Site Makeovers … Boingboing, AuctionAds and Digg

BoingBoing, one of the most popular blogs on the web, occasionally came under fire for not being a “blog” because it didnt allow readers to comment on entries. Well BoingBoing has just been somewhat revamped and has taken a new design. The new design is fairly straight forward and the BoingBoing team seems to have deleted all of the data that used to be found in their left hand column on the old version. The new style also allows them to grow there advertising potential all the way down the right hand side of the page, so im sure before too long that will be full.

Additionally, there’s a new Boing Boing Gadgets vertical helmed by former Gizmodo editor Joel Johnson.

Boing Boing co-editor Mark Frauenfelder hinted that more new developments are coming in the near future, too. Could more verticals be on the way, eventually leading to a full-out blog network?

AuctionAds has done an update in a number of areas of what they are offering publishers with what they describe as a new ‘Web 2.0 Ad Creative’ (new colors and a new design – see the example below).

They’ve also optimized ad images (much improved) and have updated their hardware which will improve uptime of the network.

Via (Problogger)

As mention last week Digg launched a new look to its very popular site and it has finally come.

Paul Glazowski from Profy talks about the new digg design and states ” Before, the menu at the top was arranged in decent fashion, but was nonetheless a bit too crowded. Categories were “smushed” close together. It wasn’t the prettiest it could be. The newest notch on Digg’s evolutionary timetable, however, is very lovely indeed. Much more so than its ancestor. Without question.”

I however am not too sure about the header bar itself. I think the new design lacks a bit of crispness and it a little too “web 2.0″ for me.

It is also noticeable that the advertising banner at the top of the page has been removed and replaced with a new 300 x 250 banner on the right hand side, thus lowering the fold. As we all know the 300 x 250 ads will now be provided by Microsoft and has exactly been met with rapturous applause within the Digg community.

TechCrunch’s Duncan Riley might see the updated spectrum of hues as more feminine than before, and personally i think he is right, but it should draw from the fact that the new Digg site looks and feel a whole lot better than before.