Engadget: now faster, with better galleries, and fully ready for CES
by Ryan Block 
posted Jan 5th 2008 at 4:23PM
- CES-optimized news page (ces.engadget.com). When you're publishing as much as CES demands, you need to be able to zoom out a bit for ease of use. Many will recognize this from CES 2007, but we've made a few improvements (like a video content grid, better easier gallery access, and so on); we will have a default page-version selector soon, so watch out for that.
- New galleries! You asked for it, you got it. We aren't by any means finished improving the design and usability of our galleries (in fact, we'll be further tweaking them over the next couple of days), but for now the images should at least be easier to browse and select, and faster to load. If you've got further input, let us know..
- Further speed improvements. We know, Engadget has been sucking lately in terms of load-speed. A lot of this has to do with the way our ads are loaded, but we made a few tweaks to our setup and code that has the site jumping faster than ever -- even despite the ridiculous amount of media we serve with every page. Go nuts on F5, the bandwidth is on us.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
cereal @ Jan 5th 2008 1:51AM
OMG I love you! The galleries = sex.
Chuckles McGee @ Jan 5th 2008 3:38PM
Especially when it's of the gadget models.
nerdtalker @ Jan 5th 2008 5:16PM
I agree. Very nice job engadget, I wish other blogs were as on-top of getting things like load speed and the galleries ahead of the curve!
Keep it up!
Skorpius @ Jan 5th 2008 1:58AM
Very nice.
Retroclutch @ Jan 5th 2008 1:59AM
Excellent now the Macworld 2008 Keynote thread won't take forever to reload. Thanks and keep up the good work.
James Cameron @ Jan 5th 2008 2:00AM
That 4speakers totally destroy the already nice looking monitor. How sad.
paul34 @ Jan 5th 2008 2:01AM
You buy me bandwidth, and I'll buy you guys a beer if you come to Orlando.
Ghen @ Jan 5th 2008 1:03PM
vote++ =)
Gavin @ Jan 5th 2008 3:05PM
The Blogsmith team is based out of Orlando. We will take you up on that beer ;)
silverblackvoid @ Jan 5th 2008 2:04AM
bigger, better, faster, more!
ethana2 @ Jan 5th 2008 3:06AM
...post edits?
ethana2 @ Jan 5th 2008 3:08AM
I'll give them that it does seem snappier... and it's probably on their list... I hope..
Ghen @ Jan 5th 2008 1:05PM
I prefer the non-editable posts, then we can continue to mock someone's mistake well after they realize and wish to change it.
ohyeah @ Jan 5th 2008 2:18AM
I think you broke it... I switch to CES by using the radio button at the top and then when i click the article link it doesn't do anything .... using latest version of firefox
Michael LaFramboise @ Jan 5th 2008 2:20AM
same on Safari 3 Mac
Will @ Jan 5th 2008 2:23AM
same here with firefox 3 beta 2
Robert @ Jan 8th 2008 10:29PM
My flight leaves for Las Vegas tomorrow...and I will read every word of Engadget each evening in my hotel room to see what I missed the day before and what I will certainly visit the next day...required reading! You are the best...have a great CES, I know I will!
Robert @ Jan 8th 2008 10:28PM
My flight leaves for Las Vegas tomorrow...and I will read every word of Engadget each evening in my hotel room to see what I missed the day before and what I will certainly visit the next day...required reading! You are the best...have a great CES, I know I will!
mmh @ Jan 5th 2008 2:25AM
For some reason, opening more than one engadget page in IE7 sends my CPU to 100%, doesn't happen with other sites. Hopefully, this upgrade somehow fixed that.
Oh, and that gallery upgrade was long overdue but still sweet nonetheless.
Luigi193 @ Jan 5th 2008 11:28AM
IE7...
Ipaq3115 @ Jan 5th 2008 12:10PM
Thats cause IE7 stinks... Get Firefox...
michael @ Jan 5th 2008 10:03PM
@Ipaq3115:
As much as Firefox is neat, IE7 isn't all that bad. Really. I've used both, and I personally prefer IE7's RSS feeder, and I think the tabbed browsing does a bit more than what comes with FF. And it doesn't have the memory leaks.
So please stop with the IE7 hate. IE6 sucks for sure though.
If anything is bad, call it Safari. It's almost impossible to make add-ons/extensions for it! I know, I'm a programmer.
holycow @ Jan 5th 2008 2:33AM
It would be good if the gallery had the possibility of going to the next image by clicking on the current image.
Other than that awesome job!
crescentdavid @ Jan 5th 2008 2:35AM
It just goes to same page. The link that's given is the same as the referring page. In FF & IE. The galleries, on the other hand, are a great improvement. Congrats.
waiownsyou @ Jan 5th 2008 3:01AM
The galleries are great, but that panel on the right needs to GTFO on the optimized version
waiownsyou @ Jan 5th 2008 3:03AM
Oh yeah, and I think you should move the thumbnail preview under the previous/next bar because it's annoying to click them once a larger sized image has loaded followed by a smaller and vice versa.
BTW, I LIKE CHICKEN
rockstar @ Jan 5th 2008 3:14AM
I'm a UI designer as well. There are a few things that I think aren't working on the CES page.
1. I see there is hierarchy whereas the left content is more important than the middle one (red). But somehow my eyes are drawn toward the middle one big times.
2. The problem with the page right now is that there are so many information at the same times and I'm lost. No idea which article should I read first.
In other words, I'd prefer the classic one better.
