This January a couple of Indian portals have changed their layouts and designs and all of them have actually improved in some way or the other.
First to change was Sify.com. The new look is much more appeasing to the eyes. The layout is much better and doesn’t have that cluttered look as it had before. I had the oppurtunity of having a look at the beta-version before and I had commented thats it gonna be a winner! But I still wonder that other than its email service, anyone else visits the other channels. Most of them are too specialised. I have been visitng walletwatch.com and it has an intersting business quiz. Sify’s shopping portal is also quite good. They have a huge collection of books and the payment options on sify are maximum compared to other sites.
Next in line was rediff.com. It upgraded few days back. I dont like the new look, the previous one had more news and content. News is rediff’s strong point as they get it the fastest, but in the new layout its prominence has been lowered and its mobile services has got the pride of place. Probably revenue and earnings have something to do with it.
However whats most interesting about rediff is its new blogging section and personalization feature. An Indian blogging site was much required need and they are the first to come up with it. Also the personalization feature, till now was only offered by Yahoo and now rediff has come up with it.
Its still the early days for rediff and both these features have not yet been perfected. The personalization feature must have more options. As of now its not working neither is the blogging list getting updated. I am sure they will improve it pretty soon.
Yahoo continues to have that same drab look. MSN is improving. Indiatimes is still an irritation with some much of ad clutter! However their new games section is interesting.
All in all, its some refreshing time for Indian surfers!