Evolution of Youtube 11-30-09

I've recently searched through archive.org for past versions of websites in order to evaluate their evolution. Today's website is Youtube. Youtube is a fairly young site, so there hasn't been that many changes.

Youtube 2005

The original site started out very small, judging by the size of the content area. This was before Google, the search engine, bought Youtube.

Youtube 2006

After Google bought Youtube in 2006("Youtube"), the site grew in complexity and number of videos. The site's hits and number of members have also grown. As a result of the buyout, media companies have also joined the site in order to promote their products.

Youtube 2009

Three years later, the logo has not changed and the site has expanded to include even more videos. Now the site even shows full episodes of TV shows and movies. In a few short years, Youtube has come a long way.

Works Cited

"YouTube -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 01 Dec. 2009. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youtube].

Evolution of GameFAQS.com 11-27-09

I have recently searched through archive.org's Wayback Machine to look up old designs of websites so that I could compare them with the websites' most recent designs and see how they evolved.

Today's website that I will study is GameFAQs.com. For those unfamiliar with this site, GameFAQs contains walkthroughs, codes, and cheats the gamer subculture can use to get past a difficult part in a video game that they are currently playing.

GameFAQs 1996

In 1996, GameFAQs didn't look like what we see it as today. In fact, it wasn't called GameFAQs.com. It was called the Video Game FAQ Archives, and back in its creation, there were much fewer consoles to cover than there are today. The main colors were initially black and red. It also used visual metaphors as links to games under the console of choice.

GameFAQs 2008

This design is much different than the one back in 1996. The main colors are different: blue, gray and white. These colors are much calmer and friendly than the black and red of the old design. The full name of the website was streamlined to simply GameFAQs. It is more complex than the other design, with the additions of a poll, top 10 games, top 10 wanted FAQs, and more.

GameFAQs 2009

This site hasn't changed its design much from 2008. This current design does contain an ad for the new Left 4 Dead 2 game, but other than advertising new games as their Cascading style sheet, there is not much difference from 2009.

Evolution of Purdue University's website 11-27-09

This entry is about the evolution of the main website for Purdue University, one of IUPUI's parent universities. As for evolution of websites, I have searched through archive.org and its Wayback Machine to study old designs of websites.

Purdue 1997

Note: some of the images in this archived site are broken.

This is Purdue's 1997 website design. Like other designs of this time, they were fairly simple, compared to the more complex websites of today.

Purdue 2008

As of 2008, the design has evolved into a more complex website with audience-centered organization at the right side and topic-centered organization within the banner. This site design also contains the school colors of Purdue: gold and black.

Purdue 2009

This site design hasn't changed that much from 2008's design, which makes me believe that this website design had become popular enough to not have changed that much in a year.

Evolution of Indiana University's website 11-25-09

This entry is about the evolution of the main website for Indiana University. As for evolution of websites, I have searched through archive.org and its Wayback Machine to study old designs.

Indiana University 1997

Similar to the 1997 website design of its "daughter" school IUPUI(see IUPUI post), there is an image map. However, there are also links below the image map. There is also more color in the background than the 1997 IUPUI page.

Indiana University 2009

The newest design of the IU website takes advantage of Contrast and Proximity in the links on the left border of the site. There is also audience-centered links on the top border. A search bar has been included. The two main colors on the site is crimson red and white, the school colors.

Evolution of IUPUI's website 11-25-09

This entry is about the evolution of the main website for Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis(IUPUI). As for evolution of websites, I have searched through archive.org and its Wayback Machine to study old designs.

IUPUI 1997

The earliest known design of the IUPUI website used an image map that housed the main links of the website. Other than that, there's nothing note-worthy, as is the case for most websites back in 1997.

IUPUI 2009

By 2009, the website had evolved beyond what was first shown in 1997. There are more topical links, a search feature, and added colors. The colors in this main page are crimson/red(one of the colors also used in the logo) and dark gray.

Note: I would have shown the 2008 design of the IUPUI page, but I wasn't able to find a version that did not have broken Jpeg images or lost CSS.

Evolution of MSN.com 11-24-09

I have recently searched through Archive.org to see how certain websites have evolved. This entry is about the Microsoft Network website, better known as MSN.com.

MSN.com 1996

Note: I had cropped this image slightly to save space, because there was nothing to the right except extra space.

At its beginnings, MSN had a simple design with ad hoc links inserted within. All websites and pages were simple back in the mid-1990s, and MSN was no different.

MSN.com 2008

Twelve years later, MSN has since evolved into a more complex website with more topically-organized links and more services, such as news, video and weather.

MSN.com 2009

In 2009, MSN.com has gained more color in its design. There is a wealth of information on the site, which can create a poverty of attention(Herbert Simon, "Attention Economy"). It seems to suffer from the same problem that Yahoo!(see Yahoo! post) had: starting off simple, then becoming more complex. There is a wealth of information on the site, which can create a poverty of attention("Attention Economy"). My belief is that "less can be more". Google(see Google post) has less on its main page, but its focus was the search engine itself, which can provide millions of results at a time.

Works Cited

"Attention economy -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 25 Nov. 2009. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_economy].

Evolution of Yahoo! 11-24-09

I have recently searched through Archive.org to see how certain websites have evolved. This entry is about Yahoo!

Yahoo! 1996

This is the first version of Yahoo! from 1996. Yahoo!, as a search engine, predated Google by 2 years. As Google was simple in its design back in 1998, Yahoo! was also simple and had its main topics in alphabetical order, just like the Harvard University Website from 1997(see Evolution of Harvard entry).

Yahoo! 2008

Twelve years after its first design, Yahoo hadn't changed much as far as simplicity went. They now offered more services than its first design as well. This design is also more compact than the original 1996 design.

Yahoo! 2009

Sadly, Yahoo! got rid of simplicity in its most recent design and opted to put more information in its home page. They have added a list of "popular searches" to their site and offered customizability, but a new person might get lost in this website and not know what to do.