Topix was extremely small-location focused when small-location focus wasn’t cool, and it paid off — Topix, with its news that’s browsable by zip code, is great when you’re trying to do geographic searching or information. They’ve added some new features that don’t do much for the research end but are fun to play with.

From the front page of Topix (http://www.topix.com/) you’ll see that the top of the page has handpicked top stories — three of ’em. (If you’re less interested in top picks and just want to see what’s hot on the site, check out http://www.topix.com/popular/topstories.) Well, at the moment two and an add for Topix’s polls, which are another new feature.

The polls cover a variety of topics and are available at http://www.topix.com/poll/hot . Each poll also has a forum for comments. Put on your asbestos footie pjs.

Finally, local news pages now have integrated weather and traffic reports. That sounds very 1999-cheesy, but I actually found it useful, especially the traffic. Now if the weather only offered ten-day forecasts.

If you’re looking for information on a very specific geographical area in the US, and as an added bonus would like the thoughts and opinions of a lively community, check out Topix.