Last night I was browsing my Technorati reaction links and spotted a recent one from Brian Smith’s blog, ComparisonEngines.com. If you’re not already familiar with Brian’s blog, it’s all about comparison shopping engines and understanding the inner workings of them. It also includes comparison shopping tips, news, specifics about data feeds and much, much more.

I was hoping that we got added to his blogroll, so when I jumped over to check out what was up, I noticed that indeed we did get added, but the blogroll wasn’t the only thing that he updated recently. As a matter of fact, he rolled out a whole new look and feel for the blog including a new color scheme and header graphic with really cool rounded corner content background images. Comparison Engines is one of the eCommerce blogs I visit most often during each week (the Get Elastic blog is another one).

Here’s Brian’s post about the blog redesign, posted on Christmas Eve.

Comparison Engines blog isn’t the only eCommerce/CSE/data feed related site Brian in involved with. He actually runs two blogs and a data feed management company under the Comparison Ventures, Inc. umbrella. The other blog, LoveYourFeed.com, is all about data feeds. It includes tips, updates, analysis, commentary and news about how the comparison engines are using feeds for product delivery. The data feed management company, SingleFeed, is a program the manages several CSE data feeds all from a single file, including feed optimization, submission, choosing engines and data feed tracking.

Comparison Engines Blog Redesign:

I was pleasantly surprised when I first saw the new look and feel of Comparison Engines. The old look was fine, served it’s purpose and really didn’t bug me, but the new one is so sleek, appealing and warm, that I can see why he made the switch. I assume Brian will continue to work and add new features to it, but so far the theme layout, scheme, graphics and functions are a great starting point.

One of the first things you’ll notice when seeing the new design is the amazing rounded corner header graphic, featuring Brian himself. I love the fact that he makes this space so personable and introduces himself to readers in one of the most eye catching areas off all sites, the upper right hand corner. Notice the links to his other blog and data feed management sites are there too. He makes them easy to see and accessible in that prime theme real estate (I like the hover description boxes too, neat feature).

Directly under the header graphic is the RSS feed subscription link. It is also in a prime spot along with the blog search function. Great placement Brian, everything I need is right where I expect it, within reach and easy to see. Under the feed graphic and search box are the recent comments, followed by the blogroll, followed by a list of shopping engines, feed management companies, Brian’s businesses and lastly the blog archives and categories. I like the recent comments being near the top, but personally I would put more emphasis on my categories and archives, rather than the external links from the blogroll and other lists. It’s not that i don’t appreciate having my link towards the top of the sidebar, I do, it’s just that my personal focus when visiting Brian’s blog is HIS content, current and past.

Lastly, you’ll notice the new content areas and rounded corner background images. I find these to be a perfect fit with the rest of the theme. They are extremely easy on the eyes and separate the content in a way that is not confusing to readers (something that is hard to do with most blog themes). Post titles are big and bold, the date with author and comments link are within reach and the related posts with sharing features are visible and separated nicely.

Conclusion & Final Thoughts:

All in all I think this is a great new look for one of my favorite eCommerce blogs, ComparisonEngines.com by Brian Smith. There’s plenty of room there for Brian to tweak things and get them just how he wants, hopefully he takes my suggestion on moving the categories and archives on the sidebar above the blogroll and link lists. He should also think about adding a MyBlogLog widget and other reader related features. I can’t wait to see what he ends up putting together with that theme.