ZDNet's blog post pages get a minor facelift

ZDNet, now coming to you live in high-definition, 620p -- pixels, that is.

You may notice that a small change was made to ZDNet this afternoon that you couldn't quite place. I'm here to tell you: it wasn't the coffee wearing off. Something did change!

Our immensely talented design and product teams made a few key changes to the blog post page -- that is, the page that you're reading right now -- to let the articles breathe.

Here's a look at the before:

Here's a look at the after:

Notice anything different?

• The share box (social media bar) is lighter and shows share options the way you're used to seeing them. It seems we as users have a hard time recognizing stylistically integrated versions of share options, so we've returned them to their original states.
• The narrow column on the left is gone. There was a lot of information fighting for your attention -- columns of words and photos flanked each side of the story you were trying to read. We've opened that up and relegated things like topic tags to the bottom of the post. We also removed the redundant links for the author's bios and contact information, since they also appeared at the foot of each post.
• The blog post is breezier. And by breezy, we mean it's now 620 pixels wide, instead of 470 or so. A narrow column of text can be easier to read, but the downside is that it cramps our use of photos and videos. Now when we've got a video of AMD's Pat Moorhead thumbing his nose at Rachel King on the show floor of CES -- just kidding Pat, you know we love you -- you can see the action without squinting.

Oh, and just one more thing...

For all you high-resolution, massive-monitor-toting computer pros out there, we let the share bar slide into the gutter when your browser window is big enough. (Go on, resize it to see.) It's something we've seen elsewhere on the web and admired, and we figure that if you're rolling with something like 1920x1080 resolution, you don't need the share bar getting in your way of the story.

Again, minor changes, but we thought you'd like to know. Have something to say about it?Send us feedback here.

P.S. And yes, we absolutely are working on some of the changes you suggested during our Timbuk2 laptop bag giveaway. Patience!