BEACH NEWS YOU CAN USE
Covering 160 miles of Oregon coast travel: Seaside, Cannon Beach, Manzanita, Nehalem, Wheeler, Rockaway, Garibaldi, Tillamook, Oceanside, Pacific City, Lincoln City, Depoe Bay, Newport, Wadport, Yachats & Florence.

Oregon Travel Site Offers Free, Unique Features

(Oregon Coast) – Manzanita-based Oregon Coast Beach Connection – a travel portal for the Oregon coast – is offering its daily updated coastal travel news for free to other publishers and coastal websites. And it’s doing so in a variety of technically cutting edge ways.

Editor/publisher Andre’ Hagestedt is announcing the creation of “news channels” for various areas of beachconnection.net’s coverage range, and the site is encouraging other websites and webmasters to take advantage of the site’s travel news via RSS feeds or actual live feeds on the sites of others. More information on RSS or live feeds can be found at www.beachconnection.net/addtosite.htm.

For a few months now, Oregon Coast Beach Connection has been providing RSS feeds of its daily news content. The site also started using what Hagestedt has nicknamed “news feed boxes” to feed news content to other sites. The host site has a box on it (in web code terminology it is actually an iFrame) with live updates from Oregon Coast Beach Connection. It is viewable on beachconnection.net’s front page, or at sites like www.sanduneinn.com or the links page at www.zingersicecream.com.

Hagestedt wants to offer these ways of hosting travel news and entertainment from Oregon’s coast to other web publishers, saying it provides constantly changing content for the host site as well as a little zing to their page. “Most importantly, it promotes this state’s most beautiful natural aspect: the Pacific Ocean,” he said.

The site recently just launched its coastal science page, which features archived articles regarding marine science, weather and geology of the Oregon coast. It will soon host a large and growing library of coastal science facts about its geology, meteorlogical phenomenon and ocean creatures and plants.

New to beachconnection.net are the “news channels,” also provided free, and also to promote the coast’s individual cities. Currently, there is the Seaside Travel and Entertainment News Channel (www.beachconnection.net/news/n_seaside.htm), the Newport/Nye Beach Travel and Entertainment News Channel (www.beachconnection.net/news/n_newport.htm) and the Cannon Beach Travel and Entertainment News Channel (www.beachconnection.net/news/n_cbeach.htm).

Each features travel and entertainment news and in depth stories from their respective areas, filtering out the stories that are not about that particular city.

“That’s all we’ve had time to launch as yet,” Hagestedt said. “But this week, we should be able to get the news channels for Lincoln City, Depoe Bay, South Tillamook County (Tillamook, Oceanside, Pacific City, Garibaldi) and the Nehalem Bay (Manzanita, Wheeler, Rockaway) ones up and running.”

They were largely created as a service to those businesses in those areas, Hagestedt said. “The whole idea is get the chambers or local businesses to link to them, so they can promote their areas in what we feel is this really unique way. I mean, where else can a lodging in Seaside or a restaurant in Newport get free content for their site that promotes only tourism-related stuff for their town? There’s no politics or gloom and doom. Just fun stuff about the beach in their area.”

Oregon Coast Beach Connection also provides news feed boxes for these news channels, and Hagestedt said these are even more colorful and attractive than the main news feed.

Some sites have found it more useful to use Oregon Coast Beach Connection’s RSS feeds, found at www.beachconnection.net/news/feed.xml.

RSS – which stands for Real Simple Syndication – is a means of streaming content from a website to other websites, or to other users on the net who have programs called news aggregators. The surge in popularity of blogs in recent years has much to do with this quite simple, yet still somewhat mysterious, technology.

“This technology is still fairly cutting edge, and beyond the grasp of a lot of basic users,” Hagestedt said. “But with the new version of Windows coming out with RSS capability embedded in the software, it’s going to become mainstream soon. Everyone will have it at some point. The big pundits out there in Internet land have been squawking about this major change for a while. Besides, it’s super hip and cool – and it’s gotten our coastal news content into a lot of places.”

Code for the iFrames and RSS subscription information for Oregon Coast Beach Connection can be found at www.beachconnection.net/addtosite.htm.

“I really encourage coastal websites out there to take advantage of what we have to offer,” Hagestedt said. “And to any other travel sites out there: this is truly unique and free content as well. We think it provides useful travel stuff from a corner of the Earth we think is really, really special. And if your readers got glimpses of it, they would too.”

Hagestedt said other major announcements from Oregon Coast Beach Connection are in the wings, including a partnership with Comcast Cable TV show PdxPosed, the utilization of high-profile keyword platforms, and some other unique media partnerships and places where the site’s news stories will be syndicated. The real estate section will likely go live soon, and sections on wine shops on the coast and wineries in the coast range, as well as on coastal weddings, are in the works.

BREATHTAKING CLIFFTOP IN NEWPORT

STARFISH POINT is located on the Central Oregon Coast - in Newport - and offers only the finest in luxury condominium lodging. At Starfish Point, every unit is focused on the beauty of the sea and the beach.
All of the units boast two bedrooms, two bathrooms, designer kitchens, wireless broadband Internet, fireplaces, Jacuzzi’s and private decks - surrounding you in soothing relaxation. We have a friendly staff dedicated to high quality and superb customer service. 140 NW 48th Street, Newport. (541) 265-3751. (800) 870-7795. www.starfishpoint.com

Cannon Beach Ecola Creek Lodge

Ecola Creek Lodge, Cannon Beach. In a quiet neighborhood, this longtime coastal landmark boasts a koi/lily pond, spacious lawns, gardens, stained glass windows and wireless internet – all in a slightly Victorian vibe. With some rooms pet friendly, you are a couple minutes walk from town and close to the beach. Guests also get access to a full recreational and exercise facility. Wild bunnies provide an adorable addition to your stay, making for an especially serene coastal experience. 208 5th St. www.cannonbeachlodge.com. 800-873-2749.