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What's Changed on the Seeking Alpha Website?

by: David Jackson August 12, 2008    
David Jackson

David Jackson

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Today we're launching some significant improvements to the Seeking Alpha website. The goal of the changes -- as always -- is to make Seeking Alpha more useful for our readers.

Here are the key changes:

• New home page design, with clearer designation of top headlines, easier access to key topics such as long and short ideas and most popular articles, and improved presentation of watchlists and Market Currents, our coverage of breaking news.

• New Sector Dashboard, showing the latest Seeking Alpha articles by sector in one easy view.

• New design for article pages (example), including a more readable font, and improved navigation with a clear link to the home page and a new area below the search box for "Quick Links".

• New Transcript Center, showing the latest and most popular transcripts, convenient tools for searching transcripts by phrase or finding them by stock ticker, and links to pages showing transcripts by sector.

• Transcript Sector Pages (example), showing transcripts by sector, with navigation to the main page for that sector and the key themes for the sector.

• Redesigned Sector Pages (example), with clearer display of latest articles and improved navigation for sector themes, as well as a box in the lower part of the page showing most recent transcripts for that sector.

• Improved usability for watchlists (requires log in), including clearer display of recent watchlist articles and easier management and set up of watchlists. Watchlists allow you to track your favorite authors and stocks of interest.

We're not done. Over the next few weeks, we'll be rolling out other improvements. In the meantime, we greatly value your reactions and recommendations -- please feel free to leave a comment below. Our design and tech team worked hard on these changes, and all of us welcome your feedback.

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This article has 56 comments:

  •  
    Aug 12 01:48 PM
    David, I know you're going to hate this, but I kinda liked the old way better. Couldn't you find a way to incorporate both designs?
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 02:07 PM
    Hi David et al.,
    Agree with Emerson. But do appreciate all the effort you all are putting in to make SA a great website. However.....(there's always a 'however'!), one aspect of the old format that I found invaluable was the chronological order on the All/Other Articles page. Here are three reasons why that was important:

    1.) If I missed, say, Sunday's posts I could step through the Articles backwards until I found them.

    2.) The previous format also included the author's name, many of whom I've come to be familiar with, and tended to help me prioritize my desire to read.

    3.) There are times that it's nice to know if the article was posted in the early a.m. hours or late in the day (with more 'real-time' information).

    Overall, the previous format, with all articles in chronological order, with author's name, helped me efficiently sift through the daily content for the nuggests of most interest to me, saving me valuable time. In addition, I can't help but feel I'm missing things! For example, today's Andrew Wilkinson article can't be found on the Sector Dashboard.

    Thank you and hope you are able to merge the good of the 'old' way with the good of the new way...

    Regards,
    -David
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 02:15 PM
    Agree with DaveW excellent comments...ouldn't agree more. The new format has killed the live web log feel and authorship. (Authorship is an explicit way of assigning responsibility and giving credit for intellectual work.)
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 02:47 PM
    Guys, thank you for your feedback. This is very helpful. We'll take a careful look at the issues you raise. It sounds as though providing a page that just shows a stream of all the articles in reverse chronological order, with author names as well, would work well. Is that right?

    Some questions:
    Do you find the "Quick Links" below the search box useful?
    Any thoughts on Market Currents (you can find it via the quick link to "Breaking News")
    Have you set up watchlists? Any feedback on them?
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 02:53 PM
    I'm finding it disconcerting how difficult it is to find articles once they get scrolled off of the front page, many in addition to A. Wilkinsen's article (where do they all go??). Where will Bespoke articles go?

    Possible solution: on the Dashboard page include organizational break-downs besides just by sectors:

    1.) Op./Ed.
    2.) Options
    3.) China/India
    4.) Europe
    5.) Africa/Middle East
    6.) Mining
    7.) Statistical/Technical Analysis (Bespoke, Luby, et al?)
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 02:58 PM
    DaveW, that's part of what we're completing over the next week -- we're going to provide much better navigation for non-sectors -- eg. articles about the overall market, about foreign markets, and about gold, currencies, commodities etc.

    In the meantime, you can find those articles under their respective sectors.

    Did you try setting up a watchlist for the authors you most like? If so, how was it?
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 03:10 PM
    Hi David,
    Thank you for writing back. I'm going to postulate that the reason there aren't more folks giving feedback is that they can't find your original post once it scrolled off of the home page...

    With regards to your comments:

    Yes, a page "with all the articles in reverse chronological order, with author names as well" would be perfect!

    Two thumbs up on the Market Current's it is w/o a doubt one of the best parts of your site and what I take my first sip of coffee to each a.m.

