InfoWorld.com has a new home page

If you’re reading this column on InfoWorld.com, you’ve probably already picked up on our new look. If you’re reading it in the pulp-and-ink version (aka InfoWorld magazine), you may be in for a surprise. In either event, let me take this opportunity to offer a quick browsing tour of the redesigned home page and explain the thinking behind what our Web team has done.

The top priority was to make our content easier to find — a challenge, given the site’s continuously updated stream of news stories, reviews, features, columns, blogs, RSS feeds, and IT Product Guide entries. So we started with real estate: a four-column, wide-screen format that takes advantage of the higher resolutions most of our site visitors favor. The extra column imparts a cleaner, less cramped look; it feels good to stretch our legs a bit, throw in the occasional patch of white space.

We’ve dressed the top story with original art, carved out a left-hand navigation bar (including a Hot Topics pointer to highlight subjects of particular interest), and relocated the breaking-news Tech Watch blog to a central position. Jon Udell’s many fans will appreciate the newly created Jon’s Corner, which houses his blog postings and weekly column. Meanwhile, our nine other blogs — including Ed Foster’s crusading Gripe Line, the innovative Storage Network (hosted by Mario Apicella), and Ed Scannell’s SMB Blog — are but a single scroll down the page. Ditto for the electronic version of the current print issue (click the magazine cover photo in the left column for a full table of contents).

Atop the right column, take a gander at our revamped IT Product Guide. Not only have we bumped up our coverage to include write-ups of more than 1,500 pieces of hardware and software, but we’ve incorporated InfoWorld Test Center reviews and scoring where applicable. Look also for a Test Center-driven list of top-rated products across multiple categories, mirroring the popular Leaderboard section featured in the print magazine.

Until last week we’ve been posting 10 original columns on the site every Friday afternoon, just about the time most of you were heading out the door for the weekend. What were we thinking? To deliver insights to you in a more timely fashion, we’ll be parceling out two columns per weekday: Editor’s Letter and Open Enterprise on Monday; Reality Check and CTO Connection on Tuesday; Strategic Developer and Ahead of the Curve on Wednesday; Storage Insider and Enterprise Windows on Thursday; and Security Adviser and Cringely’s Notes From the Field on Friday.

As with any growing Web site, InfoWorld.com is a work in progress, with plenty of additional changes to come. Shoot me an e-mail and tell me what you think.