#10YearChallenge for Websites
We’d be doing our best to keep up with trendy topics and shares online. We saw this post by Arun Venkatesan and we couldn't help but repost it.
As the #10yearchallenge is making its way around the internet, I thought I would look at how some of the most visited websites on the internet have aged over the last 10 years. Note: this post is best read on a computer or tablet.
The most noticeable change in Google is its redesigned 2015 logo. 10 years ago, it still had the logo that remained unchanged from 1999 to 2010. Aside from that, the site has certainly become less visually cluttered and dare I say, more minimal.
YouTube
10 years ago, YouTube was only 2 years into its life as a Google subsidiary. It has clearly undergone the flattening and simplification the rest of the web has experienced over the last decade.
Amazon
While Amazon has added nearly $800 billion to its market cap and countless product lines and services over the last decade, the site seems to have become simpler, hiding most things behind menus.
Facebook is well-known for being data-driven in its design decisions and not changing things that aren’t broken. Its home page is a perfect example. Little has changed aside from its 2015 redesigned logo.
Reddit actually survived most of the last 10 years with few visual changes until mid-2017 when the current design was announced and mid-2018 when it started to roll out to large groups of users.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia’s familiar circular language picker has changed little in the last decade aside from the list of languages represented.
Yahoo!
Yahoo may be a new shade of purple and may have a new logo, but it still maintains its jam-packed layout.
It’s easy to forget that back in 2009, Twitter was still competing with Facebook, MySpace and others in the hot social networking arena. I find it funny that it had to explain what it did in so many words. Now it’s a household name not requiring any explanation and the homepage is simple and to the point.
eBay
In the last 10 years, eBay has shed a lot of color in its user interface and has tried to position itself as both an e-commerce site and a way to make money.
Craigslist
Craigslist is well-known for changing very little since its founding in 1995. I was expecting to see almost no change in the last 10 years, but I’m surprised to see more white space, bigger text, and a better use of space.
IMDb
IMDB has stripped away quite a bit over the last 10 years to focus mostly on video content, awards, and openings.
CNN
CNN, just like the New York Times, has a simpler layout with more visual hierarchy and larger text.
Microsoft
The Microsoft of 2009 was a completely different company. Just look at the labels on the navigation bar in 2009 and 2019. They show how much the company has shifted its focus from technical software to tools for consumers’ lifestyles.
Apple
10 years ago, the iPhone App store was 6 months old and was celebrating 500 million app downloads. Now, the store has sold more than 130 billion apps. That’s 260 times as many. The main site has a new design language with larger type and full-width imagery.
Walmart
Walmart has simplified its site just like many others with more white space and less content.
Yelp
Yelp is another example of focusing on the most popular use case, finding a restaurant nearby.