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Sidebars = no ads
> i know you guys need to put adds to make money, but do the sidebars have to take up 30% of the available width?
Sounds like you're talking about the blue dog-leg section info at the top. A couple of points on those: 1) they don't contain ads; 2) they don't extend that far down the page; 3) they are collapsable; and 4) they do have related info about the topic, so my hope is that they are useful and worth the real estate.

> You combine that with the page itself being like 85% width and it makes for a limited reading space.
We didn't change the overall width of the page. It's been the same width on ZDNet (and across most of CNET Networks' sites) for several years. Are you a member of the "make all pages stretchy" club? We have a number of those on staff, too.

> Also, the obligatory, middle of the article adds.
You're right that they are obligatory, but the place we really changed the layout for ads was on short stories like this "Trojan resume" one. Normal-length articles (like this: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-5360559.html) have a much bigger area for the story.

I've been surprised at how many of today's stories are short enough to get the short-story layout. Maybe the writers are tired? If these stay as common, I'll happily revisit the layou. I expected the short stories to be rarer than they appear to be today.

> My prefference (as if i really count, but you asked) would be for most of the stuff in the sidebar to be either above or below the article.
We used to do it that way, but it creates a real "garage sale" of crap at the bottom. With these new article layouts, we threw away half the crap and rejigged the positions of the remaining, more-useful elements. At least, that's what *I* think we did.

Stephen Howard-Sarin
VP, ZDNet.com
Posted by: S.Howard-Sarin   Posted on: 09/10/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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Ooops ...  Ludovit | 09/10/04
hell, they teach how to write a virus in college  Monkey_MCSE | 09/10/04
the new layout is terrible ZDnet.(NT)  Monkey_MCSE | 09/10/04
Tell me what you dislike  S.Howard-Sarin ZDNet Moderator | 09/10/04
for starters.. the sidebars...  ryusen | 09/10/04
Sidebars = no ads  S.Howard-Sarin ZDNet Moderator | 09/10/04
thanks for the replies.  ryusen | 09/10/04
Here's some  seosamh_z | 09/10/04
TalkBack issues  S.Howard-Sarin ZDNet Moderator | 09/10/04
both of for the former posters said  Monkey_MCSE | 09/10/04
Screen shot would be helpful  S.Howard-Sarin ZDNet Moderator | 09/10/04
Layout for starters  Linux User 147560 | 09/10/04
What's a FireFox?  S.Howard-Sarin ZDNet Moderator | 09/10/04
Preview...  doe_z | 09/10/04
One more thing.  doe_z | 09/10/04
Things seem to look better now...  Linux User 147560 | 09/10/04
The same here.  computer_man | 09/13/04
How about -  johngalt@... | 09/10/04
WOW!!  chiwawa | 09/10/04
If I had to make one request:  John Le'Brecage | 09/11/04
It's hard to find all the articles  V Sanders | 09/11/04
once you are back in a article everything is fine  V Sanders | 09/11/04
I do like the "all news tab" though - nice addition(NT)  V Sanders | 09/11/04
yeah let's give him a job!  ryusen | 09/10/04
Why does your layout look like crap in Firefox?  chiwawa | 09/10/04
Because...  John Le'Brecage | 09/11/04
What is wrong  smith@... | 09/13/04
annoying ads  SantiagoCrespo | 09/13/04

What do you think?

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