The New York Times, the largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States nicknamed the “Gray Lady” for its staid appearance and style is frequently relied upon as the authoritative reference for modern events.

The New York Times has now launched TimesPeople in public beta as its new social networking platform. It is an add-on on Firefox browser.

The new platform will facilitate sharing of articles, comments on articles, blog posts, slide shows and videos. The users will be able to use the platform to create their own network with other readers of New York Times. The platform has an exciting feature of reviews and rating of movies and restaurants and hotels. A personal page will be available to the users which will save the shared content along with reviews and recommendations from other members.

Private activities of users like emailing of articles, and site activities such as click on links or viewing of graphics or reading articles will not be tracked by TimesPeople.

However users’ TimesPeople activities could be linked to their Facebook profile. Users can see their own activity on Facebook.

At later stage New York Times will launch public version of social platform which will work without a plug-in on all major browsers.

The platform will be further refined to import Google contacts, provide improved people searches and integration with NYTimes.com registration.