Back in April, we noted that Reader's Digest bought Allrecipes.com and there was some speculation that they might change the user-friendly site for the worse, especially since they said that they planed to use it as "the main portal to its other magazines and websites." So far, there really have been no major changes to the site, but it appears to have just undergone a major facelift. The new site (there is a site tour so you can figure out how to use it) seems to have given a much more prominent space to affiliated magazines and advertising partners and also seems to put more emphasis on the few top-rated recipes from every category. The biggest change is in layout. Instead of the fairly well-spaced pages that we were used to, where all of the non-recipe content was grouped on the right side of the page, it now seems that every bit of the screen is utilized, drawing attention away from the recipe.
They still have a great recipe database, though, so whether you like the new layout or not, there are still plenty of reasons to use the site.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-08-2006 @ 1:15PM
Dr. Electro said...
Leave it to Reader's Digest to make a good thing worse. They can't leave well enough alone, can they?
I don't like the new layout. I think I'll stick to Slashfood and Food Candy for now. :D
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10-09-2006 @ 10:03AM
Dora Crawford said...
I dislike the new Allrecipes site intensely. I don't like the layout, don't like the grayed print (more difficult for me to read) and don't like the smaller print. What a downward step!
I have already lodged these comments with Allrecipes.
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10-09-2006 @ 6:23PM
Diana said...
The layout definitely looks more professional than the old one, but I'm having a harder time navigating. On top of that, the bigger ad space really detracts from the point of the site -- the recipes! :(
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10-10-2006 @ 12:03AM
Noah said...
I hate the new design. And I don't like using the word "hate", so I really do mean it.
The new design is 1024 pixels wide. That's fine if you're a full-screen browser with your dock/taskbar on the bottom. But I prefer my dock to the left. So now Allrecipes.com has an ugly horizontal scrollbar that I almost need to use to reach the crucial Recipe Box functionalitiy. Crazy.
And the whole thing is far too busy to quickly find what you're looking for. I think they're taking the grocery store approach so that you're more likely to click an ad.
Oh, and you STILL can't sort searches by rating. Seems like an obvious feature to me, but oh well.
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