Something that the New York Times started as a Firefox plug-in has been developed into a social networking site. We are talking about the launch of TimesPeople by New York Times. Currently in its public beta version the social networking site (SNS) was launched yesterday evening.

Sitting right on top of NYTimes.com pages, the TimesPeople toolbar enables users to save and recommend articles, blog posts, reader comments , slideshows and of course videos. As a user you can even add ratings and reviews of movies, restaurants and hotels.

Users can register for free and join TimesPeople to share recommendations and comments with fellow readers. Members will have their own profile pages showcasing their public activities and of other network members. The best part is that they can sign up for RSS feeds of the latest activities of other users. This RSS feed can be synced with their Facebook news feed with a simple application. The only concern is user privacy which actually is taken care by the TimesPeople team. User activity would not be monitored by TimesPeople in turn offering the user his privacy.

This well-designed service is crafted for the loyal New York Times readers who want to transcend to the social networking realm. But yet TimesPeople does not seem to offer much, in fact it does not push the bar any higher. It just plays as a link between New York Times readers and does not really connect to the world wide web.