Global Grind Facelift – Round 3

Last week Global Grind launched yet another redesign/facelift I am guessing to help improve their user experience.  The design and layout is noticeably different, the new look masks the Digg like interface and functionality into a more editorial friendly design, programming submissions as editorial content.  What is also noticeably different is that the navigation is now broken down into Channels, Globalview, Groups, and The Daily Grind.

Channels play into the whole editorial theme that seems to have taken shape across the site.  Some of the “Channels” you are use to are still there while others like Technology aren’t.  I guess I really shouldn’t say technology isn’t there, it appears to be subliminally included in the Entertainment category of all things. 

Globalview is more or less the same as it was, collecting content from a variety of sites across the web.  The Daily Grind, which is the site’s daily newsletter, is published in blog format.  I am not sure if this is a change or not, I don’t clearly remember it being there though it could have easily been hidden.  Not so sure about the shocking change of interface though when you come to this section of the site, mainly because it is in the top level navigation and the user already expects to see more of the same with slight differences at most.

Groups by far is the biggest and most interesting addition to the site though I’m still not sure exactly what it is.  I get the concept of groups, it is a good one.  What I don’t get is the group activity as it relates to Global Grind’s core functionality which is (was) submitting content.  Group activity is categorized by Most Recent, Most Votes, Most Views, and Most Comments but as it relates to that specific group or the content that group is centered around or the users who belong to that group?  Confusing right?  That will need to be hashed out a bit more, hopefully it is not an attempt to recreate a Ning-ish hellish experience on every micro-niche or topic known to man.  Oh, one thing about the groups that I do like is the ability to grab a groups RSS feed.  My guess is that this group functionality will help support the Global Grind Publishers Network that will launch in late September 2008.  A snippet of what they are touting from an anonymous source:

…The GGPN provides a robust partnership – a publishing partnership, as opposed to just an advertising network!  As most advertising networks have shown, they can provide many sites with access to new advertisers and incremental revenue….

In addition to incremental revenue, membership in The Global Grind Publishers Network (GGPN) can provide your company with content syndication – getting your content in front of more readers…

Additionally, the Global Grind Publishing Network adds value by providing traffic generation via widgets, links, and badges across the entire network; delivering ads from premium advertisers; promoting your content in relevant content categories on GlobalGrind, and integrating your content within our blogs and newsletters…

Hmmmm, make sense now?  Lets not also forget about the basis of this publisher network, Glam Media.  Publishers who join the network can surely expect to get many of the same benefits they get from Glam especially regarding the distribution of widgets or syndicating content through widgets.

I also tried submitting content to see if the experience had changed at all but guess what?  I had to verify my account all over again, for the second time no less.  Every time there is a redesign of some sort I get this prompt.  I understand why it is being done, it is just kinda annoying, especially when I just want to use the product…so I skipped it and will get back to that later.  On another note traffic was way, way, way up for GG in July so perhaps these rounds of enhancements are working:

Prior to this story being published Global Grind was contacted for more info on the GGPN with no response as of today.