A New Look

The Blogs By Fans home page underwent some major reconstructive surgery today. Most of the changes were purely cosmetic (and long overdue), but we did add a search engine which will allow you to search across all of the blogs, so give that a whirl.

The page that was replaced (see screenshot after the jump) was one of the first we launched and desperately needed updating, but this is only the beginning. Over the coming weeks and months we'll be moving all of the blogs onto a newer version of our software and rolling out some changes to the network as a whole. When we're done every blogger and reader will have the option of creating a profile and uploading an image that will be displayed next to their comments. You'll be able to keep track of conversations from your profile page, follow other readers and bloggers and various other Web 2.0 activities (Don't worry, the profiles/logins will be completely voluntary, if you don't want to create one, you can still comment just like you do now). We'll also have a basic rating system so you can vote on your favorite posts.

As for usability, the new software adds some bells and whistles which should drastically improve both the load times of our sites as well as the time it takes to submit a comment.

I'd love to be able to give you a definitive timetable for all of this, but my wife and I are expecting our second child any day now, so there are no guarantees. Rest assured, the changes are coming. In the mean time, enjoy the new BBF home page, let me know what you think about it and as always, thanks for being part of the community.

Sincerely,

Brian
Founder, Blogs By Fans

P.S. if you're feeling nostalgic for the old site, you can still see it after the jump.