Posts tagged Redesign
Yandex Announces “Interactive Snippets” & SERP Redesign At Moscow Conference
May 17th
Yandex has presented what it claims is a new concept in search engine results pages to a Russian audience at an online industry conference in Moscow. They’ve nicknamed the new concept “Islands,” but are describing it functionally as “Interactive Snippets” and the next step on from rich snippets. To…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Google+ Gets Big, Image-Heavy Redesign
May 16th
Google has revamped Google+. The new look and feel puts images front and center. While some new photo features and enhancements add some interesting functionality, the ridiculously huge cover photos are a bit hard for some users to swallow.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Website Redesign: From Concept Sketch to Lead Generation Reality
Apr 8th
After you’ve created goals and are ready to tell your story, it’s time to generate leads. Concept sketches can be instrumental when communicating aspects of a web page to your design and development team. Use this method to ensure good results.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Responsive Site Redesign: 4 SEO Considerations
Mar 22nd
If you’ve decided to go responsive or you’re considering a responsive site redesign, there are some issues you’ll need to look out for from an SEO standpoint. Don’t let above the fold issues, content, internal links, or mobile specifics trip you up.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Responsive Site Redesign: 4 SEO Considerations – Search Engine Watch
Mar 22nd
|
Responsive Site Redesign: 4 SEO Considerations
Search Engine Watch responsive-design-phone-desktop-tablet Whether you've already decided to go responsive or you're still considering a responsive site redesign, there are some things you'll need to look out for from an SEO standpoint. Above the fold issues, content … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
What the Facebook News Feed Redesign Means to Your Business
Mar 11th
Last Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg hosted another big press event at the Palo Alto headquarters of Facebook to introduce the new look of the News Feed. As with every other major change to Facebook, the changes have met with mixed feelings from users. Whether that contingency of Facebook users that despise change likes it or not, [...]
Author information
The post What the Facebook News Feed Redesign Means to Your Business appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
View full post on Search Engine Journal
Facebook’s Big, Bright News Feed Redesign = More Junk
Mar 8th
Social networks like Facebook and Google+ are suddenly more image-happy than ever. And that’s awesome, in theory. But images ≠ photos. And that’s an important distinction.
(See also Facebook Updates News Feed With Dedicated Feeds, Bigger Photos and Google+ Update Adds Crazy Big Cover Photos + Other Stuff.)
According to Facebook, today the News Feed comprises about 50% photos and 50% “visual content.” What began as a spartan little text entry box is now a full-fledged multimedia monster, for better or worse. But the advent of Facebook’s new “bright beautiful stories” may just mean more visual detritus to brush away from the content we really want to see, assuming it’s out there at all.
Goodbye Clutter?
Trying to get a screen capture of the new News Feed Photos page earlier today, I had to refresh about ten times before anything worthy of being highlighted bubbled up. But even then, the rest of the stuff on the page was such an eyesore, I just went with the Facebook PR team’s stock shot. My Photos tab (and the News Feed at large) remains a confusing mixture of Someecards and random images that people scoop up from around the Web and don’t attribute.
It’s just that in the example images, everything just looks so good. I mean, if all of my friends posted only high-res pictures of their amazing blue-skied skiing adventures, I wouldn’t be complaining.
(See also An Early Sneak Peek At Facebook’s New News Feed [Gallery].)
The Memes Come Marching In
The invasion of the meme might be partly to blame. I remember when memes hit Tumblr and then took off. I’d been blogging there since 2009. Back then I’d post original photos and original writing and the people I followed did the same. Then suddenly, one day it just flipped – Tumblr became a place for recycling jokes and reposting lolcats. I lost interest in it immediately and haven’t really blogged there since. Now that Facebook is dominated by image updates, the News Feed is a morass of recycled content – and again, I’m losing interest.
Instagram’s Got The Right Idea
Facebook may own Instagram, but the social photo sharing network has its own set of rules – many of them unspoken, selfies aside. Instagram made generating original content fun again. Sure, we’re just taking little snapshots and posting them in quasi-realtime, but that’s a hell of a lot more interesting than a retweet or a video gone viral. If anyone on my Instagram posts a screencap or a picture lifted from a different source, I unfollow them. Instagram is retraining people to populate and curate their own little photo portals – and even first-time photographers start developing their own visual voice. It’s no surprise that the most interesting images in my News Feed are all imported from Instagram.
(See also #Me: Instagram Narcissism And The Scourge Of The Selfie.)
Call me old fashioned. I like actual photos. I like text, too. I prefer user-generated content over clever Web-recycling. Remember when people used to blog? Now most of us just move content from one place to another. I don’t watch video content on the Web unless I’m absolutely convinced it will be worth my time – and if I have to sit through an auto-play YouTube ad first, forget it.
Content Other Other People Create
Chris Cox, Facebook’s VP of Product, summed it up this at Facebook’s big announcement Thursday morning: “Fundamentally we’re a container for content other people create.” But most Facebook users don’t create content, they just borrow it from someone else who probably borrowed it from someone else after it made the rounds on Tumblr a few months ago.
