About.com Relaunches Its Site

About.com has announced the relaunch of their site, which is still at http://www.about.com .

If you're not familiar with About.com, it's like this: About.com is divided into several sections ( http://websearch.about.com/ , http://militaryhistory.about.com/ , http://travelwithkids.about.com/ , etc.) Each of these sections is hosted by a "guide," who provides links expert commentary, etc.

I used to read About.com a long time ago (how long? It was still called The Mining Company) but I found the content uneven and I really didn't like the fact that they framed external links -- with ads, no less. I went back a few years later, and found the ads more intrusive, and those blankety external link frames. Going back now, I see some nice design but some essential problems.

The site is now this red-beige-white design, and it looks like the guide photos are smaller. (Note that the guide photos are perhaps TOO small. I looked at one site and the photo didn't seem to match the person's bio. I looked at it again, and read the bio. Finally, by squinting and leaning in real close, I was able to see the gray-on-black text that says, "Photo Coming Soon." How about a more ambiguous icon, About.com?) Even the guide page -- page -- okay, a guide gets their own page of information, all right? I looked at the travel with kids guide page. Her photograph isn't even at the top of the page. There are four paragraphs of information about her on the page. On the same page, there are two sets of text ads (one three, one five), two banner ads (one vertical, one horizontal), and a sticker ad. Criminy.

Back to the content. While it's good, I found the advertising still too intrusive. On Guides' front pages, ads are in the middle, on top, and on the right. On article pages, they're on the right, top, and bottom, which is somewhat better. What REALLY bothers me, though, are the ads on the left side that are built to look like part of the menu. On the Travel With Kids site these are called Travel Offers. It isn't until you click on them (or choose the "What are Offers?" link) that you discover that these are paid ads. That's not good. And, as usual, the external links are framed, with ads.

I love human-made content. The experts seem passionate about their topics. But these pages are just too overstuffed with ads. It's hard to concentrate on content when ads are jumping out at you all over the place. If I had it to do, I would remove the top ad and one set of text ads. I would clearly mark those "Offers" ads for what they are. I would make the guide photos larger and get rid of the framed external link. Even an interstitial ad would be better than those frames.

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