One of the most difficult tasks is scouring the news for a mention of a particular player without having a false-positive (say, an article about the Magic’s Dwight Howard and Ryan Anderson being shown only to people who subscribed to Dwight Howard or Ryan Anderson, and not someone who is tracking the Phillies’ Ryan Howard.)

The fixes that we implemented yesterday almost completely eliminate these issues. We applied them retroactively to remove any previous false-positives. We also made a bug fix that should result in a higher volume of stories being shown for your players.

All in all, fantasy player tracking just became a much more useful feature. If you run in to any issues or have any suggestions, let us know in the comments or drop us an email.

Since we initially conceived of LockerPulse in 2009 and subsequently launched in May of 2010 a lot has changed with how we as consumers use the web. For sites like LockerPulse, touch interfaces on phones and tablets are rapidly approaching the usage of traditional computers. Very few people saw this coming – heck the iPad had only been released a few weeks before that first version of LockerPulse came out!

We’ve spent a lot of time since May of 2010 studying our analytics, talking to our users, and paying close attention to how the web has evolved.

So what can you expect? Better coverage of more teams and more sports. An easier-to-use experience, starting with a better initial sign-up. Quicker access to the other things that are important to you in addition to the news: schedules, standings, scores, and videos. A more consistent experience across all devices – from your work PC to your laptop to your iPad to your Android phone – it will always “feel” like the same LockerPulse. And many more improvements that we hope show you that we’re committed to making this the very best platform for consuming sports news.

When can you expect the new LockerPulse? We’re shooting for releasing this in Q1 of 2012, most likely towards the end of March. In the meantime, if you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions, please leave a comment below or shoot us an email. We’re always excited to hear from our users!

When we tested this feature it worked for us on all major browsers. If you run in to any issues, or if you have any suggestions for additional keyboard features, definitely leave a comment below or drop us an email.

We’ve also fixed one of the more annoying bugs for fans who follow a lot of Yahoo Sports news sources. Our system detects duplicate stories by the permanent URL of the story. In almost all cases, there is only one single URL per story, which never changes, and this system works remarkably well. However, Yahoo sometimes uses multiple URLs per story and changes them in their feeds. For instance, a recent story on their hockey blog Puck Daddy entitled Thursday’s Three Stars: First-place Panthers; big Avs rally was posted under the following three URLs:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Thursday-s-Three-Stars-First-place-Panthers-bi?urn=nhl-wp17159

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Thursday-8217-s-Three-Stars-First-place-Panthe?urn=nhl-wp17159

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Thursday-s-Three-Stars-First-place-Panthers-bi?urn=nhl-wp17159

Our system detected them as three separate stories and inserted them three times over the course of the day. It can be very distracting to see the same story in your news stream over and over. Because this has been an ongoing problem for Yahoo Sports feeds, we’ve added an extra check for Yahoo stories where we also check for a matching title within the past day and only post if there are no matches. Hopefully from here on out this is no longer an issue. We also now have this functionality available to use on other news sources if similar issues are detected. If you notice anything similar don’t hesitate to leave a comment or drop us an email.

Here are a few screenshots (click to enlarge):

Add a Fantasy Player

My Fantasy News

Fantasy player tracking also works on mobile LockerPulse. After logging in you’ll see the My Players heading.

You may notice some other improvements throughout the site. We’ve worked hard on improving the speed of the most common actions on the site. We’ve completed a a full javascript overhaul – our new library is smaller and lighter, meaning faster load times for you. We’ve also made other speed improvements across the site. For instance, stories from external sites load much faster in the frame. After logging in, you’ll also notice a new navigation and slicker interface. In addition to fantasy coverage we’ve made it easy to access full schedules, standings, and rosters available for all NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL teams.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, leave a comment below or drop us an email. Good luck with your fantasy teams!

As you can see from the image above, we’ve added the Winnipeg Jets back in to the NHL, replacing the Atlanta Thrashers. We’ve also transitioned the sources to Winnipeg blogs and newspapers from their Atlanta counterparts.

For college sports, we’ve done the following:

• Moved Colorado from the Big 12 to the Pac-12.
• Added Utah to the Pac-12.
• Moved Nebraska from the Big 12 to the Big Ten.
• Added TCU in anticipation for their move to the Big East in 2012

If you’re a fan of these teams let us know if we’ve missed any good news sources by leaving a comment below or dropping us an email.

We’ve worked closely with SnappCloud and Toshiba to make LockerPulse available in the Toshiba App Place. If you’re using a Toshiba device, the App Place is a great way to integrate web apps like LockerPulse in to your computer. You can “install” LockerPulse from the App Place by visiting this link. You’ll be able to sign up and launch LockerPulse right from the App Place!

Also, special thanks to the team at FanFeedr. Our schedules and standings are powered by their fantastic developer API.

Enjoy the Holiday weekend everyone!