Engadget gets a new look and adds Switched to the family!

It's been well over a year since our last big redesign, which in gadget time means our last design was unveiled circa original Walkman. So we're freshening up the whole joint -- all seven sites -- with a brand new design. Oh, and we're also adding an eighth site to the Engadget network: Switched!

Our latest addition, Switched will be dishing out features for those with a more casual interest in tech, as well as highlighting fresh, hand-picked tech news from our network of sister sites. So expect to see hot stories from Engadget classic, Mobile, HD, TUAW, and Download Squad running over there, as well as news from other geeky Weblogs, Inc. sites like Joystiq, Xbox 360 Fanboy, and Wii Fanboy.

As for Engadget's new design, we went through and really cleaned up the joint, yanking out old modules and ads wherever possible. You might spot our new and improved photo gallery browsing and updated looks on things like comments and polls, but it's hardest to miss the new rotating carousel over on the right. Keep an eye on that thing, it's where we'll be plugging in our biggest stories and must-see features.

Of course, launching eight sites at the same time is bound to cause a few problems, so please tap that first adopter attitude and bear with us as we squish bugs and tweak styles. And definitely hit us up in comments to let us know what you think (or if you see anything wonky)!

P.S. -Big ups to the gang that worked tirelessly to make this happen: Matt, Mark, Erik, Gavin, Celly, Alex, Christoph, Charlie, Marty, and the rest of the crew!

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ Apr 10th 2008 2:15AM]

I like it!

[xnifex @ Apr 10th 2008 2:27AM]

is it just me or does hitting the "Comments" link bring you all the way down the page to enter your own comment now instead of to the start of the comments section?

[cmonkey @ Apr 10th 2008 2:29AM]

This is a late April Fool's joke, right?

The new layout is gross. It looks like word soup with chunks of advertisement and pictures floating around in it. Theres no visual distinction between ads and content and columns like there used to be.

[Darkest Daze @ Apr 10th 2008 2:33AM]

The new layout is nice, but needs some serious refining. Text is too small, boxes are oddly shaped and vary in size from one section of site to the next, creating what looks like a lot of open space.

[rTwelve @ Apr 10th 2008 2:51AM]

Yahoo! had something to do with this, I'll bet

I imagine this will eventually roll out to all the other Weblogs, Inc. Which is good, because TV Squad still looks obnoxious as hell

[Aarun @ Apr 10th 2008 3:24AM]

When you view photos, the thing that says (5 out of 10) for an example, gets warped, once the image has finished loading

[FluXulF @ Apr 10th 2008 4:11AM]

I'm glad I'll still be reading all my news incl. Engadget via Google Reader... now THAT'S a good design/layout.

And I guess the question of whether Engadget is skewed towards Apple or not should be answered once and for all with the inclusion of TUAW in Switched ;)

Now I have nothing against Apple as such, I like their white "Moonbase Alpha" design a lot and the iPhone is not only beautiful but also brilliant with its touch-interface, BUT ... They are NOT the "little guy" vs. the Man as some (Engadget?) would have us believe. They treat the consumers like a lot of other big companies (Sony comes to mind first of all) by screwing us with DRM (iTunes) and locked-down gadgets (iPhone) not to mention their own "formats" (QuickTime) instead of trying the OpenSource approach as even Microsoft seem to be getting into these days.

Sorry 'bout the Apple rant, but the TUAW just got me started ;) And don't get me wrong I do like Apple products, I'd just like Engadget to be equally critical towards them as they are towards everyone else... phew :P

[TedB @ Apr 10th 2008 6:11AM]

I like it... but I think it could use just a tad "t-mobile" purple... haha

[nh @ Apr 10th 2008 6:30AM]

I love it too, good work.

It seems to load much quicker and is far less cluttered.

The lines of text are a bit too long though when my browser is full screen - it looks best around 1028 wide. And is there a login link yet?

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Apr 10th 2008 7:40AM]

It's amazing looking looking. I just came to engadget on my friefox, and I'm like "WTF, This is awesome!!" It's a really amazing redesign and I love switched.

[LegendZ28 @ Apr 10th 2008 8:04AM]

Looks good, but it is STILL impossible to get back to the original story a photo gallery comes from. Am I the only one having problems with that? I got to a gallery and have to press back to get all the way back to the story to read what else was in the article.

[John @ Apr 10th 2008 8:22AM]

Maybe you guys over at e))) should consider lobbing off the last two radio waves from your logo. That way, you could make the text bigger and you wouldn't have to crop it (which is traditionally bad form).

[Tinu @ Apr 10th 2008 9:31AM]

This is way too bright on the eyes. Can we get an option to keep using the old layout? Or perhaps another StyleSheet where everything isn't 'light'?

[Luis @ Apr 10th 2008 10:16AM]

This is the SEX!

[Tom B @ Apr 10th 2008 10:25AM]

As a web designer myself, I like this better. As much as I myself have a hard time not using visual boundaries and "over design", this clean look is very easy on the eyes.

[Matt @ Apr 10th 2008 10:51AM]

My first thought: "You BETTER not have changed EngadgetMobile's magenta in response to that T-Mobile C&D letter!"

Surfed over to Mobile -- ahhh, still ugly magenta. Way to stick to your guns. ;-)

I like the new design -- trendy! Now, I wonder if we can edit comments... Will put a blatant tpyo in this sentence and see if I can fix it...

