Webware

MTV.com announced a new homepage design Tuesday that focuses more on content, rather than aesthetic changes. It will launch Wednesday morning.

MTV.com's basic color scheme will remain the same. The navigation at the top of the site will also remain unchanged. Even the prominent promotional box toward the top of the page, which MTV calls "The Marquee," will maintain its position on the new home page.

Not much has changed from the current page.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

The biggest change made to MTV.com comes in the form of a new module, called The Daily Fresh. Placed just below The Marquee, The Daily Fresh will feature content MTV grabs from both its own pages and third-party sites.

The Daily Fresh is basically a news feed. As MTV.com's editorial staff creates more content, the best stories will be hand-picked by MTV editors and placed in the feed. Those same editors will also place user-generated content that relates to one of the company's television shows, music videos, or news stories into the module. To accommodate those site visitors who want content outside of what MTV provides, The Daily Fresh will feature articles or videos its editors find from other sites across the Web. Eventually, MTV.com plans to feature a "submit" link to give site owners the opportunity to have their content featured on the music site.

The Daily Fresh underscores what is a slightly modified strategy for MTV. Instead of being a place for visitors to check out music news and the latest music videos, MTV wants to make MTV.com a hub for all the other online content MTV Networks offers on sites like VH1.com and MTVU.com. To do so, MTV.com will now syndicate some of the better content from its sister sites to the home page.

MTV also wants to give users a voice. To do so, it has partnered with a video technology firm called Innovid. Through its partnership with Innovid, MTV is allowing users to tag specific moments in videos, write a comment about the moment, and share that with friends on Facebook and Twitter. Those comments are also featured in the video's timeline. So far, the feature has been rolled out in a few videos on the site, but the company hopes to make it available on every video the site offers in the near future.

Although MTV wouldn't divulge exactly how it plans to "create more innovative ads"--a key component in its strategy for quite some time--it did say that it plans to hold a special advertising event on September 9 to celebrate the release of The Beatles: Rock Band on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii.

The new site, complete with The Daily Fresh

(Credit: MTV Networks)

When visitors get to MTV.com on September 9, they will see an ad that will display exclusive, unreleased content from the game. MTV said that the ad will feature seven "touch points" that visitors can click on. When they do, they will see in-game videos, sneak peeks of gameplay elements, and other features it wouldn't disclose.

MTV plans to offer Facebook Connect support at some point in the future, but it wouldn't say exactly when. Based on how the company's executives were talking, though, I'd expect to see it sooner rather than later.

Although I didn't have the chance to demo the new home page, it looks like an iterative update. The top half of the site has barely changed, while the bottom half features a few new modules that some users might find useful. If they don't find them useful, MTV said that it's willing to change. According to the company's execs, the update is experimental and it plans to modify the site's design based on usage patterns.

With its new home page, MTV wants to become one of the many sites Web surfers visit every day. It wants to be a media hub for entertainment. It's certainly possible. But whether visitors will respond well to the site's few changes when it launches Wednesday morning remains to be seen.

In light of Tuesday's announcement of the click-to-buy option heading to YouTube videos, it's worth mentioning Nintendo and YouTube's two-week old special promotional page for the Wii game Wario Land: Shake It. What makes it so special? It dynamically deteriorates based on what's happening in the video.

Coins explode out of the top of the player and trickle down the page, while various elements get knocked down with each headbutt, explosion, and power up. There's no way to regenerate items as they fall off without refreshing your page, although you can pick up each piece and throw it around, which is almost as much fun as watching it fall apart. Some things like the share and favorite buttons remain clickable too.

Useful if you were trying to read the video information while it flies off the screen? No. Mind-bogglingly cool and memorable? Definitely.

As the video plays bits and pieces of the page fall apart, including the video itself.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The BBC's iPlayer TV catch-up service is making its way to the Nintendo Wii today. British residents who navigate to www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer using Opera's Internet Channel browser will be greeted by the same selection of streaming programs made available for PC users.