    I do have a Watch List set up and I do like it. I find though that I have to pick only my top favorite stocks and authors otherwise I will overwhelm the small Watch List window and miss articles if I'm away for a few hours. That is likely why I relied so much on the reverse chronological order I previously had access to.

    Thanks again and good luck!
    -David
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 03:15 PM
    Hi David,

    Thanks again for your feedback -- it's really appreciated. On watchlists, we've got 2 views:

    Abbreviated watchlist on the home page
    Full watchlist view when you click on the link in the "Quick Links" box below the search box on any page.

    If you try the latter, will you let me know if it helps?
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 03:56 PM
    The "Full Watchlist" works for me, I'll use by keeping it open as a separate window and refresh throughout the day.

    Great job, am eager to see this project evolve and improve!
    Cheers,
    -DW
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 05:44 PM
    Watch your alexa traffic ranking. What separates "happening" web pages from those that get lost is sometimes indescribable. What you had before was a "happening" web page. People were coming there and the ideas were flowing. Now the bug that gave the previous web page the "it" factor has been squished. The "it" factor is elusive. You either have it or you don't. Now you don't have it.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 05:45 PM
    David, I will second or third the comments above. I used to always read through the articles by going through the list of 'all articles' and then just going from page one on up until I hit the article I had read last. Then I would just refresh that page 1 of those articles to see what was new througout the day or night. I also miss the author's name as over time I have come to recognize the ones I like the most.

    I also think the Market Currents is great.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 05:48 PM
    I greatly preferred the old format.

    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 06:55 PM
    Help, I'm lost. It was very easy scrolling through articles from most recent to the older articles. If I was away a few days I would go back to the last day that I was online.

    You need to provide a way to go back chronologically!
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 06:57 PM
    Thanks for the latest round of feedback...

    The Realist - couple of questions for you:

    (1) What are your thoughts on the Sector Dashboard? seekingalpha.com/secto... What we've tried to do here is show you all the latest articles, but in a more digestible form than having to wade through a stream of undifferentiated articles.

    (2) You wrote: "I also miss the author's name as over time I have come to recognize the ones I like the most." Have you tried setting up a watchlist with your favorite authors? If so, how useful is it?
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 07:43 PM
    When I saw the new front page layout, I wrote an email to you saying that Seeking Alpha was ruined. Watchlists are not useful to me. The flow of articles across all sectors on the front page plus the paginated archive was your core service, now gutted and gone. The Sector dashboard is useless IMO. Sorry to be so blunt.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 07:55 PM
    Alan, don't worry about being blunt -- we actually care what our readers say and want, which is why I invited feedback.

    Can you provide more color on the sector dashboard -- why is it less helpful to you than wading through a (reverse) chronological stream of unsorted articles?
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 07:56 PM
    I agree. I like the old site. I used to visit it alot during the day. I think that's a habit I'm going to break. This is basically useless to me now.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 08:04 PM
    This is like New Coke and Coke Classic. I used to be able to go to the listing of postings and find everything there...some for areas I'm not interested in, necessarily, until I saw the posting. Now, I no longer have that advantage. Everything is by sectors. I don't invest by sectors. I invest by stocks. Did you have to ruin a great site?
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 08:08 PM
    Certainly seems over-edited. All the categorization has a bit of value, but searching is still simpler than figuring out the editor's nomenclature. If you could, please provide the old blogroll format with opinions and analysis by date and author. Why is it everybody seems to be feeling the need to regress to over-edited pages these days?
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 09:28 PM

    Add me to the list of those who prefer the old SA.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 10:01 PM
    David:

    To all readers who have been negative: please give the change a little while to settle in before you swear off the site. You have been used to the old web design and how it works for a long time now so the change is completely foreign and will always seem horrible if you liked the old one. There can be added benefits to this design that will make using the site easier, they will just take time to discover. I already think the Market Currents is pretty cool. It's like loving an old team uniform and you automatically hate the new one, then a month letter you forget the old one and the new one seems totally normal.

    I have loaded a few authors in the watch list and it looks fine, the question will be is whether I change my habit and use it. It seems useful for now so lets see how it works. I assume I will probably go to it at least once a week to make sure I did not miss anything by the guys I like. I just went back to the home page and saw them listed there on the right. I like it. If I am rushed for time and go to the site my favorite authors and any new articles are listed right there.

    The thing about authors is there are a few that I will read whatever they write, but I now recognize most of the names and seeing the name along with the title of the article helps me make my decision on whether to read the article or not. The title might seem interesting but then the author name may tell me not to read it. Or the article seems off my radar but the author name makes me take a shot. There are so many articles that we can't read them all, whatever helps us decide on which one to click on is great.

