• TechCrunch, Wednesday, May 2, 2012 4:19 PM

Partly in celebration of its 30th birthday, The Weather Channel is personalizing and adding social elements to its website, with such features as a "social emergency broadcast system. When you see a severe weather alert on the site, you can instantly share it with your social networks to keep friends and family in the loop about your safety," writes Jordan Crook.

Weather forecasts -- personalized to one's locale and complete with graphics tied to weather conditions ("grey and rainy" when, yup, it's that way outside) "predict when it’s going to rain, and better yet, when it’s going to stop raining. TWC made it very clear that no one is doing this but the Weather Channel," writes Crook. (Um, maybe on the Web -- but isn't that a basic part of any weather forecast on any TV channel, too?)

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