This evening as I was online the New York Times home page refreshed and voila – they have a fresh, new design. Personally, I like it. The navigation is better and there is more real estate "above the fold" (more visible without scrolling).

Check out the new design

One particularly noteworthy feature: they are now tracking which articles are most popular among bloggers. I've been a long time fan of their most-emailed feature so I'm thrilled to see this. In a letter to readers the NYTimes editors describe their motivation for including popularity rankings:

We also wanted to give our readers a greater voice and sprinkle a
little more serendipity around the site by providing prominent links to
a list of most e-mailed and blogged articles, most searched for information and popular movies.

The reference to serendipity amuses me. What else can we expect from this new, fresh, playful version of the NYTimes?