New HuffPost Features: More of What You Come Here For

From the beginning, HuffPost has worked to bring our users the most dynamic mix of breaking news and opinion possible -- and to use the latest technology available to improve the user experience, and to bring you more of what you come here for.

With this goal in mind, we are rolling out a number of new features that will continue to make HuffPost a go-to web destination for up-to-the-minute news and fresh takes on the stories everyone is talking about.

For starters, we know that our readers have always loved the rapid updates on HuffPost's front page, so we've switched over to an Ajax interface that lets our stories and images load faster -- making the site more vibrant, and the updates more seamless. No more clicking and waiting for the site to refresh; the latest news stories, blog posts, and comments now automatically appear on the page.

We've also upgraded our Quick Read feature, which allows you to get the gist of a story without clicking to a new page. Now, when you open a Quick Read box, you are also shown four other stories that your fellow HuffPost readers have been drawn to -- and you can rapidly check out each of those stories without ever leaving the Quick Read box you initially opened. If you've never used the Quick Read feature, give it a try.

HuffPost's upgraded Quick Read feature

And we've added a "Most Popular on HuffPost" feature on the right hand side of every section's home page that allows you, at a glance, to see the hottest stories and blog posts from the last few days. It's continually updated and showcases a rotation of the top 12 HuffPost pieces at any given moment. And if you have your own blog site, you can add our Most Popular widget to it.

Of course, since these changes have been made with you in mind, we want to hear what you think of them -- good and bad. Let us know by sending an email to [e-mail].

Thanks again for reading, posting, talking back, and being such an integral part of what we do. And if you haven't made HuffPost your home page, you can do so by clicking here.

Comments

[godlessclif]

Feature? We don't need no stinking features.
We come here to bash Huckabee.

[Lemeritus]

Coming to you from Mozilla Fozfire where I have taken refuge after nearly a week of trying to get HuffPo to work on IE7. I'm a stranger in a strange lang without my bookmarks and other accoutrement, but -- hey -- whatever it takes!

[lastams]

Adriana, without detracting from the site, it might be nice to have at least one conversation about what is going on in Washington, today, right now, instead of what may or may not happen should we elect so and so.

Anyone interested in seeing what your elected representatives are up to should take a moment and look over the following bills passed and sent to the President this week.
HR 2764 is a HALF TRILLION omnibus spending bill which includes 70 billion to continue the wars in Iraq and Afganastan. The pork spilling out of this one is said to be disrupting holiday traffic on the beltway.

In addition, the President was finally sent HR 1585, which contains the so-called National Guard Empowerment Act. What the legislation does is EMPOWER the President to use YOUR National Guard as he sees fit by making it a division of the Department of Defense.

Incidently of the six Senators not voting on the spending bill, five of them happen to be running for President.

[Beatitudes]

I enjoy Huffpost and have not had problems....I must be lucky!
but one suggestion: how about featuring some ordinary folks out in America once and a while instead of celebrities and talking head people - not that I don't enjoy their "takes" on what's happening. Yes, I know we can post our opinions about the opinions, but what about a "citizen journalist" item.
Lyn LeJeune
Th Beatitudes Network-Rebuilding the Public Libraries of New Orleans at www.beatitudesinneworleans.blogspot.com

[duggie]

Am I the only one to notice that Huffpost gloms a BILLION cookies onto your computer? I have to dump cookies every day!

Also - I find the constant rapid updates annoying, since the "news" is hardly new anyway - and enough with the sex kitten stuff. I read the blogs.

[JohnJames]

The cicada metaphor is perfect. Thanks for a good laugh, Arianna. And just like cicadas they're easy to ignore until they crawl out from the ground and start peering bug-eyed into your face and hissing. Oh my God!, shriek the country club Republicans while sipping Courvoisier, who left the window open?! The Christian hicks have gotten in!

[Libsrule]

And something else, find out who is posting those "match up site" comments and have their IP address(es) completely blocked. They are so annoying.

As well maybe a "Troll" button so that after awhile those people are no longer allowed to post. There are currently about a dozen who post here regularly and it gets so annoying having to scroll through their dribbling drivel.

