Alltop displays the recent posts of the top blogs in a simple grid/list layout. It’s easy and inviting to scan. They (Guy Kawasaki’s Nononia, of Truemors fame) decide what’s “top” via a combination of Google searches, reviews, their own gut feelings, and recommendations from Twitter. However they do it, it’s effective. Most of their picks are interesting, useful, and/or entertaining. But it’s the layout that really caught my attention.
Alltop categorizes blogs and then lays them out in columns, showing the most recent five post titles. Hover over a title and you get a summary or a chunk of the actual post. You can browse the entire page without a single new page load, but if you want to see the actual blog, click on a title and the page opens in a new tab. Scanning horizontally, or vertically, or randomly is comfortable and relaxing. Savanna preference, perhaps?
I’ll still keep my feed readers (Google Reader vs. Feed Demon, at the moment) for the blogs that Alltop doesn’t cover. But I think this kind of presentation is a very big idea, and I won’t be surprised to see better page layout options in the other feed readers soon. I’m not downplaying Alltop’s selection skills, it’s just that their information design is so good and so simple.
