The New Ning

Ning just announced a new logo and a new look and functionality on Ning blog.

The new logo is very slick... a big change from the Serif-font logo they had since they started:

The new home page provides a new Discover feature that lets you find new networks by category: a departure from the Search-based approach they had before. For example, when I clicked on the "Causes" category, TuDiabetes was one of the networks listed. When I clicked on TuDiabetes, an assortment of relevant Ning-based diabetes networks appeared, which means the algorithm is doing its job.

If you click on any of the networks surrounding the network in the center, the networks around it will update accordingly, offering a new list of networks that closely match the one highlighted. Very Visual Thesaurus-ish.

I admit I still miss the Search box to allow for a broad discovery of networks, but I like the new Ning overall.