Drawar

Oh, and they implement the best search box ever.

Also seamless transition from site mode to video mode is smooth. Okay, I'm done talking about this site for at least the next hour.

The changes look good, the information is presented nicely, and they are definitely catering to their target audience. The one thing I love is that they got rid of RealPlayer. Yeah!

I like how they do music videos better than YouTube because I can search and still listen and watch at the same time. Sure there are commercials, but I don't mind them making money for the quality they provide. I hope they are paying me for this endorsement.

I love it too.

Yeah, that search bar is pretty sweet. I'm normally not a fan of all flash sites, but I have to admit that this one is executed pretty well.

I think flash is perfect for a site like MTV. They're a very visual company with all the bands, videos, etc.

However, Flash isn't very SEO friendly but with the marketing budget and the well known MTY brand, they can afford to not be all SEO friendly. Everyone knows who they are.

They even have a nice search feature, so Tyme should be pleased.

I think this new design for MTV would be considered web 2.0 to touch on a previous note. Oh, look, internal linkage... hehe.

Oh and I meant "well known MTV brand", not MTY.... notes edit feature?!

XHTML/CSS version is there but you can only get to it if you don't have flash installed. The URL's for the sites are the same, so they are simply running a detection script and they either write out the xhtml or flash object. If you don't have flash installed a splash page is displayed which either allows you to download flash or go to the html version of the site.

I'm not on the MTV site very much, but I think the new iteration loads a lot faster than the previous one.

That is one huge search bar -- seems like they have a good understanding of how people use their site.

I dont go on the site much either but I did check it out. I really do like it, super fast, really nice visuals....

Makes me think of Newsmap.

Many of us are blessed to have fast computers. However whenever operating on the old G4 eMac in my den (which is probably a lot closer to the specs of the average non-geek American) I learn to hate sites designed in this fashion.

Flash is pretty universal and almost everybody has it, but I still think it is best used embedded when needed into standards-compliant interfaces.

dhollister - that's what I thought when I first saw it and I said they are catering to their target market. The "average" person would have a problem viewing that site but the "average" person isn't the one they are catering to. :)

Most sites can't get away with what MTV did but I'll bet many are going to copy-cat without the same success.

I was talking to someone who works at MTV and they put me onto what was going on, which I think is pretty cool. They combined MTV.com and MTVOverdrive.com because people were getting confused that Overdrive was a broadband channel. Either way, I'm a fan of the new MTV.com design. Works for me. I am glad they went all flash. It allows for maximum interactivity.

i think all flash sites generally make for poor user experiences. I feel that an all flash website is the same as an all AJAX website: a poor design choice. An all AJAX / Flash web application is a different matter.

1: I agree with Scrivs! It appears almost a requirement to place a search on that site! (horrible).

2: the 30 second wait before the index loads should have a warning to turn your speakers down, the annoying embedded video of the cleche MTV guy screaming really sucks.

3: They did appeal to their target audience, which is ultimately important.

4: It looks nice.

5: I still think MTV sucks.

MTV sucks, but a good and fast loading website in flash with all features for the average user between 12 and 24 years.
On the other hand Gucci went from flash to ajax and java, because their customers were annoyed by the loading time, but it is now better?

If MTV had any content worth browsing, I now would be unable to.

I actually like the new MTV site. I am glad that they stopped using Windows Media and went to Flash for their video distribution. That is one thing that has made me happy...a more cross platform distribution model for videos using Flash. I think everyone is pretty much doing it.

As for folks that have slow computers or hate Flash, their is a link at the bottom right-hand part of the site that will take you to the XHTML & CSS based version that was hand-crafted by Dan Cederholm.

As Dan mentioned, MTV should be given credit for that. They put more resources in order to get a non-flash version up, which not every company, especially those with as much content as MTV.com, would do.

first, i am a flash guy. i develop sites and web apps in flash, among other technologies, but it it flash that got me into the whole business.

and this site is crap. i like the design, the navigation is good. but...

it completely locks up my computer for like a minute. it does not appear that there was any thought given as to the order to introduce data. it kind of all rushes in at once.

i just get the impression that it was developed by good designers who were way over their heads in the backend.

Dunno is this topic is still active or not, because it has been made obsolete with todays launch of the new mtv.com. NO MORE FLASH! They even did a write-up about it.

heheh mtvlabs... reminds me of adobe labs too...