The Homepage, Refreshed

The author is Editor-in-Chief of Seeking Alpha

We updated Seeking Alpha's homepage design over the weekend in a way that, I believe, represents a huge step forward for both our site's development and the direction that all online media could take.

You'll notice two main changes: we've widened our popular Market Currents (which provides near-real-time coverage of the market) so it's easier to read, and we've redesigned our central column to allow clearer organization around themes.

We're doing something unique in this central column - here's a model element with red gloss to explain:

I'm convinced that readers of market news and analysis want more than any single website can provide - on its homepage or anywhere on its own site. We want everything seen here: links to primary sources, a limited number of concise news sources on the issue (more than one only if they are differentiated), and a few voices of commentary that are genuinely insightful, informed and unique. We want a smart editor to curate these links, telling a full story around the theme, without making the obviously false implicit claim that the editor's own site contains everything one desires reading on the matter.

Yet most media sites aren't prepared to either (1) do the editorial work of pulling these links together in a truly helpful way, or (2) link out to other sites, at the risk of losing traffic.

So publishers at these sites are in conflict between what their readers want on the one hand, and what they're prepared to offer, on the other. That's a recipe for failure. In response, readers are resigned to surfing among many different sites to get a full story. Only the relatively few power-users who use RSS readers can accomplish this on one screen, but even that takes a lot of work. In contrast, we think our homepage represents a new, user-centered approach to market coverage.

Certain media outlets have taken a step in this direction, but I don't think they've been aggressive enough to satisfy users. For example, The New York Times Online has 'Times Extra' as an option for its homepage, but the supplementary links there are automated and therefore not so helpful. The Huffington Post links out from its homepage, but doesn't provide a full collection of helpful links around themes. And then there are the straight link aggregators like TechMeme, which do a fine job of identifying important stories, but - by virtue of being at least partially automated - are less successful in weeding out unhelpful or redundant links, or providing background reading on the matter.

At the same time that we're providing this user-centered homepage, we're investing heavily in our community and exposure for our contributors on Seeking Alpha. The centerpiece of these homepage elements remains, therefore, the outstanding commentary that you'll find on our site. But when commentary from an author with recognized expertise or unique insight exists elsewhere and is unavailable on Seeking Alpha, we think both our readers and our contributors appreciate the value that link brings to the discussion.

I look forward to hearing your feedback on our new homepage. Please leave comments below.

Comments

[tinscale:]

Very nice. Think you should retain somewhere the reverse chronological listing of all articles.

Mar 09 11:09 AM

[Mick Weinstein:]

We do still have that list, tinscale - it's linked from the homepage, on the left side under 'Today's Opinion and Analysis':
seekingalpha.com/artic...


On Mar 09 11:09 AM tinscale wrote:

> Very nice. Think you should retain somewhere the reverse chronological
> listing of all articles.

Mar 09 11:33 AM

[Tradememe:]

The new design is very nice, especially the aggregation of posts around themes. We do it too at our aggregation site, www.tradememe.com and in chronological order. We think our site is very much complementary with SA.

Mar 09 02:07 PM

[tinscale:]

Great - thanks Mick! I just didn't see it.

Mar 09 03:03 PM

[Donald Johnson:]

What does the disappearance of the "submit article" button mean?

Mar 09 03:34 PM

[Donald Johnson:]

OK, I found the "How to be a contributor" link at the bottom of the Macro page. Pretty subtle.


On Mar 09 03:34 PM Donald Johnson wrote:

> What does the disappearance of the "submit article" button mean?

Mar 09 03:46 PM

[Firat Ünlü:]

Yeah, missed it too. Thanks, Mick.


On Mar 09 03:03 PM tinscale wrote:

> Great - thanks Mick! I just didn't see it.

Mar 09 03:47 PM

[Jason Rines...:]

1) Going in the right direction in the voting system
2) Great, updated content felt no need for RSS to current news but some will differ in opinion.
3) The social networking technology is not user friendly.

Mar 09 04:40 PM

[User 85276:]

Excellent!

Mar 09 08:55 PM

[Alan Skoreyko:]

Love the new look. keep up the good work guys, you are the best site on the net.