Jason Golden @ Jan 5th 2008 3:19AM
Great work, one further refinement: the date in the top bar of the gallery is date/month/year. Can we switch it to the same style as the comments, month/date/year please? I haven't used date first since I lived in Japan, thought CES had already passed us by.
Mistarix @ Jan 5th 2008 3:38AM
Congrats on the galleries and speed of the page! I am looking forward to refreshing your site during MacExpo.
Improvement proposal for galleries:
- Add picture counter (e.g. "4/17")
- Clickable images to go to the next one
- Return link to article
wesg @ Jan 5th 2008 7:02PM
+1 for link to article
sys_ops911 @ Jan 5th 2008 5:11AM
great work guys. The speed is definitely noticeable as is the absence of galleries that suck ass.
Well done.
Jazper @ Jan 5th 2008 6:15AM
Seems you get no gallery if you don't allow cookies to 207.net and/or atwola. That, um, sucks, since I never let ad folks know squat about me. I have disabled adblocking (since that also appears to be a problem) and still no joy. Oh well, I don't use the gallery much anyway.
John @ Jan 5th 2008 7:27AM
The galleries could use a link back to the main article.
Sometimes I click through the featured galleries whenever I'm bored, and to learn anything about what I'm looking at I have to run a search for the post.
f00fighter @ Jan 5th 2008 10:14AM
I wish that each image in a gallery was not considered a different page in the history stack of the browser. It would be nice to view an entire gallery of photos and then just click the [Back] button of the browser just once to return to the referring page (whether it was the extended post of the article or Engadget front page).
Right now you have to click the [Back] button for each item in the gallery + 1 to get back to where you started before entering the gallery.
Orbberius @ Jan 5th 2008 8:30AM
Copy Facebook and make it so that when you click on a picture in a gallery, it takes you to the next one. I can't stand galleries that don't do that.
SpectreGadget @ Jan 5th 2008 8:41AM
Dont' know if it's Engadget or Bloglines, but when i link in from bloglines, the gallery link gets corrupted:
http://www.engadget.com/photos/dell-crystal-1/ =
http://www.bloglines.com/photos/dell-crystal-1/
Austin @ Jan 5th 2008 8:56AM
So when you guys say the bandwidth is on us do you mean that every time someone comes on your site and uses bandwidth that you have to pay for it?
Great job BTW.
Galley @ Jan 5th 2008 9:24AM
I'm taking Jan. 15th off from work for some hot Macworld liveblogging action. I'll be camped out on Engadget.com all day!
CUBSWILLWIN @ Jan 5th 2008 10:06AM
What a stupid reason to take off. Live blog from your work computer or work at home like I do.
Galley @ Jan 5th 2008 10:08AM
The network speed at work is terribly slow, and I can't guarantee I will be at my desk during the keynote.
MIKE @ Jan 5th 2008 10:58AM
way to go with the new galleries very nice
gold1 @ Jan 5th 2008 11:19AM
Each gallery picture needs a return link to article.
Sometimes you have the best gallery pictures,but if
I want to view each large image it is a pain to go back to the artical that got me to the gallery.
Keep up the great work and good luck in LV / CES.
njcalugar @ Jan 5th 2008 12:11PM
I could have made you a gallery using AJAX or Flash. Then you could have scrolled through the pics and only have to press back once to get back to the article...
punkintoter2 @ Jan 5th 2008 3:47PM
Then it wouldn't work on my ipod touch, and i'm going to have to use that until i get home from school. My bus ride is an hour long.
Bob S. @ Jan 5th 2008 12:32PM
If it helps, between Privoxy and a very detailed hosts file, my Mac doesn't even send out requests for ad files. I'll keep Javascript turned off too -- win-win.
Ipaq3115 @ Jan 5th 2008 1:57PM
Could we keep the CES Optimized layout option after CES?
I kinda like it...
punkintoter2 @ Jan 5th 2008 3:47PM
Where is the next page button? I don't see it on my computer or my iPod Touch.
jonas @ Jan 5th 2008 6:07PM
- there is no point in limiting gallery previews to only five images. in most cases this doesnt do any better than just having one image. show them all please :)
- clicking an image in a gallery should load the next one in the set (like facebook and many other sites). that way the user doesnt have to scroll up and hit the next button again. the image becomes a huuuuuge button sort of.
wesg @ Jan 5th 2008 7:05PM
Now if only my internet didn't suck so much
engadget @ Jan 5th 2008 11:44PM
I know you said your gallery is still under construction, but I gotta say they have always sucked a little IMHO. I have seen better Galleries using the free CopperMine software.
1) PLEASE GOD slim down the title area where the Engadget Logo is and such. Perhaps move the Image Number and the other stuff below the log and above the picture to the right of the Logo such that the picture is now immediately below the logo. I hate having to scroll down especially considering i'm running at 1600x1200
2) SLIDESHOW BUTTON - Again, this should be pretty samn primitive to implement. I dont care if you do it by page loading or if you do it by using a Java Image swapper like someone previously mentioned, but please god I want to be able to press 1 button and have the pictures in a particular gallery show up for 3-5 seconds and then move on to the next one without me having to click the next pic button (and then scroll down (see #1))
3) CAPTIONS - I find it totally bugs me when you post a gallery with multiple products (Like ohhhh, CES booth vivits might have) and the article says Behold the X, Y and Z and then I go to the Gallery and I see 3 sets of pictures but nothing to tell me which one is X, Y or Z. And you dont HAVE to caption every picture, but there are some where it just makes sense.
4) I didnt think of it on my own, but a button that takes you from the gallery back to the article would be nice.
I love the format of Engadget and the main articles, and I really hope these improvements to the gallery will make it just as user friendly.
-Casper42