    I am starting to like the sector dashboard, but I think it might be something I will turn to when I am short of time or want to focus on something specific. I have been using it for a little while today and it works fine, plus when you click on the more link at the bottom it takes you to a list of all the articles in that sector labeled the old way, in reverse cronological order with author.

    Does that sector board cover all articles written that day? Why not have all articles written on the current day listed under the sector, if there are only a few articles that day then have a minimum of ten articles under each sector and have a date separator. It lets a user know how much potential reading he has that day. The one thing about the old reverse chronological order was that you had no clue how many articles you had to scroll through that day. Also note that we might come to the site Sunday night so just listing one day on the weekend might not be great.

    I do enjoy scrolling through all the articles because in reading Seeking Alpha I am looking for ideas and information, micro and macro, so there are no limits to what I want to read. As a previous poster wrote, I don't invest by sector. I did not even focus much on your old front page, I went straight to the list of all articles.

    The truth is that there is no reason to get rid of the sector board, there is no downside to having it, it provides one more way to search. It might be cool to have an option of looking at all articles written on that day, or a date range, or use a cookie to figure out my last visit time and offer me an option of reading all articles published since I last visited.

    I just spent a little while looking over the home page again and I am fine with it. It is straight forward and easy to use. Left side is Market Currents, updating and quick hits like a ticker. Right side is my watch list authors. I never understood the middle section in the old site either, what constitutes "Opinion & Analysis." How are those articles any different than every other article on the site? Aren't they all Opinion and Analysis? How do you decide which articles get that top billing? I always went right past this and right to the chronological list as many other commentors said.

    Then you have the box within the Opinion & Analysis section, what is up with that? How do you decide what goes in there? Once again, I never am tempted to read this article any more than the others listed. It is just another article, why not at least add a heading, rather than a link at the bottom to "more biotech articles" why not have a heading in the top of the box that said "Biotech on Seeking Alpha." It just seems that you are using the most valuable section of your page, center above the fold, for random articles chosen who knows how, and do not change as often as new articles are added. I understand some articles should not merit front and center so this might be difficult. As for the link to "See all of today's headlines by sector" why not just a second link under that, "See all of today's headlines by time" that would solve a lot of complaints. You can also consider making this section "Most popular articles" and let your users decide what articles are front and center based on how many reads or comments they have.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 12 10:01 PM
    The virtue of the unsorted stream of articles was basically that it flagged market currents and competing views. Can't see anything on the sector dashboard, no dates, no authors -- and worse: the front page is cut to a few editor-selected items, everyone else banished to obscurity. I was planning a new article. But I don't see the point in submitting something that won't be scroll on the front page and never make an editor-driven dashboard. Granted, I'm not as important as David Fry or Jim Kingsdale, but the new regime induces doubt that I will see them either. And how does one discover new voices?

    There was a specific reason I came to Seeking Alpha. It's gone.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 12:53 AM
    I liked the old way better. I found new writers I was interested in by just picking off the main list. Now, I have to decide ahead of time what I'm going to read ... The whole sector dashboard concept makes assumptions about what the user is looking for ... the user has to guess what category you put the stuff he wanted to see in. This is like Yahoo's infamous redesign of their message boards.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 01:54 AM
    I will fourth the disappointment in the new layout. I am a broker and visit the website 3-4 times a day and truly appreciated the random topic article list in chronological order. This made the site stand out and allowed me to quickly scroll and read articles that grabbed my immediate attention by title/author. Alpha was one of my top 5-6 daily information website but will take it off my favorites list under the new format. I hope you add a link to the old format or a truly good thing is lost.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 04:11 AM
    I think the fun has beent taken out of SA. What made it so special was the fact that anyone could comment on a variety of macro and microeconomic issues in real time, a genuine financial blogger site for the people. I was learning so much about all sectors of the economy from the professional opinion of the authors. Now it seems too "corporate" and anal. It will kill the fun bulletin board style that encourages reader interaction.

    I tried it, but it seems too tedious to sort through articles by topic. I feel like I'm missing out on lots of instant, relevant information from a variety of viewpoints. I noticed that there are less comments by readers, so it appears that I'm not the only one that feels this way.

    Once the experimental design has a test run, let people have the choice between the old format and the new.

    Thanks!
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 06:54 AM
    If you just reestablished the "See All Opinions and Analysis" hyperlink, things would be fine, because I usually ignored whatever was on the front page anyway. Now I have to click on "US Market" or "Economy" and hunt through the chaff to find the wheat. Why would you mess with a good thing? Oh that's right - more banner ads. Thanks.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 09:21 AM
    David and The Realist

    Sorry, we know what we like and what we need to find a site useful. Imposing your ordering scheme on my work habits doesn't work for me. This was a great site with a simple listing of posts, time of posting and stocks mentioned. I could get on the site and spend an hour to get my work done. Then, off to other things. Now, it takes longer and it's not as useful (lots of stuff I already seem to have missed because I didn't look in the right place). Why you couldn't provide the old approach for those of us who prefer that I don't understand. Hard not to get the sense you'd rather not have me on your site.

