Gawker Media Redesign: So Horrible, So Very Horrible

You might have noticed that your favorite Gawker Media sites: Gawker, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, etc – all look very different this morning. They’ve redesigned, and it’s not for the better.

The site uses jQuery, a scripting language, to pull in new and fresh content – the overall effect is busy, probably too busy. And the redesign is a Search Engine Optimziation (SEO) nightmare. Here’s what Google sees now when it tries to load, for example, Gawker:

Yep, that’s all the search engines can read from the Gawker redesign. “111″.

Fail. We couldn’t read it with the text-based Lynx browser either. And a quick trip through Xenu’s Redirect Checker came back with a 302 redirect to… nothing.

Ouch.

So, search engines can’t read it, but do people want to read it? A look at the traffic suggests the verdict is no:

From our limited time hanging out on the site, it seems to have more bugs than a two-star NYC hotel bed. Comments won’t load, much less post.

We’re going to go ahead and give the Gawker/Jezebel/Gizmodo/Deadspin redesign two thumbs down, both for user and search experience. God, you guys are making “The AOL Way” look like a brilliant online manifesto.

Also, there’s a huge BETA tag when you click to the About page on Gawker: we’re taking this to mean that the design will probably be rolled back, and soon, and probably some heads will roll. Hey, if y’all at Gawker wanna hire someone competent in SEO and analysis… drop a note on this post. Thanks.