Good afternoon. I’m Philip Michaels, the director of online content here at Macworld , and unless you’ve managed to click through to this Weblog entry with your eyes closed, you’ve probably noticed a few changes around here.
Today marks the launch of a new look for Macworld.com. And while Web page redesigns are sometimes greeted with the kind of insouciance and sangfroid normally reserved for the overthrow of the government or the break-up of the Beatles, we’re confident that you’ll be as pleased as we are with how our upgrade turned out.
Our goal was to create a better online experience for Mac enthusiasts by doing things like reducing some of the front-page clutter and simplifying navigation. You’ll find a unified navigation bar on each page, for example. The result: it should be easier to find things whether it’s a product review or OS X tricks and trips. Plus, pages are smaller than they used to be, so they’ll load faster in your browser.
(David Sawyer McFarland, a designer, author, and frequent Macworld contributor, came up with the new design, while our online team of Sean Greathouse, Ron Neal, and Bill Cappel worked long and hard to implement it. All of them deserve a virtual tip of the hat.)
MacCentral.com, our news site, has been further integrated into Macworld.com. To get to MacCentral’s coverage, just click on the News tab in the navigation bar. Once there, you’ll find the day’s headlines, links to the week’s top stories, all the latest Apple news, and links to other Mac coverage around the Web. (Of course, if you type “www.maccentral.com” into your browser, you’ll wind up on the MacCentral home page, just like always.)
Our new design also makes it easier for us to add new features. Two additions we’re pleased to introduce today are our Apple Hardware Guide and the Mac Gems Weblog. The former lists all the latest Macs and iPods from Apple, including tech specs, prices, Macworld reviews, and Macworld Lab test results. The latter is a Weblog for Macworld columnist Dan Frakes. As with his monthly column, Dan will ferret out easily overlooked Mac software and hardware that will boost your productivity and improve your Mac experience. Drop by and check it out.
In fact, take some time over the next few days to surf around Macworld.com, and, by all means, let us know what you think of our new look.