The New York Post sees things differently. It wants the world to know that their city won the Super Bowl tonight. How did they do that? They covered their entire front page in New York Giants.

It’s not my place to judge any Web site on how they design their front page, but this just seems a little excessive. At least they have pride in their team. That’s the most important thing.

The video player itself is larger in the redesign. The page is designed to load more quickly, as well. For instance, older comments do not load until the user scrolls down to that area. Keyboard shortcuts have also been added.

The redesign is open to a wide private group first, then will roll out to the general public.

Open Your Eyes to the New Vimeo from Vimeo Staff on Vimeo.

What do you think of Gmail’s new look? Let us know in the comments.

Some new/updated features you’ll notice in Gmail are:

New Conversation View
The conversation view has been completely redesigned. You’ll now see see profile pictures for your contacts in your email conversations.

Elastic Density
With the new Gmail you can now control the spacing between elements on your screen. This can be modified anytime via the display density menu, located under settings.

All New Search
Gmail’s search has been improved with a dropdown menu which allows you to specify exactly what you want to search (e.g. emails to a certain sender, or a certain word in the subject or body). Email filters can also be created from the same menu, from any search.

HD Themes
The themeing system has been completely rebuilt, now each theme utilizes high resolution imagery. All of the current themes have been updated, and your current theme will be carried when switched.

Navigation
The left-side navigation has also received a facelift, as the new layout keeps your most used labels in view at all times. If you find yourself stuff being hidden by the collapsing menu, you can resize this by simply clicking on the dividing line and dragging it down. Gmail will remember your new menu settings.

For those of you who hadn’t made the change yet, Google has made it for you. The next time you login to your Gmail account you’re greeted with a box welcoming you to Gmail’s new look accompanied by the following video:

Not a fan of the new look? Well you can, “temporarily postpone the switch to the new look in the new settings menu“. But what’s the point in that? As Gmail’s new look will more than likely be made permanent in the near future… better just get used to it now.

Google’s Gmail blog has been taking an in-depth look at Gmails new look. Today they posted about activating the changes everyone:

“The dedication of our testing team helped us catch bugs early so we could fix them in preparation for launch. Once we felt that the new look was good enough to be used by others, we turned it on for all Googlers.”

Sure Google is happy with the changes, but a lot of Twitter users don’t agree:

Though there are some out there who actually like Gmail’s new look, myself included:

It’s unclear at the moment how long users will be able to revert back to the old Gmail look, but why not just embrace the new look? It will be the default look very shortly, you might as well get used to it.

Why do you think some people don’t like Gmail’s new look? Thoughts about the new look in general? Let us know in the comments.

The new Google bar is supposed to help you navigate quicker through Google services, as well as giving you the capability to share stuff to Google+, while saving prceious browser space.

From the Google Blog: “Instead of the horizontal black bar at the top of the page, you’ll now find links to your services in a new drop-down Google menu nested under the Google logo. We’ll show you a list of links and you can access additional services by hovering over the “More” link at the bottom of the list. Click on what you want, and you’re off.”

The dropdown menu does require a few clicks to get to some of the popular services, but is manageable with the present icons. Also, the new dropdown menu does seem to have more uniformity, especially when you consider Google’s iPad app and Chrome’s tab page.

Some users aren’t a fan of the new bar:

While others welcome the redesigned bar:

What do you think of the new Google bar? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

That is, one that seems to say, “we know what’s best for our users, even better than they do,” or, perhaps, Google simply adopted a “deal with it.” Whatever the case, Google hasn’t had much in the way of reaction to the negativity surrounding the unpopular Google Reader alterations, which only supports the “deal with it” attitude, whether it’s an accurate portrayal of Google’s position or not. One person who has been following the Google Reader story closely is Kevin Fox, who was the lead designer on Google Reader 2.0.

In a post at Fury.com, it’s apparent Fox is also disappointed with the updated Reader, and he also supports the belief these redesigns are simply a push for design uniformity among the various Google products:

I believe this has happened because Google Reader was held to a mandate of refreshing Google products under a common style guide, but from what I’ve been told it had no full-time user experience resource to apply that guide in a way that made sense for the nuances and needs of that particular product.

If the rumors Fury discusses are true, this means Google implemented its Reader redesign without the input of Google Reader users, including the ones who are already employed by the company. If that is indeed the case, it’s no wonder the alterations are being met with disapproval. Imagine if Facebook implemented a redesign developed by a non-Facebook using designer. Since the reaction to any Facebook change is always negative, if a non-Facebook user implemented such a sweeping redesign, the negativity would be increased to nuclear fallout levels.

But yet, apparently Google did the same thing when it redesigned Google Reader, or, well, made it match the overall look and feel the company is striving for. In light of this, Fox has once again offered his services to Google and is willing to fix what wasn’t broken before the redesign took over:

And so I put my resources where my mouth is. As the former lead designer for Google Reader, I offer my services to Google, rejoining for a three month contract in order to restore and enhance the utility of Google Reader, while keeping it in line with Google’s new visual standards requirements. I will put my current projects on hold to ensure that Google Reader keeps its place as the premier news reader, and raises the bar of what a social newsreader can be.