[ssg13565]

I am having two problems with the sign-in process.

The new sign-in process does not work with Firefox's
password vault. After I type in the password,
the vault wakes up and asks me for the password
vault's password. Even so, it never offers to fill in the
password for HuffPo.

After I login so I can post a comment, Firefox takes
me to the end of the page, but there is no entry
box for my comment. I have to push the refresh
button on the browser to get the comment box
to appear.

[Grulg]

Well it's nice to see the comments section is at least not telling me to login 33 times in a row, that's good. As for anything that should be changed or improved:

I agree w/ the others-deep six the 'Britney's kid sister is having tripletts' stuff, or shove it wayyyy to the back. That's-really a waste. As others said-you can get that 1000 other places.

[Nonamnesiac]

Dear Arianna,

With all due respect, I am disappointed you have not given massive coverage to the collaborating vote of the despicable Senate Democrats regarding funding the war. It seems that after all is said and done, Huffpo may just be another effort to keep progressives engaged in discussion so they Pavlov their way into salivating by voting for whichever of the three warmongerint frontrunners -- the 2013 triplets -- wins the Democratic nomination and rings the bell.

The Dems are the equal of the evils and just because there is an attempt to minimize the Dems murdering, barbaric vote doesn't mean it didn't happen.

You should highlight this point.

There should be no votes for warmongerers like anyone other than Kucinich or Richardson. If they don't win, no anti-war person should vote for either major party, regardless of the outcome.

[JTurn]

Alright, as far as speed or errors, I've had none.. Firefox 2.0, "fluff", I just say no, my personal opinion would be to exchange the "Entertainment" category in for the "Alternative" category (more reality), something for two different sides to "argue" over, that is the main reason I'm even here... comments, reading about what is supposedly the real world news and then hearing what "the people" have to say, if it wasn't for the comments here there would be no reason for me to stick around, there are millions of pages of "news" everywhere, all the time, having a community of people that don't always see things from the same perspective is key. As far as comments go, that scroll around to find my last comment (246 comments ago), or someone else's reply WILL get old quick, at least create a "bookmark" for my comments (I'll keep them on my computer), I understand you probably already have ridiculous "space" accounted for, but, that's just it, keep the house clean.... or, don't worry so much about the tree branches and leaves, just take care of the roots.... the tree will follow............ and speaking of roots, dig in deeper into the news, you may not get the traffic you desire from the whims but you will have a base, when the wind blows, you won't have to blink an eye, the people that live on fluff will drift away on a.... whim, the real thought kind of people will, well, think...... let me tell you about roots.....­..........­..........­..........­..........­..........­.......

[penalcolony]

Typical web thinking: "We're so busy getting better, we don't have time to do anything right." This is the slowest site I know of. Improving that would outrank any number of "new features."

[realitytrumpsbull]

This is about my favorite website, sometimes
it seems like it goes a little slow, and I had a couple errors too, couldn't finish loading
or something. But, the content is awesome!
I think they really get some good debates going in here, and it's good to get a multitude of
views and opinions on the issues, even if
they don't agree, maybe ESPECIALLY if they
don't agree. That's one of the great things
about The Internets, you'll definitely find
something you're practically GUARANTEED not
to agree with, and the discussion starts from
there. WAY better than 'talking head du jour'
with the Official Story.

Great website! Any chance of getting Ron Paul
or Dennis Kucinich to 'blog?

[Manx]

Lately, your site has been dreadfully slow and frustrating. Maybe it's related to all the changes?

I would like to see a section dedicated to the ENVIRONMENT in place of the Living or Entertainment sections. If we don't save the planet, all the other issues posted here will become irrelevant. I'd like to see more posts by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

[JohnKemp]

I sometimes find the HuffPo's selection of topics to be strange; too much attention to "fluff" & not enough to more pertinent issues.

Each Friday, rush has "Open Line Friday" in which the callers may talk about any subject they choose; one cannot be "off-topic."

I would suggest that the HuffPo try an "Open Line Blog" in which the posters could initiate any subject selection one so chose without having to worry about being "off-topic" as well as creating an avenue for posters to provide more interesting topics than are otherwise on the HuffPo at that particular time..