Friday, June 23, 2006

Around the Internets

Sometime today the new Chowhound format is being revealed...Chowhound is being integrated into CNET's Chow.com, and being totally modernized in the process. Since I'm a staunch traditionalist, I'm pretty sure I'll hate the new interface, but top dog Jim Leff couldn't have continued the site without a cash infusion, so kudos to him for finding a way to keep it going. Here's a Wall St. Journal article describing some of the changes to come.

New York Times writer Cindy Price came to Hollywood and did a fun piece on 36 Hours in Hollywood, without once setting foot in Citizen Smith, Memphis or any other annoyingly trendy spots. Speaking of trendy, the Times wouldn't let her include Lou because of the Manohla Dargis connection. Full disclosure: you can see a corner of my red hair in the video portion while we eat breakfast at Square One, but thank goodness, not my face.

Travel videos seem to be the thing these days -- Cindy was asked to do one as part of her NY Times article -- and here's a site devoted to videos about different cities. TurnHere currently covers Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, with videos on subjects such as Pink's Hot Dogs, the L.A. River and Koreatown.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i love lou's....... its the best new wine bar...

KT said...

I actually like the new Chowhound--at least, I like it better than before. I was horribly worried, but I got a little sneak preview today and breathed a sigh of relief.

I'm still a little worried, because I know a bit about how CNET operates ... but, we'll see.

Anonymous said...

I can't vent on Chowhound ... but I don't tlike the new format.

I like having the larger font but it leaves much to be desired.

Anonymous said...

I just don't care. Chowhound continues to be the same handful of people, most of whom have their tastebuds in their toes, (Chowpatty excepted, of course).
Isn't there a forum for people who want great food but aren't overly concerned about low prices and huge portions?

Anonymous said...

The new interface, after several months of debugging, is an improvement. Nevertheless, the same overzealous moderation and cult of personality that have always marred Chowhound continue to this day. It just takes too much effort to guess which innocuous post will mysteriously displease the censor on duty at any moment. Chowhound claims to be "narrowly-focused," but "narrow minded" might be a better choice of words.