If Google allowed Fox to work his Reader magic, it sounds like Google would get the best of both worlds: Google Reader’s look and feel would match the overall theme Google is apparently committed to, and it would bring back the usability that made the utility so popular to begin with.

The question is, is Google willing to admit its error and allow Fox under the hood or will the company be bound by its own hubris and let the potential of Google Reader erode away?

What do you think of the redesign? Tell us what you think in the comments.

People are creatures of habit, enjoy repetition with few welcoming change. With that philosophy in mind, some “Negative Nancy’s” are sharing their feelings, in 140 characters or less… most notably being Kevin Rose, co-founder of Digg.

Rose isn’t standing alone as Chris Sacca, famed venture investor, was a little more comical critical of the new look.

The criticism isn’t just limited to people with Internet fame, as thousands of everyday TC readers are jumping on the “we hate the new look / logo” bandwagon.

Too be fair, there are those who actually like the TC redesign, and welcome the modifications to the blog.

We’re sure that TC knew what they were getting themselves into, as they have a blog post titled “Redesigning TechCrunch: We Picked This Logo Just to Piss You Off“. Well congrats, as this seems to be the exact sentiment being shared on Twitter.

In the post Feldman talks in depth about the controversial logo:

“I love it, though that’s no accident: we went through many, many options with Code & Theory before finding one we liked. It’s bold, simple, and versatile. It works in any context — from a tiny monochrome icon to a mosaic on a poster. It fits the TechCrunch brand perfectly. And no, we didn’t build it in Minecraft. We used AOL Paint, which comes free on the AOL CD and has this sweet UltraLogoMatic2000 feature.”

Personally, the logo is the only part of the re-do I don’t like. Actually, for the most part it just feels like an everyday WordPress site, nothing more, nothing less.

Do you like TechCrunch’s new logo? Tell us your thoughts in the comments

“We’re testing a new look and feel of our site among users and the response so far has been positive,” according to a MySpace spokesperson. ”As always, we’re interested in hearing feedback from our community as we roll out enhancements to the user experience and look forward to sharing more details with you in the coming weeks.”

The new profile pages feature:

Of the redesign, Google’s VP of Search Products and User Experience, Marissa Mayer explained, "We’ve added contextually relevant, left-hand navigation to the page. This new side panel highlights the most relevant search tools and refinements for your query. Over the past three years, we’ve launched Universal Search, the Search Options panel and Google Squared, and it’s those three technologies that power the left-hand panel."

Here’s a video explaining the changes:

"When you go to Google.com in the US on your iPhone or Android-powered device, and enter a search, you can now tap on the button to the left of the search box on the results page to see a new search options menu," says Google’s Mobile engineering team. "Then, selecting any item in the menu will refine your search. For example, if you are looking for recent results for ‘Mother’s day gift’, simply tap the ‘Past week’ option." 

"You may notice that when the menu expands, the search results slide off screen to the right," the team adds. "Note that you can still interact with them and see them in full just by panning to the right. Also, there are some additional menu options, like "News" and "Products". In the weeks to come, we will be supporting more devices and locales, and expanding the number of options available."

Stay tuned to WebProNews for some tips on optimizing for Google’s new SERPs, which put more options at the forefront of the user’s search experience.

Read Write Web reports:

The new interface is streamlined and more social with an updated relationship system. A focus on consistency (e.g., limiting user control of visual elements) and removal of clutter (e.g., presenting tags in a drop-down menu rather than a cloud) characterize the design changes made. Also, a few tweaks to group sharing were made to help reduce share-spam.

The most significant UX changes have occur[r]ed in the way friendships and subscriptions work on the site.

Now, your friends are you “Mutual Subscribers,” which makes the relationship a little clearer. They’re the people users can share pages with directly from the toolbar.

However, the redesign is largely changes like those—clarifying various site functions, streamlining the design, making things easier for users. The homepage, same as the beta featured earlier this month, highlights recent activity from Mutual Subscribers—but doesn’t place a big emphasis on the social search aspect they were talking about earlier this month.

So is StumbleUpon shying away from that? Or are they worried that their core user base was confused? I know I was a little worried when I first hear the social search news—even though I’m now an infrequent Stumbler, I didn’t want to lose that original “discovery engine,” even if it would be for a working social search model. However, the actual stumbling part of the service would remain—and maybe this is just to remind and reassure their users of that.

But it still seems like they haven’t really played up the social search aspect enough. While I remain highly skeptical of social search, it’s one of those brass rings for mainstream search engines—like Google, which announced Social Search in Labs, using sites that your Google contacts have viewed, as well as sites you’ve seen before in your Web History, Google Reader and associated Google services.

However, with StumbleUpon’s more targeted “Mutual Subscribers” option, you have the ability to control what friends you’re getting information from, instead of results from everyone you’ve ever emailed.

What do you think? Does StumbleUpon have a better chance of getting social search right? Is it shying away from that—and should it, now that Google’s officially thrown its hat into the ring?

