Facebook is announcing many of its new features today, and some news organizations are wasting no time in integrating and testing them. Nieman Lab reported that Washington Post has integrated Facebook in a new tool that let’s users see how their friends have interacted with a story. It is part of Facebook’s latest push to be connected and integrated throughout the Web in a way beyond what Facebook Connect allowed.

With South by Southwest Interactive Conference beginning, there’s been a lot of talk about who will take the reign in location-based services and apps. With Twitter rolling out its new geotagged tweets and Facebook on the verge of allowing users to share their location, the spotlight and pressure seems to be on the likes of Gowalla and Foursquare. Both have rolled out some significant updates recently, but who will take the lead?

CNN thinks it will be Foursquare. I was interviewed for the article and had these thoughts:

“I think it’ll be a while before it really reaches a mass audience,” said Vadim Lavrusik, a tech journalist, social-media consultant and graduate student at Columbia University.

“For us techies, we sometimes tend to exaggerate how quickly these things are going to grow because everybody in our circles is using it. But that doesn’t mean the general public is using it.”

Still, he said many of the criticisms he’s heard about Foursquare are eerily similar to the ones he heard from people saying Twitter would never take off.

“People say, ‘Why would people want to know where I’m at? Will my friends actually come and join me if they’re on it?’ ” he said. “I say, ‘If they’re on it, yeah, they will.’ “

Would love to hear what you think?

• ESPN

  http://lavrusik.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/ESPN.jpg

• NiemanLab

  http://lavrusik.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/NiemanLab.jpg

• skynews

  http://lavrusik.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/skynews.jpg

• Reuters

  http://lavrusik.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Reuters.jpg

• Atlantic Wire

  http://lavrusik.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Atlantic-Wire.jpg

• DNAinfo

  http://lavrusik.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/DNAinfo1.jpg

• CNN

  http://lavrusik.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/CNN.jpg

CNN recently redesigned its website and went with a richer, brighter red for its header. It had some red before (after all it’s their brand), but now the header pops bright. Reuters released its redesign today with a rich red for its logo in the header. And even the NYC-based hyper local start-up DNAinfo.com went with a red too.

Not sure if this is a trend, and my Web designer and entrepreneur friend Shane Snow tells me that blue has always been the popular choice and red has typically been the second favorite. There are plenty of news sites out there that incorporate a blue palette like the Miami Herald. But maybe red is on the rise in news Web design? Maybe it’s the power-tie in Web design. Just something to ponder.

Cody Brown, the founder of NYU Local and Kommons, pointed out on Twitter another example of the Atlantic Wire using bright red and thinks it is becoming somewhat a trend.

Craig Kanalley, the traffic and trends editor at the Huffington Post, also posted an example on Twitter of Breaking News, which uses red. Then there’s also Skynews.com, but as Kanalley points out, they used a lot of black to offset the bright red.

Also, there is Newsweek and NiemanLab.

What are some other examples you’ve seen out there? Let me know, and i’ll include them in the gallery.

Excerpt from my Mashable post from today:

Though Twitter Lists are new to most users, some news organizations are trying to stay ahead of the curve by taking advantage of the new feature and implementing it quickly. Whether by creating staff directories to make their journalists easier to find, or recommending tweeps to follow on specific subjects, Twitter lists are giving news sites the ability to curate news and further open up to Twitter users that can help them to gather news. News () organizations are beginning to learn the fundamental characteristic of social media: it’s social.

(Apologies for the break in blogging. I have been in the process of moving from Minnesota to NYC. Moving is not fun.This is excerpt from a blog post I wrote for the Online Journalism Blog that summarized the findings of my thesis study on 10 local news sites. Read the first of three posts in full here. Aside from this series, I will have several other posts this week that might strike your fancy.)

Though local news sites have expanded their production of content and made great strides in technological advances on their video platforms, they haven’t exactly reached the next threshold or industry standard in online video. In many cases, this “standard” is being set by media giants like CNN and user-generated social media sites like YouTube. In fact, a recent study shows that watching online video is more popular than Facebook or Twitter. The trend is continuing in that direction and the time spent watching online video has increased as well. And with YouTube now getting into the local news business with its News Near You feature that will grab news clips from sources that are 100 miles from your computer’s IP address, local news organizations should worry.

Many of the local news sites are still experimenting and beginning to define the type of video content they would like to produce. Below are lessons learned from a thesis study that examined how 10 local news sites in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, USA market used online video. The conclusions made here, are also gathered through interviews of editors at the respective organizations (Note: Several did not want or could not appear for publication as a result of organizational policies). The full study can be found here (beware it is about 60 pages in length). Here are the sites studied: