OPEN

I note with pride that I’ve managed not to go for a “ZD 2.0” themed headline, but nonetheless Web 2.0 is very much the flavour of the all new ZDnet.co.uk website.

I have to say, first impressions it looks great. The old site was still very useful for reviews and downloads but I had been thinking for a while that it was looking tired.

Liberate Media have an interview scoop (that’s what you get from PR companies run buy journos with blogs at their disposal – talk about blurring genres!) interview with ZD site editor, Matt Loney,  who says:

“…we wanted to move away from what I call ‘print think’ – the practice of simply posting article after article on the Web…. We’ve put a lot of thought into search with our redesign, because in addition to encouraging user generated content, we want to give readers a way to discover each other based on the content they and their peers are creating as much a on who knows whom.”

Worth reading the rest of the interview at Liberate Media. ZD is definitely looking at this as an opportunity to work with their community, not just broadcast / sell content to them in a new way, or tap up its readers for some free contributions and call it user generated content content.

I’ve signed up for the all-new Zdnet.co.uk and once you’re in you get natty little dashboard which includes a “site activity rating” – I guess that translates as how useful I’m being to the ZD community – interesting…

: : BTW – there’s a very weird opinion piece from Vint Cerf on the front page, by the way. While it must have seemed like  a great idea in the editorial planning meeting to have such a luminary contribute a piece for the first new look day of the website, I expect they were hoping he would say something more interesting than just “The web, eh? Wow! I bet we even use it when we get to Mars… Aw’some.”

But I’m probably just being cruel – ignore me… Oh you are. :-)