Comments

It should be noted that most Twitterers won’t ever see the new homepage, unless they logout of course. But, the new layout isn’t for the "everyday Twitter user", it’s meant for the non-tweeting crowd, or those that don’t see the use for it. Recently, WebProNews featured an article, "The Average American Still Unfamiliar With Twitter", which discussed this very topic. It seems as though Twitter hopes the new homepage will help herd in some of the non-Twitter users.

Do you think the new homepage will help get new users? Tell us.

Twitter Search – Is Twitter competing with search engines now?

With Twitter’s inclusion of search, on the homepage, they’ve now made Twitter useful… even for those who refuse to tweet. WebProNews’ Chris Crum wrote an article about this very topic, and here’s his take on what might happen with Twitter search:

"When a new user comes along to discover Twitter for the first (or even second or third) time, they’ll see that search box. They’ll say to themselves, "What is this? I thought Twitter was just some pointless way to tell people what I am having for breakfast. It’s a search engine now?" Then they will start to understand that there is more to gain from Twitter than what they previously thought."

You might be asking, "What is the big advantage to a Twitter search versus, let’s say Google?" The answer is simple. With Twitter, you get real-time results (which is the next big thing in search). Twitter even highlights this aspect on the new homepage with the following header:

But, don’t think for a second that Google doesn’t know they’re late to the party, in regards to real-time search. Google’s own Larry Page has even stated:

"I have always thought we needed to index the web every second to allow real-time search.  At first, my team laughed and did not believe me.  With Twitter, now they know they have to do it.  Not everybody needs sub-second indexing but people are getting pretty excited about real-time."

Will Twitter be able to lure some searchers away from Google? Let us know what you think.

Trending Topics… umm… I mean Popular Topics

By now you’ve probably noticed that Twitter has added "popular topics" to the homepage. But, these aren’t your everyday, profile page, trending topics. With these you can now see what’s popular right now, today and this week.

If you’re still unclear what the popular topics are about, Twitter offers the following description :

"Twitter looks at every incoming tweet, then ranks the popularity of certain words or phrases in real time. Click any of the popular topics below to see what people are saying about them right now."

The new popular topics, coupled with search, seems to be a strategy that Twitter is employing hoping it leads to new users. @Biz had the following to say about this on the Twitter blog:

"…demonstrating the power of Twitter as a discovery engine for what is happening right now through our Search and Trends often awakens a sense of wonder which inevitably leads to a much more compelling question, "How do I get involved?""

What are your thoughts about the new "Popular Topics"? Tell us.

Popular Topics / Search Results Pages

Let’s say you want to see why "Apple Claims New" is a popular topic, so you click it. You’re then taken to a re-vamped results page, with an added element. Twitter now displays a description of why the topic is popular.

This new description will come in very handy when those odd terms creep up into the popular topics. Below, you can read Twitter’s description of this new addition:

"Twitter looks at every incoming tweet, then ranks the popularity of certain words or phrases in real time. Click any of the popular topics below to see what people are saying about them right now. Some topic descriptions are sourced from What The Trend."

Besides the new description, the results pages are pretty much the same… but they do sport the new updated design. I do wish Twitter would’ve incorporated the FriendFeed sort of ajax auto-refreshing thing they do, that could be turned off and on, of course. (It should be noted that the search results pages look identical.)

Do you find the new descriptions helpful, or distracting? Let us know.

Twitter’s New Search Tips

Upon clicking a popular topic, or doing a search, you’ll notice a new feature in the column, a "Search Tip". Sure, these tips aren’t anything to write home about, but they do highlight some of the underused search operators. I’ve included a few examples of them below:

"Use source: immediately before a particular Twitter source (like a desktop or mobile app) to find tweets posted via that client. Example: weather source:tweetie will find tweets containing "weather" and entered via Tweetie."

"Use until: immediately before a specific date to find tweets sent before and until that date. Example: ftw until:2009-07-16 will find tweets containing "ftw" and sent until date "2009-07-16" (year-month-day)."

Do you currently use any Twitter search operators? Tell us.

Twitter’s Sign up Page

Twitter’s sign up page is probably my biggest complaint with the new design. Why didn’t Twitter update the sign up page with the new look? Isn’t this page the most important to them? It’s the one that brings in the new users.

The sign up page seems very dull and boring when you compare it with the new look. They could’ve at least changed the color scheme to match, but maybe since this page is working well for them, they didn’t want to change it. Personally for me, it feels very disconnected from the new modern look they got going on.

Should Twitter update the design of the sign up page? Tell us.

More Work Ahead

Even though the new Twitter homepage looks great, @Biz is quick to add that they still have a lot of work to do:

"We have a lot of work to do when it comes to the quality of our search results and trend analysis but repositioning the product to focus more on discovery is an important first step in presenting Twitter to a wider audience of folks around the world who are eager to start engaging with new people, ideas, opinions, events, and sources of information.

We’ll likely continue to make changes to the Twitter home page as we respond to feedback and ideas. We’re eager to see if encouraging a sense of wonder and discovery leads to a better first impression of Twitter."

What are some changes you would recommend for the Twitter homepage? Let us know.