Maybe I’m just cynical. Or maybe there really is nothing new under the sun. But if you ask me, Facebook needs more content creators – and fewer diligent meme mules ferrying viral junk from point A to point B with their heads down.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Facebook and Someecards.
View full post on ReadWrite
Facebook Tests Timeline Redesign In New Zealand, Here’s What It Looks Like
Feb 28th
Facebook is testing a redesign of its Timeline feature on users in New Zealand. From the looks of it, the change is a subtle but significant shift to how the social giant organizes information on users’ profiles.
We got a look at the redesign, courtesy of ReadWrite founder Richard MacManus, who resides in New Zealand. The first thing to pop out? Your friends, pictures, Likes and interests and notes are now organized as a column down the left side of Timeline.
Status updates are organized in a column on the right, next to where Facebook posts its “Sponsored” advertisements. The menu bar underneath the header image has changed and no longer shows preview boxes for Friends, Photos, Map and Likes.
For instance, here is what the top of Timeline currently looks like.
And here is what the top of Timeline will change to if Facebook rolls out the New Zealand redesign to the rest of the world:
As you progress down Timeline, your information, Likes and assorted other material you have posted on Facebook during the life of your account remains on the left, while status updates stay on the right.
Facebook may have a recurring problem with the new redesign in how it places old material you may have forgotten about. For instance, there are several old, slightly embarrassing posts in my long-abandoned “notes” column that would be prominently featured on the new Timeline. It is simple enough to go back to them and erase them, but that is the kind of user experience change that has gotten Facebook in trouble with its users in the past.
Facebook has long used the strategy of rolling out new features to be tested to remote parts of the world first before making them available to its billion+ users across the globe (especially those in the United States). New Zealand has been a favorite testing ground for Facebook – and many other Web companies – and often is the first region to see new design features. Facebook will collect user feedback and data from the tests use that to tweak the design before making the change official for the entire world.
What do you think of the new Timeline redesign? Do you like the new organization of information? At first glance, it actually seems easier to comprehend than the current iteration of Timeline, but given the experimental nature of the New Zealand test rollout, it is hard to tell how much different the user experience will be when it is done. Let us know your opinions in the comments.
New Zealand stamp images courtesy of Shutterstock.
View full post on ReadWrite
Slacker Redesign Sets Streaming-Music Battle With Spotify & Pandora
Feb 13th
Music streaming service Slacker has been around for quite a while – six years and counting – but has never been able to gain the traction enjoyed by its competitors Pandora and Spotify. That may begin to change with Slacker’s full mobile and browser facelift, which rolled out to users Tuesday and comes equipped with a handful of new channel additions.
In an effort to make things cleaner, simpler and a bit brighter (a good move considering it differentiates the design from that of Spotify’s darker hue), both the mobile and Web versions Slacker is now awash in a pleasant blue-and-white scheme. The browser version has an elegant single-page interface that prompts you to jump right into streaming with a search bar. One look at the old site, which can still be accessed through a link at the bottom of the homepage, illustrates just how much Slacker’s design sensibilities have improved. It also went ahead and axed its old motorcycle-company-look logo, opting to simplify the design to better fit with the new color scheme and cleaner interface.
But better design means nothing without stronger functionality to go with it. Slacker has always had competitive features, but the redesign makes them more accessible – and make now a good time to check out the oft-overlooked service. One strength is that Slacker is everywhere – on Blackberry, iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, Nokia and Palm as well as through your browser.
Slacker has also cut deals with a handful of car companies and entertainment-hardware manufacturues, from Ford and Tesla to Sonos and Logitech. So while it may lack the cultural pervasiveness of Pandora and Spotify, it certainly has the physical ubiquity to be a major player.
The new update adds a radio section with plugins for big players in the sports radio and news marketplace – ESPN and ABC News – with more to arrive in coming months. You can also find a few comedy channels in the section, opening the door for a slew of podcast and other unique Web chat platforms to find their way to Slacker.
But Slacker’s big strength has always been its more than 200 hand-curated sections, an output of creative human manpower that puts even the best algorithmic music-selection tools to shame. The ability to pinpoint the work of an artist during a certain timespan – a period that may not be tied to a specific set of albums – and then create a “station” built off that by other human listeners is invaluable.
Slacker’s service, much like its competitors’, is free if you can tolerate advertising. For $3.99 a month, you can get Slacker Plus, which kills the commercials, and $9.99 a month gets you the Premium version, which adds offline listening. To promote the new and improved Slacker the company is offering a free 1-month Premium subscription on February 14 and 15.
View full post on ReadWrite
#Facebook Timeline Redesign Rolls Out in New Zealand
Jan 8th
As we reported to you last November, Facebook has been working on a redesign of Timeline away from the 2 column layout. Just before Christmas, a selection of Facebook power users were given a chance to give the single column redesign of Timeline a test drive. Facebook diva, Mari Smith, was one of the delighted [...]
The post #Facebook Timeline Redesign Rolls Out in New Zealand appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
View full post on Search Engine Journal
