Thanks to Steven Jackson for tweeting about the new Flickr homepage a few days ago. Naturally, since Flickr is one of my all time favorite sites, I decided to log on and check it out.

The folks at Yahoo are definitely in re-designing mode as the new delicious was just launched not too long ago. But, unlike delicious, which received a reasonably extensive user-interface upgrade, the new Flickr home page is much more subtle. One of the things I could never stand about the old design was all of the advertising and system messages in the left hand column. Now, all of that information has been moved to a smaller right hand column in favor of a larger and more defined focus on a user's activity and network. One of my favorite, albeit not particularly surprising, additions is the 'recent activity' stream (which lists comments made by you and others as well as friends added etc). It integrates seamlessly into the home page design and is much more functional then the 'comments you've made' or 'comments made on your pictures' streams that used to be the only way to access this kind of information before. It makes perfect sense that Flickr would follow the band wagon and provide this kind of a feed but I do wish that they provided a way to respond to comments on photos made by others within this stream, rather then forcing you to go to the photo's page.

The other really nice addition is the photos that accompany group updates. I still think more focus on groups would be nice. But this is definitely a welcome change from the small link that used to be present at the bottom of the old home page.

Overall, while not much has changed, the user-interface is definitely more functional, easier to navigate and highlights information that is undoubtedly the most relevant to the user.