[Matt @ Apr 10th 2008 10:55AM]

*sigh*

Nope.

Come on Engadget. Shiny redesigns are fine but can you please spend some time implementing the most commonly requested feature???

[rv @ Apr 10th 2008 11:25AM]

Its allright. The last one, I believe, was better though.

[Andy @ Apr 10th 2008 11:30AM]

I like it. Good job guys.

[Pete @ Apr 10th 2008 2:10PM]

Looks good... now just figure out a way to sync the comments from the same article that is on both engadget and engadget mobile....

[RyanTV @ Apr 10th 2008 2:10PM]

I liked the old version better.

[Jherez @ Apr 10th 2008 6:33PM]

It's super nice, but please create a darker version of the same layout, this is kinda too much white (brightness)

[ShotSkydiver @ Apr 10th 2008 9:07PM]

You need to bring back the pictures next to the top and featured stories, and move them back to the top of the page so I don't have to keep scrolling down to see them! When I go to Engadget, I like to be able to see the top stories with pictures at a glance without having to scroll down! And darken the background a little!

[Wildness @ Apr 10th 2008 10:53PM]

Nice and clean - Easy to read.

[Beeb @ Apr 11th 2008 2:47AM]

What is this all about? It looks HORRIBLE and was put together by amateurs.

When I mouse over a link, the whole page jumps about. And the ranking buttons just float randomly in the middle of the comment.

[SirCrumpet @ Apr 15th 2008 3:37AM]

Seems the Tag based RSS is broken. Eg. http://www.engadget.com/tag/apple/rss.xml now displays the full feed, not just posts tagged "Apple".

[Chirag Patnaik @ Apr 10th 2008 2:15AM]

This is great new look...

[ClaMs @ Apr 10th 2008 2:47AM]

I agree. Ahhhh....
Feels so nice and fresh.

[AC @ Apr 10th 2008 9:00AM]

Yeah i like it a lot. It's faster, uses up my screen space more effectively and the crap down the right hand side doesn't look such a mess.

[Harkonian @ Apr 10th 2008 12:46PM]

With the larger images I'd be curious to know what the average number of bytes per front page is now compared to the previous design. Because the old site took literally minutes to completely load on my iPhone, so I'm against anything that potentially increases that load time...

[Waveblade @ Apr 10th 2008 2:16AM]

Adequate. But I think it'll have to grow on me

[DarkLightConnection Unbanned @ Apr 10th 2008 3:18AM]

I liked it better when Highest Ranked was black and Highly Ranked green... In threads with a lot of comments (like this one) where you only want to read the highest ranked ones, it was easier to identify them the old way

Also, some fonts are way too small

This isn't a reply to Waveblade, I put my comment here so that it appears on the first page

[DarkLightConnection Unbanned @ Apr 10th 2008 3:21AM]

Oh, and by the way, the login button is broken. It used to just not accept your password... now it does nothing at all.

[mmh @ Apr 10th 2008 7:08AM]

I agree with DarkLightConnection Unbanned, bring back them black Highest Rankeds! Or somehow distinguish them from Highly Rankeds.

[Chris Macdonald @ Apr 10th 2008 3:52PM]

The boxes around the comments are too light!! I can hardly tell one comment from another!

[z3r0D @ Apr 10th 2008 2:17AM]

I dunno, I kinda liked the old layout better.

[Rollins @ Apr 10th 2008 9:42AM]

You're not the only one.

I personally think the new layout is horrid.

[Backlin @ Apr 10th 2008 9:52AM]

This layout is WAY less script-heavy than the last one.
I can respect it.

[Graham @ Apr 10th 2008 10:04AM]

agreed. This one looks almost too clean.
It also doenst format right with firefox which is annoying. When i dont have the window fully maximized I have to keep scrolling back and forth to read it all =(

[vdogg89 @ Apr 10th 2008 1:12PM]

I agree. the new layout is very plain and boring. I miss the apple style gradient for the background. now its just plain white. the plus minus and flag buttons are too transparent. the avatars are too small. the slideshow looks like a freaking ad the entire time. get rid of it.

[Kamokazi @ Apr 10th 2008 4:27PM]

I don't mind the layout so much, I think it's nice and much more clean...what I don't like are the fonts...it's a little wider font and just doesn't seem to read quite as easily I think.

[smilespray @ Apr 10th 2008 2:18AM]

Congratulations! About time, too. :-)

[KangMin @ Apr 10th 2008 2:18AM]

Nice!
some hidden links? or someting? try highlighting the first line of the third paragraph! acts as if pressing space to go down..?

[oshean @ Apr 10th 2008 2:18AM]

Stylin' and profilin'! Good job Engadget!

[oshean @ Apr 10th 2008 2:36AM]

Egad, the previous blog post Reader Comments is wonky. The rating buttons are under the avatars. I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.9.

[oshean @ Apr 10th 2008 2:39AM]

Well now it looks fine....disregard.

[iamchialike @ Apr 10th 2008 2:18AM]

diggin the new look!

[brickwood @ Apr 10th 2008 2:19AM]

rofl.. looks like the old, zoomed in.

[Laura @ Apr 10th 2008 4:29AM]

zoomed out, you mean.

[Kris @ Apr 10th 2008 10:59AM]

Laura, no he means zoomed in. Zooming out would show more of the gray-ish background of the old site.