The BBC has given its website a makeover featuring, amongst other things – wider pages with a more open design, bigger pictures and, just for us international readers, more prominent ads. See BBC News website editor Steve Herrmann’s blog for some of the reasons behind the changes. Audio and video is supposed to be embedded in the pages, although on many items it still pops up in that annoying separate player window. Generally, though, I think it’s an improvement on what is already IMHO one of the best sites on the web. The old site was starting to look too packed and busy – this looks much cleaner and is easier to read. However I do miss the handy subject tabs along the top as it means I now have to search down the left hand menu for items like sport and business – or scour the home page for “Sport Headlines”.  And if we have to suffer ads, at least get a move on with that international version of the splendid iPlayer service!