Essence.com has finally launched their new design.  Aesthetically I absolutely love it.  It is bold (in a non-confrontational way) and airy all at once.  On the “web 2.0″ side I did expect to see more in this respect.  While the site includes a community, a la Ning, what is clearly absent is the ability to subscribe to content categories using RSS.  I guess this isn’t a huge surprise since few sites, outside of blogs, who target African-Americans actually utilize RSS at all.  On the plus side they do use Add This to allow users to share content in a variety of ways.  Another note you can sort content in their Most Popular module that is carried throughout the site by most viewed and most shared which definitely comes in handy when looks for “hot” content.  I expected the sites Blogs to be hosted by Essence versus Typepad with this relaunch, not so… at least not yet.  The site is still currently in Beta.

Overall beautiful site but nothing there to make me want to go back or consume the content and brand in other ways like from my fave RSS reader, from my iPhone, etc.  Also not so sure the social network is compelling enough to make me that involved in it (I did join it though).  This is not to say if say they were on Twitter I wouldn’t follow them, I totally would.  I guess lately, with all the many social networks there are to join it can get a bit cumbersome and it is simply just easier to engage with great brands like Essence where I already participate.  Like Facebook, they have a group there that I just found out about and joined.  I am wondering how many Black women are like me though?  How many are pressed for time, too much on their plate, but still want content from Essence but just need it in a quicker way that is more convenient than a newsletter?  Not sure I have the answer, I would like to think many Black women are like this however not so sure if they would consume the same way I would…from Netvibes, from my iPhone, via RSS email subscription.  Perhaps there is a “new type” of Black women that has yet to be catered to on the web, the opportunity is there and wide open for someone to pursue.  Until then I and others like me will be waiting.

P.S.  Essence, thanks for not defaulting your video, Essence TV, to autoplay