Earlier this week I blasted Propeller for its new look. It clearly was a step down. Today I’ve got another social bookmarking service as my target. And this time I’m going to praise them for their new look.
Delicious did things the right way. We heard about Delicious planning a new look last year. And it took every bit of the entire year to tinker, test, and roll it out. It is evident that AOL didn’t go through that trouble to introduce the new version of Propeller. But here’s what I like about the new Delicious:
- It’s beautiful - The new design is a huge improvement over the old the design. Bravo!
- It’s not a drastic change - Yes, Delicious looks different, but it’s not a drastic change. The format is still basically the same as it was before. It just looks a little bit more Web 2.0, or 21st century.
- The bookmarking process was streamlined - Propeller gets kudos on this, but unlike Propeller, Delicious didn’t drop any essential features. They kept all the same features as before, but now they’re prettier and work better.
- A new domain name - If you type in the old URL - del.icio.us - you’ll be redirected to the new one at http://delicious.com. That may seem insignificant, but it isn’t. Delicious is popular enough that people will hear about it from a friend and try to type it into their web browser. What will they type? No one will intuitively figure out del.icio.us, but almost everyone will automatically go for delicious.com. It’s intuitive and it was a brilliant move.
- I didn’t lose any friends from my network in the process - Propeller killed my friends. Delicious saved them. Do I really need to elaborate?
- Figuring out subscriptions is easier - I couldn’t figure out how to start a subscription with the old Delicious. I’ve already started two with the new Delicious. Great going guys!
- The tag cloud is cool - I’m not a big fan of tag clouds, but when I click on the “Tags” link in my profile, I see a big tag cloud with all of my tags and it looks cool. At a glance, I can see what my most popular tags are. I can do the same with my network of friends. Awesome!
- Saving bookmarks from my network of friends is just like it used to be - Wow! Can you do that? Propeller didn’t. They made it more cumbersome even while they made other aspects of their service less cumbersome.
I like the new Delicious. I will likely use it more often now. I will definitely use it more often than Propeller. Before Propeller’s remake, I liked it better than Delicious but not as much as StumbleUpon or Mixx. Now, Delicious has moved into my No. 3 spot and Propeller is dropping. Aren’t facelifts fun?
