site that Lourier created, which aggregates New York Times articles with blog posts that link to them.