Life.com

I am a big fan of Life Magazine. Not that Sunday, cheap thing that would come with your newspaper, tucked between the comics. Anytime I see a book about the old Life Magazine, I have to try extremely hard not to buy it. The pictures, concept and quality of that magazine have been unmatched.

Recently, the magazine has found new life online. Life.com recently launched, a sort of revival in a new medium. It is strongly visually based, with tons of photos of current news. In fact, through a quick exploration, I don't see any written stories. The pictures seem to be telling the words with extended cutlines.

So is this going to be successful? Is it going to revive the old spirit of Life Magazine?

I hope so.

The site itself is straight forward. The pictures look great. The stories are current.

Some bad things: the site is slow. Viewing the stories needs a much better player. I would expect something flash, though I am sure they have many reasons why it isn't. But it takes way to long to switch to the next picture sometimes and is annoying to see the next page load.

It's obviously going to have to rely on the name and possibly older stories and photos such as the one below to get going. Lets hope that it can stand on its own in this new age of media.

I have always dreamed of shooting for Life, maybe that'll happen someday.

The recent discovery of photos from the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered is wonderful. Going through the pictures, I find myself in a sort of awe of the photos and what they mean; what those moments meant after MLK was assassinated. Its amazing that these photos have been in a file cabinet for the past few decades.

This photo story is an important documentation of one of the most somber times in American history, and they just might be what Life.com needed to get going. Something big to bring attention to the site, which without it, these pictures might not have surfaced for many more years.

Life.com is going to get more than just a bookmark in my browser. Its going on the bookmark bar with my daily sites I check.