    Even Microsoft (yes, the Darth Vader of the PC world!) provided for a new format and a classic format for the Control Panel in Vista. Guess I need to find a new site.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 10:26 AM
    David,
    I've thought more on this and realize that I, and most of your readers, are NOT on SA for a specific sector or topic. To be able to broadly screen the daily market information in a non-quantifiable or categorical way was crucially important. I cannot make a watchlist that captures the broad sweep I used to do each day on SA to measure the market's pulse. I would wager that most users are the same: you just can't simplify our interest in a Watchlist. Am very eager to have the reverse chronological article page linked in soon!
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 10:46 AM
    David -
    The general tenor of the comments above captures far better the concerns I tried to express when I emailed directly to the SA Website comments.
    DaveW is especially on point:
    "To be able to broadly screen the daily market information in a non-quantifiable or categorical way was crucially important. I cannot make a watchlist that captures the broad sweep I used to do each day on SA."
    Ditto for me.
    Given the preponderance of negative feedback, I wonder just how the new format was user-tested.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 12:07 PM
    The key recommendations from all your comments seem to be:

    1. Provide a view whereby you can see a stream of all the latest articles, unsorted by sector and showing author names, and pagination so you can go back in time. Make sure that page is easily accessible from the home page.

    2. Add authors to the sector dashboard.

    Is this correct?
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 12:11 PM
    i liked the old way better. why didnt you ask first for suggestions re change. change for change sake is not the answer.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 12:19 PM
    Put back the original reverse chronological view on the main page. Add a link for the sector dashboard and see how many people click on it (not many I would bet).

    Then set up a poll and let people vote or something.

    But put the original view back! Put it back the way people like it while you think about what you want to do.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 01:26 PM
    David

    You are correct. Do those two things, and we'll be happy again. And in the future, why not try putting up a link to a beta of the new view and get some feedback BEFORE changing the site.

    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 02:27 PM
    David,
    I appreciate your openness to all of the feedback and willingness to incorporate changes.

    So, a big YES to your two proposed changes and I too will be content again! I also like User 185354's idea of flying a 'beta' page view for feedback before lighting the prototype SA rocket.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 03:09 PM
    DITTO..
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 04:04 PM
    Thanks for all your suggestions, everyone. One quick point: all your comments (without exception) have focused on the single issue of the change to the number of articles displayed on the home page. It would be helpful for us to get some feedback from you on the other changes:

    1. Have you tried setting up a watchlist? Have you noticed you can add authors to the watchlist from any article page (see the "Add to watchlist" button below my photo on this page), and stocks from any quote page? How is the experience generally?

    2. Many of our readers are heavy users of transcripts; I don't know if that applies to any of the readers who have commented here. But even if not, have you tried the new transcripts center, and in particular the search?

    3. What do you think of the new "Quick Links" section below the search box (see top right of this page)?

    4. Any recommendations for changes to the Market Currents home page, which you can reach via the "Breaking News" quick link?

    Thanks again for your feedback and suggestions.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 07:04 PM
    David

    I appreciate your query to us, but you seem to miss the point. We don't use the site in the way in which you apparently want us to do so. We're not into watchlists, we're not into the Market Currents home page, we're not into doing something more with an author than what you had on site before--which was great! If you want to add these features somewhere, fantastic. Maybe new readers will be interested in them. We're not. We did like the links you had previously for each article including links for the author's previous articles.

    As for the transcripts, I've used some of them, but that's not why I come to the site. (And I probably register as one of the heavier transcript users, but it isn't the reason I've been coming back to this site, often many times during the day.) That temporal list of postings is the attraction, and what you had was great. Why not restore what you had and add this new front end as a "For sophisticated readers" or something like that. The new features may be of interest someday to someone, but not now, not here, and not me.

    And as for the quick links, again, you had a good product before. Sure, it can be improved, but not by adding bells and whistles for the sake of bells and whistles. Unfortunately, that's how it looks and feels when trying it. As for the quotes, it's not the reason I come to this site. If it were, maybe I'd be willing to do a thorough review of it, but it isn't.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 07:07 PM
    Oh, one other thing: I know you want us to login. However, as a rule, I tend to avoid sites with logins unless I pay for the original content. Are you thinking of charging? If not, I suggest minimizing the login requirement.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 13 07:55 PM
    Hi David -

    It seems the common theme running through the comments here are