In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been working hard today to make your favourite gadget site even easier to read and interact with.
It’s not just a superficial design change though – we’ve jumped over to a whole new CMS which should significantly improve the backend of the site for the user. These improvements include making it easier to share your favourite Giz posts with the world via Digg, Facebook, Twitter and about 50 other social networking sites, Facebook Connect to let you comment on Giz using your Facebook profile, and a better archive management solution to let you browse through our extensive back catalog of gadget news and reviews easily.
We’re working through the initial teething problems now, but stick with us and you’ll have an even better Gizmodo experience. Let us know what you think!
simon
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 3:41 PMfrankly i liked the old site more. it kinda displayed information quickly and easily – i didnt have to jump into each thread just to get an idea of what was going on – probably doesnt make sense…. but i liked the big pictures!
i saw kotaku.com roll into their new design a while ago, i was kinda hoping giz.au wasnt going to jump as well… oh well, it wont stop me visiting
Ben
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 4:05 PMIts shit
Nick Broughall
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 4:20 PMAny constructive criticism for us?
Craig
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 7:10 PMI liked the old site better. Well mainly the big pictures. Because you could actually see what is in them. For example, the iPhone video conferencing kit, now the little pic you cannot see if at all, which is actually the funny bit. I Like to just scroll through the website and look at the stuff, and if i want to see more I click and read the entire article.
RSS!!!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 3:55 PMWhy is the RSS feed now only have 10 entries?!?
Before it was 40.
40 was a good amount. You have crippled yourself.
Bring back the 40!
And bring it back to LH and Kotaku too!
Kaan Kivilcim
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 11:29 AMHey mate,
If you’re using a RSS feed reader on your computer you might want to switch to a web based one because they’ll capture everything that comes through the RSS feed without missing out on anything. As it is, if you don’t check the feed every day, even with 40 posts in the feed, you’ll be missing articles.
kk
Newsfire
Friday, June 12, 2009 at 7:23 PMI didn’t realise that, and think its a shame as I love Newsfire and don’t know of a web-based one that is similar. Any exist?
Aaron Divitini
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 3:55 PMHrmm i sis like Gizmodo b4, but this is nice too :)
Mike Anthony
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 4:03 PMHmmm, at first glance I don’t like it. But that’s probably because I resist change a lot. lol, I was wondering what had happened when I was browsing giz and suddeny a big fat ’500′ error popped up…
Nick Broughall
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 4:20 PMWe’re ironing out those 500 error kinks now. Hopefully it won’t take us long…
Josh
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 4:06 PMNew skin looks fine and shiny new in Safari 4.0 im glad giz.au has picked up this similar style to giz.us.
Great Job Guys!!
Robert
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 4:09 PMArgh change!!
I agree that I liked the old big pictures – simple people us gadget junkies
Ben
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 4:16 PMI liked the big pictures! Now it’s all hard to read, I have to squint :( Otherwise it’s a cool layout. What happened to title click, whats with the ‘more>’ button :((
Nick Broughall
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 4:19 PMThe big pics aren’t completely gone, they’ll just be selected for important posts. At the moment, I’m still adjusting to the new CMS, but give it a coupl eof days and everything will be running smooth-as.
Roman
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 4:21 PMThe only suggestion i could make is that i liked to be able to click the title of each post to continue to the full article. Apart from that, nice. :)
PinballLes
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 6:54 PMI agree, I like the new look, however I would like clickable headings. I like the new comments.
jit
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 4:30 PMI like the new look…
Just one suggestion… Can you make the “view more” to be a expand/collapse twisty it would keep it nice with the flow of the design.. That way, ppl wont jump to another page to just read the article…
da fool
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 4:41 PMThe layout is better, however Im not to sure if its fixed the problem of us Aussies getting all the US news a late. Its the reason I view the US site more than the AU site. I mean does the US site even see our AU articles? Or our comments for that matter?
Nick Broughall
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 4:47 PMTo answer your questions in a single word – no. It’s physically impossible to integrate our comments system with the US comments system – we’ve tried. Just not possible. As for Australian stories – if there’s a post that I feel may have international newsworthiness, I’ll fling it through to the mothership. But generally speaking, our Australian content doesn’t really interest their American audience…
In either case, our aim is to create a thriving community for the Australian gadget-loving audience. And this latest design is a step towards that…
da fool
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 5:11 PMYeah certainly the site is moving in the right direction and this is another step forward. It does keep getting better, I was just wondering if at all the Americans could see our news. I understand that it may not be of as much interest to them as theirs is to us but it was just a thought.
On the topic of AU comments V US comments, I think it has its pluses and minuses about not being able to integrate. On the one hand we dont get an influx of ‘Americanism’ you could say, but on the other hand our comments section is not nearly as full or large as theirs. It is funny to see how close minded they are when it comes to the rest of the world though in terms of tech and the internet. Its kind of like rubbing salt on the wound when we dont even register to them.