The BBC promises to bring a slightly updated version in the coming months that will add additional functionality, the same way Opera did with the specially designed version of its browser made just for the Wii. Best of all, it will be a standalone channel app. The BBC's Anthony Rose hopes this will fit the needs of users who don't want to have to load up the browser and navigate to their iPlayer bookmark, or pay for the Internet application in the first place.

This is the first time the iPlayer has made its living room debut. Previously the only way to get iPlayer programming on your TV set was by hooking up your home PC or laptop to your television. Enterprising iPhone users were also able to take advantage of the streaming on their TV sets, as long as they had the AV cable pack and a universal dock, which costs about £70.00 ($139) combined.

Previous iPlayer coverage:
iPlayer gets iPhone support
BBC's iPlayer getting Mac version in 2008, Web version continues to dominate usage
BBC moving to Adobe Flash, iPlayer on the Web soon
BBC puts shows online

Yesterday an update rolled out from the folks at Opera, bringing the highly popular Wii Internet channel into the 20th century with full support for USB keyboards, widgets, and link sharing. Normally this news would not excite me, but as a Wii owner, having struggled to actually type an e-mail, or enter anything more than a URL or login using a Wiimote on the onscreen keyboard, believe me when I say this is big.

In addition to the keyboard news, Opera is now supporting two very interesting Web features. The first is a new "Widget View" mode, letting users take advantage of Opera's collection of Web widgets that you can download straight to your system. The catalog is mostly the same for Wii users as the desktop version of the Opera, and includes useful things like Internet radio, instant messaging, and eye-optimized news feeds. There are also a slew of games, opening up your system to an extra layer of free entertainment.

The other new feature is link sharing, which lets you take any URL and share it with other Wii users via their friend code, or to anyone else via their e-mail address. This works with any page you're currently on, or those stored in your favorites folder (which has also been upped from 48 to 56 slots). It's essentially giving the Wii its own, closed social network. Opera and Nintendo are calling it "send-to-a-friend," but I think a more apt name is "Wii.licio.us."

With this move the Wii is actually getting closer to a desktop PC than you'd think. Until now, Sony's PlayStation3 has had the edge on the Wii with its multiwindow browsing experience and the option to install Yellow Dog Linux (with Firefox) on top of the system's OS. It's also getting a leg up on the iPhone when it comes to business use from a consumer-oriented tool. Both share an often maddening proprietary keyboard input system, that, up until now, you were stuck waving your arm around to operate. And as we recently noted, the iPhone is not ready for business.

The update is available for free to anyone who's already got the Wii browser. For new Wii users, you can pick it up for 500 Wii points.

The Wii browser just got a little more social. You can now send links to your friends.

(Credit: Opera Inc.)

Up until this weekend I hadn't really been too excited about seeing the upcoming Simpsons feature-length movie. That was until I laid my eyes on the film's Web site.

Like most other movie marketing sites out there, it's full of a lot of Flash with bouncy navigation and a nearly unbearable amount of sound effects. There are the usual mini-games (both of which I might add are quite enjoyable), and links to the movie's MySpace profile (it is Fox, after all). The real gem however, is the Simpsons avatar builder--a piece-by-piece character maker that lets people create their own Simpsons-esque persona right down to nose shape and facial hair coloring.

I've played with two other high-profile avatar creators before, one emulating Nintendo's Mii maker, and another that lets you make your own Picasso--missing ears and all. The Simpsons version is a little closer to Nintendo's offerings, giving users a wide array of body parts to choose from, along with a color pallet for further customization. There's also a "roll the dice" button that will spit out a randomized character.

When you're finished, you can print your character out to stick on the fridge, or save it for use around the Simpsons Web site. What it's really missing is the option to save it as an image file, IM buddy icon, or as a good size for social-networking profiles--the typical fodder for viral marketing.

