Welcome to the New Parent Previews

Last September the three of us agreed it was time to give Parent Previews a whole new look. Our current site (the one you saw prior to this one) was built on code written by over a half-dozen people over the course of just as many years. Needless to say it was a patchwork quilt of different approaches.

So, along with a fresh new design, we wanted to put a new foundation under the site as well. Fortunately I bumped into yet another incredibly talented guy, Conor Muirhead, who began cooking up what you currently see gracing your computer screen. From a “geek” perspective, what we have now is very exciting and flexible. But from your perspective, you can do a whole lot more at ParentPreviews.com. Let me fill you in on what’s new and what’s coming:

Commenting on movies and our reviews: Yes, we finally have reached Web 2.0! You can now leave your comments on all of our reviews. Tell us what you thought about the movie. We are especially interested in hearing parent-oriented remarks: Did it scare your six-year-old? Did you learn something cool from the script? Let us know. We screen all comments to make sure they are in keeping with our family-friendly standards, so you’ll see your words of wisdom appear after a short delay.

Memberships: No worries—it won’t cost you money. But a membership on our site will provide you with access to many new features, like the ability to comment on reviews (noted above). You’ll also be able to receive our new newsletter (due to begin sometime in June 2009), participate in contests and loads of other cool stuff we have in the works. So don’t be shy. Sign up for a membership. All we need is your email address and a username. And read our terms of service—your email address won’t be going anywhere else except to serve your needs here.

Newsletter: Yeah, I know. You already get more email than you ever have time to read. Yet we are convinced that if you are a regular Parent Previews visitor, we can give you a cool newsletter that will really be worth a couple of minutes of your life. With quick to read headlines at the top, you can be abreast of the latest movie, media and technology info—all from a parent’s perspective.

Photos and Videos: Beginning with the newest movies, we will be putting photo galleries up for many of our films. And in the next few weeks, we will begin offering movie trailers and clips from movies where these resources are made available to use. We hope this will not only be entertaining, but will give parents an opportunity to get a better feel for a movie prior to taking the kids.

The Big Picture: We are bringing back a feature we used to have years ago. The Big Picture is a new section, and it’s where you are right now reading this! We have three sections: Expert Studies, Articles (where you are now) and Reviewers’ Blog. This is our chance to tell you much more than about one single movie. We will search the latest university and academic studies, cover new trends in media and technology as they relate to families, and provide regular comments and tips in our blogs. Check back frequently for new news!

RSS Feeds: This is a cool way to get content delivered to your desktop, cell phone, or email client. Essentially, it sends little text messages to you with a brief description whenever we add anything new to our site. You can also just opt to get sent notifications of new movie reviews, or limit it to other areas of our website.

Podcasts: It not here yet, but very soon we will be offering regular Parent Previews podcasts. Now you can listen to what new in movies and media from a family perspective.

More details about the movies mentioned in this post…