Because I’m in the process of adding a lot of laptops to the site, the navigation list was getting quite large, and slowing things down. As a result, this weekend I’ve cleaned up the site interface a bit, moving the large laptop list onto its own page. In its place I have created three categories on the front page:
Just Announced – Laptops that have just been announced or just started shipping.
Recently Added – Laptops recently added to the database – this may not necessarily be “new” laptops, as I’m constantly adding older/discontinued models.
Weekly Most Popular – Most popular laptops from the previous week, based on page views/searches.
Laptop List
Having moved the laptop list away from the side navigation, it now resides on its own page, the Ultraportable/Small Laptop List. It’s organized into two columns – one is by display size, the other by manufacturer. Both show the same laptops, just organized differently.
Overall, this should speed up the site considerably, especially if you are on dial-up, as not only have page sizes been reduced, but the number of database queries has been lowered as well (which will benefit everybody).