Mar 09 09:05 PM

[mr freddo:]

I like the way you keep making improvements. I have enjoyed SA for over a year now and only wish that my investments were doing as well as your website.

Mar 10 02:53 AM

[currency x com:]

Rather new to SA but I can say the changes are in the right direction.

Mar 10 05:19 AM

[pockyclips ...:]

Looks busy to me, like watching the crawls on MSNBC.

Mar 10 08:36 AM

[JLeo:]

I normally go to MSN where I start my day with a selection from many sites but because my interest are limited in particular subjects / articles that have few links. The new SA format will be a benefit to me. Let me add the obvious in that I came / come to SA because it is unique in many aspects so for that reason it is a favorite and I wanted to say thanks for all the past use! One suggestion, either exclude links to places like WSJ, etc., that are merely ads in disguise... as pay for info or at least i.d. that they do not include the full story without subscription.

Mar 10 08:46 AM

[Mick Weinstein:]

Thanks JLeo. Regarding linking to subscription sites, we are indeed giving preference to news sites that are freely available - and when we do link to a page that's behind a subscription wall, we'll add ($) to indicate it.


On Mar 10 08:46 AM JLeo wrote:

> I normally go to MSN where I start my day with a selection from many
> sites but because my interest are limited in particular subjects
> / articles that have few links. The new SA format will be a benefit
> to me. Let me add the obvious in that I came / come to SA because
> it is unique in many aspects so for that reason it is a favorite
> and I wanted to say thanks for all the past use! One suggestion,
> either exclude links to places like WSJ, etc., that are merely ads
> in disguise... as pay for info or at least i.d. that they do not
> include the full story without subscription.

Mar 10 08:56 AM

[Tatertot:]

for the subscription sites, just copy the title and pop that into google. Often times, the link you want is the first one, and due to some agreement that these sites have with google, you can access the article for free through google.

Mar 10 09:04 AM

[debtacid:]

Looks ok. The thumbs up/down for comments should apply to articles also...

Mar 10 10:56 AM

[Dsne2121:]

I like the new main page a lot. I wanted to recommend installing a way to refine your search according to date etc. It is a little frustrating when you run a search and the first thing that pops up is a February/5/2006 article.

Mar 10 11:35 AM

[316138:]

Very nice, however, it would be nice to see a date of either the article or of the post as to its time published. It is easier to establish a time reference and relevance.

Mar 10 11:56 AM

[ncaruso@wol...:]

ON YOUR NEW FORMAT, I CAN'T FIND YOUR COMMENTS ON THE 4 0R 5 HEAVILY TRADED OPTIONS FOR THE DAY. YOU USED TO PROVIDE INSIGHT AS TO WHETHER SPECULATORS WERE INITIATING CALL OR PUT STRATEGIES OR COVERING THE SAME OR ESTABLIHING CALL OR PUT SPREADS. PLEASE ADVISE THANKS !!!

Mar 10 01:48 PM

[Vox Rationalis:]

Two thoughts on one theme: Scrolling bad.

1. Currently, the entire right side of the homepage is wasted space. Saving it for ads? Maybe the top slot, but the entire column? Put the user's watchlist and top contributor/commenter stuff in there, freeing space in your center column for more news.

2. I'd like your pages to be wider. I know current design standard is to fit a 1024 pixel display (lowest common denominator rules yet again), but you're running about 6.5% narrower than others. Doesn't sound like much, I know, but every time a user doesn't have to scroll down is a plus.

Mar 12 08:39 AM

[SAReader:]

Im appreciate trying to upgrade the site, but I liked the previous format better mostly because you would be able to skim articles that were about LOTS of different themes. The new site is ok, But I wish you had at least kept the Editor Recommended/Most Popular/third one links as they were before. It would be nice to have a way to view popular/editor fav. articles across themes easily, even if it was at the bottom of the page.

Mar 16 04:06 PM

[tinscale:]

Hey SA!

I just noticed/found the "print this article with comments" feature!

Great, glad its back, keep up the good work!

Thanks!

Mar 31 07:58 AM

[notsosmart:]

liked the old way better.

Aug 01 04:58 PM