Home Page Overview

msdnblogshomesmallBy the time you read this, you’ll have seen the new home pages of the MSDN and TechNet Blogs. I wanted to give a little more insight into what’s on there and how it all works. I’m using the MSDN home page in the images but it’s the same on the TechNet site.

The home page is based on the overall MSDN and TechNet site themes. You’ll find those themes continue through the site in the profiles, settings, search etc. Now, the blogs are more than just a collection of individual blogs by different teams and individuals from around the company. They are a huge collection of knowledge to help you, our readers, customers and partners do your job, learn technology and hopefully have some fun!

Let’s walk through the home page together...

 

Home Page Header

header

The header section contains a few interesting things of note.

  • You can access the rest of the MSDN and TechNet sites and information through the tabs.
  • You can use the search box to search all of the MSDN and TechNet blogs.
  • After you’ve signed into the blog sites, you can click on your name to manage your profile, Settings to manage your site settings or Sign in and out.

 

 

Popular Topics lists tags used by blog authors to categorize blog posts in specific topics. Select any of the tags to view content related to that topic throughout the entire site. For example, if you click on a ".NET" tag, you will be taken to a "Related Content" page that lists all blog posts that were tagged with the ".NET" tag.

 

The Latest Blog Posts

This section of the home page contains a list of the most recent blog posts across the site. You’ll see the post title, avatar, author and time of each post. Click on the title to see the actual post. You can subscribe to that feed by clicking on the RSS icon. You can also click on the "View All Blog Posts" link for an in-depth view of all recent blog posts. On that page, you can see excerpts of all blog posts and change the view from Excerpt View to Full Post View. You can also sort the posts by Most Recent, Most Views and Most Comments.

 

Got Feedback?

gotfeedbackThis is a big update and I’m sure many of you will have feedback. We want to hear it! Click this link and fill in the subsequent form to share that with us.

 

footer

Besides the usual legal links, you’ll find a link to Report Abuse on the home page and on every page throughout the site. If you find inappropriate content or users within the sites please report it!

 

And with that, I’ll let you go play in the new sites.