The MEN unveiled its website redesign today. First impression: it’s an improvement.

They’ve widened the page (maybe too wide – it doesn’t fully fit on a 1024 screen) to get more in, particularly on the front page. This means less scrolling is required, which is a generally good thing.

Other new features include Most Read and Most Commented charts and the ability to minimise these and things like the polls, which I’m sure many people don’t really care about. The MEN’s blogs section remains the same – for now.

Each article – like Sarah Hartley’s introduction – has further navigation options, including a link to a ‘Shipman’ section. As someone quickly pointed out in the initial feedback, surely this is ‘a bit out-of-date and poor taste’.

Others also complain about the need to register now before being able to comment. As suggested, even a two-minute registration process will put potential commenters off. How about an additional option to comment without having to fully register?

I also notice that the email address I registered on the old system can’t be found. Sarah says that users will be invited to sign up for the new site. Again, many users are going to ignore this and the site will lose registered users. Automatic migration?

Points like this aside, the redesign is a definite improvement and is a bit more inline with other news portals, such as the new Times design. If reaction is positive on the whole, I wonder how long before the Guardian itself follows suit.

Digital Futures, whose conference I attended last week, was keen to push its presence on Second Life – the virtual online community attracting much attention at the moment.

I tried out SL a few months ago to get an idea of how it works, but had better things to do with my first life. I thought I’d revisit it though, to check out the Digital Futures island:

As you can see, it’s an impressive place they’ve built. The streaming videos are a particularly nice touch and they promise exclusive online events in the future.

I haven’t, as yet, seen another person to the island, however. So if you’re a Second Lifer, visit it yourself here. The island’s at the top-right corner of the Second Life map, just west of Denmark.

Despite Manchester International Festival ‘not really [being] interested in emulating Edinburgh’, local businesses seem to hope that it will bring the same financial bonanza that Edinburgh sees each year.

That, I guess, is why the North West Business Leadership Team – aka North West’s leading businesses – have awarded it the Lever Prize and a cash award:

The judges were impressed by the breadth and scope of the Festival, with a programme created by leading artists from across the spectrum of popular culture, innovation and the arts. They were also attracted by the Festival’s unique approach in delivering a programme of newly-commissioned work, which reflects the NWBLT’s commitment to innovation and world-class research and development.

It seems slightly strange to me, however, that the award is going to a large, well-funded but unproven arts organisation that has so far only hosted a couple of events.

Couldn’t the prize money (£10,000) be better used by a small, struggling organisation in the region? All FM perhaps?

It passed non-radio people by, but last week Guardian Media Group (GMG) won the FM licence for Manchester. Here’s what GMG Radio chief executive John Myers had to say:

We’re getting ready to rock in the North West! The station won’t be launching ’til 2008 as we have got to wait for a bulk order of Harley Davidsons for staff!

No, seriously, that’s what a big media bigwig said. I can’t quite believe it myself. GMG owns the Manchester Evening News, Channel M and Century FM, you’ll recall.

The new station – Rock Talk – will broadcast classic, heavy, soft and popular rock on 106.1FM. No more than 10% of output will be current. The station is aiming particularly at over-35s.

Here’s a bit about the ‘talk’ side:

Speech will not fall below 60% during weekday peak time and 55% during weekend peak time and will cater for the tastes and interests of listeners in the Manchester area. Content will include relevant local travel, weather, sports news, what’s on, charitable and community information

Rocktalk.com is already owned by US station K-Rock, and rocktalk.co.uk belongs to UKClimbing.com. I notice rocktalkmanchester.com, .co.uk etc haven’t been registered yet, leaving them wide open to possible ownership disputes a few months from now.

What do you think then? Will Rock Talk be a good addition to the airwaves, or an even more MOR XFM Manchester? You can read details of the other 10 licence applications at UKOnAir.