This is the first in a series of highlighting new features on the new.BibleGateway.com preview site.
Besides Bible Gateway’s Bible search feature, one of its most popular elements has always been the Verse of the Day. While we’re certainly not the only site with a daily Bible verse, our regular visitors appreciate seeing the Verse of the Day in conjunction with their Bible reading. So when we began work on the new Bible Gateway, we took the opportunity to make some improvements to the venerable Verse of the Day feature on the homepage.
Functionally, the Verse of the Day works the same as it did on the old site: new day, new verse. However, we’ve added easy-to-use sharing and contextual features that make the Verse of the Day even more useful. Here’s what the Verse of the day looks like on the new Bible Gateway:
Note the row of icons in the top right-hand corner. From left to right we have the Audio button, RSS feed, Facebook Sharing, Twitter Sharing, and Email sharing:
- Audio button – opens a new window and begins auto-playing the chapter the verse is in.
- RSS Feed – opens the RSS feed for the version of the VOTD of that you’re viewing.
- Facebook sharing – lets you share the verse on Facebook (using the Share This service).
- Twitter sharing – lets you share the verse on Twitter. If you’re signed in to Twitter via Share This, it automatically tweets a link to the verse.
- Email sharing – as with the Facebook and Twitter sharing features, but over email rather than a social network.
Below the verse is a row of links to View in context, View whole chapter, and Print:
- View in context – shows the Verse of the Day in its original context, so you can read the Bible verses that precede and follow it.
- View whole chapter – takes you to the passage in which the Verse of the Day is found.
- Print – takes you to a stripped-down, printer-friendly version of the Verse of the Day.
As always, if you have any feedback on this or other features at the new Bible Gateway, please let us know using our survey form!