Check out the home page - we've launched a brighter, sharper new design, featuring a little more information about the site and a set of links to take you straight to the material you want. We're also showcasing a quote from one of our first reviews, from Angela Natividad at CMSWire - you can read the full review here.

New features: You asked for a more highly-visible log-in button, so we've added that at the top of the page; we've also provided a link straight to our Advanced Search page so you can get going as soon as you hit the site. We're always eager to hear further suggestions on how to improve the site, so please get in touch (editor@keesings.co.uk) with any thoughts.

Coming soon on the site, we're planning a 'Take the Tour' feature to walk you through the bells and whistles of Keesings.com; we're also adding more content all the time to Breaking History, where we break down today's headline-making stories in the light of historical context. New articles this week cover the latest developments in the Middle East peace process, George Bush's Latin America tour, and the continuing violence in Sri Lanka. Read them today to brief yourself on the history behind the headlines.

A couple of exciting new developments on the site today. Firstly, we've added the articles from the December 2006 issue of Keesing's Record of World Events. You can find this latest content in the database through the search engine.

We've also added a new feature to the Breaking History feature section: RSS feeds. Now you can read Keesing's in your favourite feed reader, or receive updates whenever we add new content to Breaking History. Please let us know how you like the new features, especially if you're interested in syndicating our content - we love to hear about how you use us.

Just back from the International Studies Association's 48th annual convention, held this year in Chicago, Illinois, where we officially launched the site. It was a most successful show, where we met hundreds of interested researchers and heard some invaluable commentary on the site and how it could grow. We also received our first reviews: from CMSWire; from Information Today; and from WebSearchGuide's Internet News. It's a pleasure to see users really appreciating the site's scope and possibilities, and picking up on the value of clusters, tags, and notes - the same features we're most excited about. As always, we would value commentary from anyone using the site.

We're working on some key ideas now, particularly on adding RSS feeds to the Breaking History section. You'll find a new article there on women in politics, with an update on North Korea's nuclear programme scheduled for later today too.

Lastly, our blog icon came in for some attention from reviewers, who wanted to know why a manual typewriter would inspire thoughts of blogs. This is a fine question. (Similarly, why should the standard RSS icon inspire thoughts of syndication? It appears to represent a piece of smoked salmon.) In this case, the blog typewriter represents the Keesing's marriage of old  - what CMSWire called 'anal-retentive' editorial practices, that value rigour, comprehensiveness, precision, and objectivity - and new, in the form of Web 2.0 clustering and tagging functions and state-of-the-art search facilities. It's also just prettier to look at than the text editing software in which the blog is actually composed...