The online staff seems to have left for the day (save for the Extra Bases guy). As I type, it's 8:35 p.m. and there's nothing on boston.com about a 3 p.m. shooting across from the Forest Hills T stop the lots of people saw, heard or watched the aftermath of (many because Washington Street/Hyde Park Avenue traffic was all messed up).

Channel 4 had something up pretty quickly after the shooting (Channel 4 is generally excellent at such stuff); Channel 5 wasn't all that far behind and a Herald editor was blogging about it not far after them. I had something up in an hour or so, but only because I happened to be getting out of Forest Hills station (returning from a meeting) just as the ambulance was driving away with the victim.

Geoff Edgers reports you can now post comments to boston.com blogs, like, oh, his:

... The procedure: I get to see all the comments before they go up. Then I have a choice... to post, or not to post. I'm pretty active on this blog, but there may be a six or eight hour period when I'm not by the tubes. Be patient. The delay doesn't mean I dislike what you have to say. It just means I'm sleeping or on a run. ...

Because, you know, the Globe wouldn't want to see the same sort of mouth-breathing commentary some bostonherald.com blogs are getting (scroll down a bit).

How else to explain the live frickin' updates from the opening of the new Natick Mall? Jesus.

... A stone's throw from the state's first Nordstrom department store is Stil, the only local business to be awarded a spot in the new Natick Collection expansion. ...

Oh, and how lucky they must feel!

Ed. nauseous note: Yes, of course, it's no longer the Natick Mall but the Natick Collection of Stuff for the Ruling Class.

It's so bad they've sent in Duck Boats to pick up survivors:

Thanks to Dave for noticing this. Hmm, I wonder why nobody else is reporting on this?

Yesterday, bostonherald.com posted a Red Sox mid-season report that requires 33 clicks to read in its entirety. Today, boston.com responds by whipping out a 63-click Red Sox mid-season report that also lets you click on a mini-poll on each page.

If anybody actually finishes the entire thing, let me know how that finger splint is working out.

Via Dan Kennedy.

JP Butler reports that you can now use the boston.com search engine to find specific video reports and podcasts from local TV stations and podcasters - they've hired a company to transcribe them and then index the transcriptions. Do a search, then click on the Multimedia tab.

Note to Boston Globe: See how easy it is to link to something when you write about it? Speaking of which, would it have killed you to post a copy of the letter this story is all about?

Boston.com: Study links hurricanes to teen smokers

Deb Geisler read that headline and had a wonderful idea:

For one brief, shining moment, I figured all we had to do to stop the hurricanes was move the teen smokers to New Mexico or Arizona.

But then she read the story.

Almost every single time some out-of-the-ordinary big news story happens, boston.com seems to do its best to hide it from us with an ad (dating at least back to last year's Emerson scaffolding collapse). They've done it again today: State Legislature takes historic vote and refuses to put gay marriage on the ballot and what do boston.com visitors see on the home page?

If you squint really hard, way down at the bottom, you can see about half a headline about something that happened at the State House today.

OK, if you wait, the ad "rolls up," but really, editorial folks, don't you have any pull with the advertising department anymore?

Via Spatch, who exults:

LOWES IS OPENING BRAND NEW LOCATIONS ALL UP AND DOWN THE COAST! BRAND NEW STORES TO SHOP AT! HUZZAH HUZZAH HUZZAH!

oh yeah and also our state's proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage was totally defeated but that's just some picayune bit of news that goes on the front page under the BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG AD that says LOWES IS OPENING BRAND NEW LOCATIONS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!1111 ...

Update: Herald story: Two slain in drive-by shootings. Globe story: Two slain in daylight shootings on city streets.

Herald City Desk Editor Joe Dwinell reports on his blog that two men were gunned down, a woman was rushed to Boston Medical Center and the hospital was shut down as people involved rushed there to continue the fight. And adds:

... Full details in tomorrow's Herald. It was a tense night. ...

No doubt. But if the Herald can get up a story about the city-council special election, why not this? As I type, WBZ-TV has some more details, like, where the shootings happened in Dorchester and Roxbury. WBZ 1030 also has a report. Boston.com? Nothing. Channel 5? They report no delays on local roadways.

Anybody else not able to get to the site? I can't get to it from work, Universal Hub's host or the World.