Belmont Patch this week has a new way to connect with the residents and readers: through your local Starbucks.

The Seattle-based coffee chain today, Oct. 20, announced "The Starbucks Digital Network," a selection of content that will be presented to all customers who log on to Starbucks' wireless internet.

Starbucks' selection of content includes free music, video previews, book excerpts, social-location program, national news and us, Patch.

What this means, is that when you connect to the wireless network at Starbucks' locations on Trapelo Road and Belmont Center, you'll be greeted with a link to local content on Belmont Patch. If you visit a Starbucks in another community with an active Patch site, such as Arlington, Lexington or soon Watertown, you'll be greeted with online news from that community.

All Patch content on the Starbucks digital network will be juxtaposed with national content from the New York Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. If you're looking for national headlines, check out those sources. If you want to find out what's going on around the corner, read Patch.

While we still hope that you will choose to connect and participate with our content at home and at your office, we appreciate that Starbucks has made it more convenient for you to find out about what's going on in Belmont while you're sipping your cappuccino.

And, if you're reading this announcement while sitting at a Starbucks – which are the unofficial offices of Patch editors nationwide – congratulations, you're ahead of the curve.