The website for The Indian Express has received a makeover, and the new design went live sometime after September 4th (screencap). They’ve completely removed the left sidebar, and used that to give the headlines more space, making it more readable. Most of the navigation appears to be remarkably similar to the index page of IBNLive.com, which is still desperately pushing in.com, and offers two shoshkeles on loading, usability-be-damned.
Three notable changes - Discussions and blogs are now showcased on the front page. City specific links - for Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Ludhiana - have been pushed down. These were earlier linked to via the left navigation bar. The top navigation bar now links to specific verticals like City News, Business, Sports, Lifestyle and Health; earlier it listed other Express group sites - Express India, Financial Express, Screen etc. I think they do need to do something about the Latest News section, though - the top three stories all relate to the “Big Bang” experiment, which gives the impression that that’s all the Indian Express is about.
Overall, the site looks driven by content rather than advertising, without many in-your-face ads. Lets see how long that lasts.
