Hello Internet People-
It’s January 15, 2010, and for those keeping track, it’s our two-month anniversary. To those of you that have been here since Nerd World, we really appreciate you coming back and dealing with the change. I hate change just as much as you do but I would not have signed up for this gig if I didn’t think I could help enrich your nerd-y lifestyle. For those of you just joining us in the last couple of months or weeks, I want to thank you and welcome you to Techland.
When we first launched and rebranded Nerd World into Techland on November 16, 2009, we really had no idea what was going to happen. Our main goal is to give you the business without all the clutter you find elsewhere. We don’t like to waste our time writing two sentence posts and we definitely don’t like wasting yours.
By now you’ve surmised what it is that we cover. Some of you might not have interest in everything we cover, but one day there might be something that catches your eye and just know that there’s plenty more where that came from. It’s hard to explain what exactly Techland is. I’ve struggled to come up with an analogy that makes sense, but I don’t really think I need to. A friend of mine once said it was the closest thing to Daily Radar, which happened to be one of his favorite sites from yesteryear. Draw your own conclusions. Take away what you want from it.
And it turns out that our homepage redesign has FINALLY come through. Check it out. We’ve eliminated the categories below the fold and given you “The Straight Feed.” It was pretty clear that the homepage was a little confusing. Truth be told, it was confusing for us too. Now you know in reverse chronological order what’s what. Those little skyboxes next to the logo will house features like Doug’s video reviews, the Techland Show, various listicles, Lev’s App Club, etc. We even started a podcast with yours truly that lives below the ad. “Most Popular” is pretty straightforward. And on the article pages, we moved all those annoying buttons (retweet, facebook share, etc.) up top so they’re out of the way.
Old Techland
New Techland
Those are some of the major tweaks, but we still have plenty of work left to do. We’ll have updated galleries soon so you won’t have to click to a new page for every list we publish. We know it sucks, but it was the only way to make those lists worthwhile for you. And we obviously welcome your feedback. This is, after all, for you guys. We’re just here to facilitate the news, so you can go about your daily lives.
If you haven’t noticed, Tracey John has left the Techland family and we’re bummed about it, but things happen. It’s tough for journalists these days and when you’re offered a staff position somewhere, you take it. You’ll see a few new faces in the coming weeks and we’re giddy to get them started but we can’t tell you who they are yet. Trust me when I tell you that they kick ass.
I think that’s it for now, folks. Gotta get back to making Techland kick more ass. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Thanks for sticking around.
-Peter
Editor of Techland