Related: 7-Eleven stores turned into Kwik-E-Marts (Flickr photoset)

Design your own Simpsons character piece by piece with this avatar creator.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The BBC's iPlayer will be making it's official, public beta debut July 27 to U.K. residents who are legal TV license holders--a yearly taxation system that pays for TV ownership and usage. The small desktop software client allows users to download and view episodes or entire series of BBC television programming on their PCs.

Lucky U.K. residents will soon get to enjoy the iPlayer on their PCs, and then Macs as well.

(Credit: BBC.co.uk)

In addition to launching the Windows client, the BBC will also be rolling out integration of the iPlayer to the BBC's U.K. site, and later to YouTube. The team behind it is also working on versions of the iPlayer client for Macs and Windows Vista.

The BBC is in talks with Virgin Media to create a set-top box equivalent, akin to a DVR with on-demand capabilities for watching archived programming. It will also be adding the option to subscribe to a series, and to watch shows right away without having to wait for them to finish downloading.

Also, as a tidbit, from this promo video that was uploaded to Vimeo two months ago, it looks like there's also Web interfaces in the works for Nintendo's Wii and Apple's iPhone. File it in the rumor bin for now.

Nintendo Wii owners who have been enjoying their updated Web browser can now enjoy a special version of Google Reader designed exclusively for their Wii remotes and TV screens. Google has made the text a little bigger and changed the interface from a two-pane look to a simple feeds list.

One big change regular Google Reader users are bound to notice is the updated control scheme. To jump between feeds just hit the "1" button, which pulls up a slick looking pop-up with a listing of all your feeds. It's almost an easier system than the one Google currently uses. Also changed are keyboard shortcuts. Google Reader users on the PC are used to 24 shortcuts; Google has simplified things down to 8 to compliment the somewhat limited Wii remote.

To give the Wii version a spin on your computer's Web browser, click here.

[via ZDnet]

To pull up a listing of your feeds, just click the 1 button on your Wiimote.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Here's CNET's very own Rafe Needleman. The beard is a bit off, and his hair isn't nearly as shiny, but the resemblance is striking.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

It's no secret the Nintendo Wii has been doing extremely well as a gaming platform. One of the best things to do out of the box is play around with the Mii channel, a personal avatar creation tool for tailoring every aspect of your virtual persona. It didn't take long for an enterprising developer from Adobe to re-create the same experience online, which has resulted in the Mii Editor.

Mii Editor is a near-perfect recreation of the Nintendo Mii creation tool, right down to the interface. Users can change face shape, hair, eyebrows, eyes, and small details like glasses and facial hair. The entire setup runs in Adobe Flash, so there's no load time or need to refresh when making changes.

When you're done, there are several export options, including social-network friendly JPEG files and a URL permalink to send to friends. While some of the Wii magic is lost doing this with a mouse and a computer screen, making these things is a blast.

Related: Crave: Let it Bii

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(Credit: Opera)

Have you ever wanted to browse the Web on your Wii? Well now you... have been able to do it for a few months. Okay, so the Internet Channel has been available for a while now. That's not really the point. The real news is that Opera has released the final version of the Internet Channel. The browser released in late December was a beta version so Opera could tweak it before releasing the final product.

This final version of the Internet Channel adds several new features to the program. The most notable changes are the addition of a search bar to the browser's starting page and toolbar. You can now choose to search with either Yahoo! or Google, directly from the browser's toolbar. Opera also added a new option in the settings menu to let you choose whether the toolbar is shown, stays invisible, or automatically hides when you're browsing pages. This is a major improvement over the beta's toolbar. Besides these changes, the Internet Channel also got a fair number of smaller tweaks, such as an improved zoom function, a scrolling guide for new users, new interface graphics and sound effects, and even support for multiple pointers. Only one pointer can browse at any time, but you can use your other Wiimotes to point at interesting things on the page you're looking at. Or just to really irritate whoever is doing the browsing.

Just like the beta, the final version of the Internet Channel is free for now. Opera will start charging for the browser on June 30, but if you download it for free before then, it will stay free for as long as you have your Wii. It's not a bad deal, really.