As if you didn't have enough change in your life right now...

Based on suggestions, criticisms, complaints and an occasional whine, we've redesigned the site. Almost all of the changes serve one major goal: making it easer to find what you need.

The highlights:

New color scheme and type size. We've made the words on our navigation bar bigger and chosen lighter background colors to make it easier to read. (The old white type on blue background looks snazzy but is a bit difficult to read). The channel pages have a new layout that is airier and less dense looking.

Better listings of topics. A big chunk of the homepage will now consist of a clear directory of the different sections on Beliefnet so you can click straight to your favorite.

In addition to our regular search engine (which will be found on the lower left), you can now use this home page directory or an "explore Beliefnet" dropdown on the upper left to find detailed lists of topics. There will also be a less exhaustive list of overarching "channels" on the top and bottom of every page on the site.

The left-hand "navigation bar"--the vertical strip on the far left--will now include not only a list of sub-topics in whatever area you're in, but also a "Tools" box listing some of the most useful gizmos and applications, especially those that directly help you find things (sacred text searches, House of Worship locators, Prayer Circle listings etc). Also on the left-hand navigation bar will be a new "Daily Wisdom" box that lists popular offerings that are updated each day like inspirational quotes, messages from the Dalai Lama and signups for daily scriptural passages. Finally, our "Find" box includes our search engine and religious dictionary.

Highlighting our Favorites. We've always offered an enormous volume of services and information but we're now going to make a greater effort to highlight certain features that have been most popular or of which we're particularly proud. So each channel page will have a prominent area called "Favorites" for our very best or most popular features in that area.

In addition, we have added an important new area called "Editors' Picks" that goes even deeper--providing the best articles, features, meditations, discussions for more than 400 different topics. Quite a few of the Editors' Picks will be available right away, and more topics will be added soon, as we take our thousands of offerings and organize them into these treasuries.

Expanded Offerings for Health & Healing. We've added a new mega-channel called "Health & Healing" that will focus on the connection between mind and body. It will include an exciting new page dedicated to the works of Caroline Myss, one of the most popular "intuitive healers." The channel will also include our popular offerings on spiritual weightloss, yoga and more. We've also created a "News & Society" channel to more logically house our material on politics, sex, and science, and we've given more prominence to our Relationships area.

Classifieds. While we've always opportunities to buy stuff from our major sponsors, we've added a section in which smaller stores, authors, colleges etc can peddle their wares. Please check them out! (And if you're interested in purchasing a classified, click here.)

This is still a bit buggy, and it will take a few weeks to get it just right. Please let us know what you think of the new design and, more important, what further things we can do in the future to make Beliefnet more useful to you.

Thank you so much for coming to our site.

Sincerely,

Steven Waldman
Editor-in-Chief & Co-founder