New Shanghaiist Features: Contribute and Favorites

The techies in the Shanghaiist sweatshop sure have been busy. Today we get to introduce you to a bunch of new features and gadgets. Head on over to Shanghaiist Labs (that's where our techies like to hang out in the white lab coats) and we'll walk you though everything.

The first new page is Shanghaiist Labs: Contribute. This is what you can do there:

• Share Links: Using popular bookmarking website del.icio.us, you can tell other Shanghaiist readers about news stories, websites and other wonderful stuff on the internet that you think they might find interesting, entertaining or useful. All you have to do is tag a link with for:shanghaiist and it will automatically appear on our Contribute page. For information on how to get started, visit del.icio.us.
• Share Photos: Any photo you tag with shanghaiist on Flickr, our favorite photo sharing website, will automatically appear on this page, as well. (Shanghaiist readers have been doing this for a while now, but the Contribute page now replaces our old Photos page.)
• Share an Anonymous Tip: Is a car accident blocking traffic on Huaihai Lu? Is Zara having a big sale? Did you find out the yang rou chuan guy on your corner is really serving cat meat? Let Shanghaiist readers know!

The second new page is called Shanghaiist Labs: Favorites. Here is what goes on there:

• Most Recommended: The left column on this page ranks recent Shanghaiist posts by the number of "recommendations" they have received. How does a post receive recommendations? Good question. Check out the image at bottom of this post -- you will see that every post on Shanghaiist now has a "Recommend this!" link at the bottom. If you click on that link, that means you recommend that post to other Shanghaiist readers. Simple as that.
• Most Commented: This is kind of self-explanatory. In this column, recent Shanghaiist posts will be ranked by the number of comments they have received.

One other relatively new feature you may not have noticed: At the bottom of each post you will find a link that looks like [+]. This is our Linkage button (see image below). Place your cursor over that and you'll see links to popular link-sharing sites del.icio.us, digg, Yahoo! MyWeb and Technorati. If you liked the story you just read, use those links to share it with the rest of the global virtual community.

All of these Shanghaiist Labs features can be found in teaser boxes on the left column of every page on the site, as well.

One last thing: Don't forget about our other kind-of-new pages on the site, the Forum and our free Personals.

Enjoy! And let us know what you think.