Gumby79
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 5:52 PMKILL IT KILL IT WITH FIRE
the old page was SO much better, ive given it a test whirl and it is, well, crap
old one back
I loved it when there were big images, the images were ASUM and often funny, now they are too small to see if there funny or not!
also the text around the images in the article just seems a bit unnecessary
Bob
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 6:24 PMNew look is ok, probably a little faster to load.I don’t mind the Seppo’s not being able to see Au comments.It’s a bit like a big Seppo fish tank, us on the outside, looking in at the funny Seppos.
Does anyone else still call them Seppo’s ?
SF
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 6:38 PMFrom a business perspective, great layout.
This means you can run a leaderboard, medium rectangle and half-page/skyscraper ad “inside” the content. That’s a good proposition to advertisers.
Looks good.
d-_-b
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 7:12 PMI like the new layout but would like the pictures to be bigger
Landsblerg
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 7:15 PMGreat stuff guys!!! I’m loving the new look and feel! I felt the old site was looking tired and mucky in comparison to the US site. So well done and good luck!
Grant
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 7:30 PMIt looks the same as Lifehacker, really dont like it at all :( Go back to the old design!!
Jeremy
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 7:48 PMTo me it just looks like you trying to increase space for advertising, the layout isn’t quite as user-friendly in my opinion..
The summary of things is a little to brief for my liking… and i loved how the images were the main attraction for the old theme.. so maybe make them a little/lot bigger
Gregory Opera
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 8:05 PMWell I’m just glad Gizmodo FINALLY has Facebook Connect support – it’s been driving me nuts that other major sites have offered this service, whilst Gizmodo has not (’till now at least)…
Tristan
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 8:10 PMSorry Nick, not sure if it is just the change thing, but I prefer the old style more so, it was just easier to read.. less clutter… I used to HATE reading the US site… don’t suppose it’s easy to offer both?
I’m sure I’ll get used to it…
simon
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 10:33 PMi agree, it feels more cluttered – the news items dont seem straight to the point, u cant just visually glance at it and move on, u actually have to “read” each item to see what its about.
i guess thats why i liked the old sites big pictures, u could see everything in a quick snapshot and move on.
i like the new site, but its missing that “glance and move on” style the old giz had.
Damo
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 9:04 PMLike the old site better for the bigger images but love the new site for the look and feel. Feels more compact and concise. A bit more 2009 while the old site was a bit 2000. Would be cool to have a few extra stories on each page, don’t think it scrolls down enough but overall think the change is pretty decent and if the CMS is easier to use and more content will be going up then can’t complain.
Daniel
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 9:04 PMChange is not a bad thing, as long as it isn’t a step in the wrong direction. It does, however, take some getting used to. I think that I will reserve my judgement for a few days…
Jason
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 9:34 PMIt sucks. I liked the fact that your blog had larger pics and a reasonable amount of textual description before the jump.
samiam
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 10:27 PMI have to say I really dislike the new layout. It feels cramped and very empty. Perhaps if the images were bigger or there was more text. Basically more like the old layout.
Chris
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 10:43 PMI preferred the old layout. Bigger pictures, and the text wasn’t squashed in next to the picture. I don’t want to have to click on an article just to see the picture properly.
And I know it was the same on the old site, but I’m pretty sure all of us now have fairly wide screens…it’d be nice if the site used the empty space on the sides more effectively…a wider layout that scaled to the browser would be nice – like engadget…there I said it.
And the huge chunk on the side for ads isn’t cool. Most of us will have adblock anyway and won’t see them.
Stew
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 10:47 PMUsing Firefox in WinXP, all the high-res pics are tiny. Eg. the comparison chart from:
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/06/iphone_3gs_vs_iphone_3g_feature_chart_comparison-2/
or the 48 points of MS Natal from:
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/06/yes_but_iwhichi_48_points_does_project_natal_track-2/
or the extensive T&Cs of the iPhone 3Gs from:
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/06/does_apple_want_iphone_3gs_buyers_to_go_blind_or_die_of_boredom-2/
The only way I can see the full res images is if I copy & paste the image into an image-viewing or editing prorgram like Irfanview or MSPaint – and I shouldn’t have to do that. Why post a high-res pic (eg. 804×1311 like the last iPOhone 3Gs link)
I definitely prefer the “full res, all the time” GizAU of old (except for mobile RSS feeds obviously) – not just full-res for “important” posts. I don’t see why there needs to be any thumbnails where. I preferred the simplicity I think of the old site, and the one before, but I’m sure I’ll adjust to this newer US-styled one.
I don’t care too much about connectivity to Facebook / Twitter etc… what’s wrong with just good ‘ol copy & paste?
Please keep titles click-able through to the full article
The refresh rate from US posts to AU posts is slowish still (well, it was before this new site – don’t know if it’s updated) which makes me have to go to us.giz for the latest updates (eg. Palm Pre launch)
Please also keep the ability to view entire days’ posts at a time – eg.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/06/09/
I use this all the time. Helps me track where I’m up to should I get backlogged on holidays or with work etc.
And I don’t know how much leeway you have over this from Giz’s parent company, but maybe asking for user feedback before switching in the future? Preview a few layouts with screenshots showing main screen, solitary articles and comment system – then see what people like more.
But *definitely* first and foremost – large pics, all the time for starters.
But thanks and keep it up!
-Stew