Welcome to the 2010 AnandTech Beta
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 29, 2010 11:52 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
That old design lasted us a long time, didn't it? :) Welcome to the 2010 AnandTech Beta. We've done a lot of updating behind the scenes as well as (obviously) on the front end.
Most obvious is the brand new look and feel. For a site that reviews the latest and greatest tech, we can't get by looking like we're still living in 2004. Now when the 80s make a comeback we'll be on top of that, you've got my word.
We've ditched the left hand column, streamlined some of the ads and widened the content column. While each article will still give you a preview of 10 comments, we finally have an option to view all comments on each review page. Right now we've got this set to 50 comments per page but we'll be tweaking as need be. We're also cutting down on the number of page loads you'll encounter. In view all comments mode there's no page refreshing between comment pages. We'll be bringing this feature to more parts of the site in the future. User friendliness is our drug :)
The front page allows for both linking to our superlong articles as well as shorter stories that can just appear on the front page for quick scanning. By default the latest 5 articles will appear in the rotating carousel up top, but if something super interesting comes up we'll promote it up there (similar to what did on the old site). The expanded summaries on the front page will give you more insight into what it is we're talking about in the article before you ever click anything.
Tags are enabled but not in full effect just yet. We'll be beefing up search, comments (the return of ratings!), galleries, Bench, user profiles and site layout/color customization over the coming weeks. We're planning on this being a regularly updated thing so if you see anything that warrants our attention let us know.
It's not all about a pretty face though, we're still going to be publishing the content that you demand from us. If you haven't seen it, be sure to read Ryan's GeForce GTX 480 & GTX 470 Review. And I'm commemorating today with a new SSD article addressing one of the longest running questions you've been asking: how do SSDs perform in RAID?
As always, thank you for your support over the years and for reading the site. It's been a pleasure to be able to write for you all over the past 13 years. Thank you guys for giving me and all of us the opportunity to do just that. If you haven't been able to tell by now, I love writing this stuff - and you all make it possible.
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macs - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
No more "print button" to see the whole article in one page?please, I need it :-(
Anyway, the site looks great! Congratulations!
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Crap! The Print function is there, it's just hidden right now. The widget it is a part of has some additional functionality that's not enabled right now. I'll try to get it enabled asap though, I know a lot of folks use it!Take care,
Anand
Rasterman - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
I totally agree, this is the #1 reason I use your site over Toms Hardware, 1 page reading is a MUST.kb9fcc - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
I second that! After the initial jar of seeing the new layout the first thing I noticed was the lack of the print button. I too enjoy reading the whole articles on a single page as I can scroll back and forth as I please to suit my reading style.The second control or button I thought this site had was a width button which allowed a wider view of the pages especially on wide screen monitors. I don't even have one on this computer and almost 40% of the screen is wasted in grey borders with a thin strip left in the middle for content. (of which a 1/3 is consumed by the right sidebar). It would look ok on a monitor in portrait mode, but that's not an option here.
Anand, you have a great site. I come here first for tech news and reviews and check the "others" later because the content is great and easy to access. Keep up the good work!
btkcsd - Thursday, April 1, 2010 - link
Could you please make the new print button not explicitly resize the new window but use the same window size as the original page?Testeo - Thursday, April 1, 2010 - link
The print button is (for me) one of the reasons that makes the diference with others tech sites, I NEED view the articles in one single page for analize yours excelents reviewsScifiterX - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
The good: it is easier to read and navigation appears pretty straight forward.The bad: it looks to far too similar to so many other tech sites
imachip - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Just want to say thanks for all your efforts Anand and team for making it my favourite tech site on the internet. It's nice to hear you still enjoy publishing articles after all these years, so long may it continue :)GeorgeH - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Overall it's a very, very nice look. Even being so used to the old layout, I was almost instantly comfortable with the new one, which is a great sign and shows the quality of the design.There are some incredibly minor things that I would personally tweak, but only one worth mentioning; the lack of any break between the vertical list of articles is a little jarring. Something very subtle (like ArsTechnica's line of dots) might work well without breaking the excellent "clean" aesthetic you've got going.
Zaitsev - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
I agree with having a minor break between articles. I think it would contribute to the 'clean look.'