THE CANVEY BEAT underwent a major upheaval in 2010 when, in June, it was decided to move away from its original WordPress host and take advantage of the multi-media capabilities offered by Google’s BlogSpot. Unlike WordPress, BlogSpot provides full JavaScript support and also permits unrestricted advertising (which was a major consideration in the decision to move).
The Canvey Beat underwent a number of significant changes. Freed from WordPress restrictions, this Blog can now provide live coverage of interesting local and national events – as well as providing live links to all the breaking national and local news in its STOP PRESS column. And, instead of being confined to plain text and image content with hyperlinks, the new Canvey Beat can now provide full interactive access to supporting documents within its articles, together with full video hosting.
The old, static, WordPress Canvey Beat has become the new, fully interactive, media rich Canvey Beat of today whose Homepage has never been busier. Visitors can now scan the introductory paragraphs of its most recent pieces – instead of being confronted with a number of different articles to wade through – and select those they wish to read in depth via the ‘Read more…’ link.
In its side-columns, the Canvey Beat now provides a live STOP PRESS panel which is immediately loaded with all the latest breaking news from the main national newspapers; Essex County Council; Castle Point Borough Council; The Meteorological Office and any tweets containing the hash tags #canveyisland or #castlepoint. And local businesses can also ensure their tweets are available to Canvey Beat readers by including the hash tag #cbad.
For those wishing to remain on the chosen page, they can choose to have the STOP PRESS panel updated in real-time – and, while that is happening, they can choose to investigate the local weather; use the Local Newsreel widget to focus in on one of its five main topics to obtain the latest from Google’s News Database; check-out the local Echo’s RSS feed – or travel to the bottom of the page for video based news and entertainment coverage.
In addition to providing advertisers with Google’s latest statistics for this Blog – and access to the Canvey Beat’s RSS feeds for guests – the bottom of each page now contains a YouTube video feed containing UK News; film trailers; the latest viral ads; more party tricks (as requested) and local videos containing the keywords: Canvey Island, Benfleet, Hadleigh, or Thundersley. (Each individual topic is replaced by another every 30 seconds). Local video producers can have their YouTube videos automatically presented on the Canvey Beat by including one or more of those town names in their video’s tags.
A lot has happened to the Canvey Beat over the past six months; but its mission has never changed. The Canvey Beat continues to strive to make the significant interesting and relevant for its loyal and regular readers.
Thank you for visiting the Canvey Beat in 2010, and continuing to make it your Homepage for 2011…
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