You know the main thing yahoo's marketing people are hoping is that the design boosts their page-views. Are you on their payroll? Maybe i'm just being synical, but is 9-11 becoming a Cottage Industry? This type of thing must just totally reinforce all the "infidelic" preconceptions the Arab world's got about us. Americans can basically turn ANYTHING into a marketing oportunity. Books, TV, "Specials," "clever" new web designs. Is this like Adbuster's worst nightmare or what?

-ch

I do agree that it is a shame that everybody is using 9/11 to sell something.

I think what is noteworthy about this yahoo change is that we have seen, what? 2 redesigns in like 10 years.

I'm not saying they are right or wrong, but I thought it was interesting to see this design, and that it will only last one day.

I wholeheartedly agree Kurt. I have been so sick of the way American companies have taken advantage of 9-11 as a marketing opportunity. I remember last year when my company FORCED me to design this awful marketing attempt to make money off the disaster. They made a feature containing all the books on the towers, islam, terrorism and so forth.

Made me sick. The main thing that bothered me, though, was the fact that I couldn't come up with anything to do instead of that. I felt that putting anything up in reference to the disater would be a veiled attempt at making a profit from it. To me commerce and tributes don't mix. Like Amazon's tribute today. They have taken all product off their main page, but I still feel like they are driving traffic to their stores.

I don't know, maybe I am just too sensitive to what CEOs will go through to make a profit.

While I, too, think there have been some clumsy attempts by companies to mix commerce and commemoration (a current Verizon tv spot sits in this category), I submit that Yahoo's redesign for Sept. 11 is somewhat different. Our leaders have been telling over and again that we should remember, but get on with our lives. The Yahoo page does just that. There is a not-so-subtle reminder that today is a non-ordinary day, but everything else is business as usual. As it should be, no?

Well, I can't say I disagree with Kurt either, but my original post was more about the aesthetics of it than the politics behind it. I found it fascinating that the site looked *better* in gray.

Tom, maybe what this Yahoo design reminds you of is their original design in the Netscape 2.0 days? Gray background was predominant back then. I think we all have a nostalgic attraction to that time, maybe more so in light of today's anniversary.

Netscape 2.0? I think I wasn't even born yet.

This gray version si seeming too gloomy to me. Maybe it's just the fact that it's 9/11.

Another thing is that Banner they have with "We Remember", doesn't it look like a poster for a movie? It's probably just because they are using Trajan.

http://www.theonion.com/onion3832/who_will_bring_closure.html

> To me commerce and tributes don't mix.

Mix?! Commerce is the umbrella motive, isn't it? :-/

> Our leaders have been telling over and again that we should remember, but get on with our lives.

I'll be nice and stay quiet.

> Another thing is that Banner they have with "We Remember", doesn't it look like a poster for a movie? It's probably just because they are using Trajan.

Well, movies bring in more money than just remembering (and certainly don't have the profit-reduction potential of *thinking*), right?

BTW, I'm not nostalgic for gray. I've always loved Gray, even back when I only loved Black and White, and didn't yet realize it was Gray that I loved.

hhp