http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/01/technology/01disney.html?em&ex=1167800400&en=88a21b8f773fa69c&ei=5087%0A

QuikQuote: When the Walt Disney Company’s chief executive, Robet A. Iger, takes the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 8, he is expected to introduce the new Disney.com Web site that has taken more than a year to redesign.
For years Disney’s Web sites, which include the popular ESPN.com, ABC.com and Disney.com, have been among the Internet’s most visited. In November, the company overall ranked No. 9 among sites visited at home and work, according to Nielsen Netratings, which tracks online traffic.
But critics of the Disney.com, the homepage for a lot of the company’s online offerings, say it looks amateurish and is hard to navigate. Disney recently showed off the revamped Web site at a company meeting at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

yeah - and my feeling is it will be more about promoting the television/cable shows than the overall company. UNder Iger you will see much more of a push to overall media enterprises and less on historical disney fare (theme parks, travel, movies).

It's not that I don't think it's a good strategy - but without some sort of oversight on more than profit margins at the parks - will even see more complacency, homoginization of marketing plans and experiences.

We shall see...

All I can say is it's about time! Looking forward to seeing the new site!

To be honest, I can do without some of the bells and whistles if they could make searching easier and more accurate as well as improve the reservation system so that it makes it easier to do research as to how much a trip will cost considering different options.

But I guess we shall see...

This should be interesting. I can't wait to see how much they change it.

They'd have to work pretty hard to make it any worse. As an example, the Walt Disney World web site is impossible! Here's just a few of my gripes:

- It takes a long time to load because of the fancy graphics and soundtrack
- The search function is pretty much useless
- When trying to book or price a trip, the web site mis-directs you to resorts you're not interested in. For example, select Port Orleans French Quarter and it's likely you'll end up with Saratoga Springs
- It always selects a deluxe view room. You have to constantly, manually, change this at multiple steps

One good side effect is Disney's lousy web pages create lots and lots of traffic on Disney fan sites. People have to get information somewhere, and it's certainly not on the Disney web pages.

Disney.com to relaunch this month (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070102-8532.html) -- Ars Technica, 2007-01-02
Disney is one of the biggest brands in all of America, so when they launch a total redesign of Disney.com, people pay attention. Whatever emerges from the Disney labs will say much about how an aggressively mainstream company views the Internet and the future of digital content. So far, Disney's vision sounds like MySpace for the Mickey set.

CEO Bob Iger will give more details about the site at his CES speech next week, but information has begun to trickle out. The Wall Street Journal has a broad outline of the new site, which will enable kids to multitask in a safe Disney environment. That means video clips, music, games, and instant messaging on a single screen, all sanitized to a squeaky Disney clean.

One part I am not crazy about is where it says they will control what phrases you say. This needs to be done but they need to make sure it doesn't end up like VMK. You can't say anything on there.

I was so excited when i read the update thinking we would see the site today. I really want to see all the changes.

I was so excited when i read the update thinking we would see the site today. I really want to see all the changes.

So what happened? I checked the WDW web site at lunch today and it was the same ole, lame ole, site. Now I can't even get to it. It just says, "Server is too busy". Did the server crash on opening day? Not a good sign.

So what happened? I checked the WDW web site at lunch today and it was the same ole, lame ole, site. Now I can't even get to it. It just says, "Server is too busy". Did the server crash on opening day? Not a good sign.
I kept getting the server was busy message yesterday when I was tryong to order those custom park maps so it wasn't just a problem with today and might be something else. As for why it isn't updated you have to read the WDW update again. They updated it and said Bob Iger revieled the website at a trade show or something. But it wont actually go online for a couple/few weeks.

The site itseld was not launched today (or yesterday). It was simply demonstrated for press and others at the Las Vegas CES show. The site itself will be updated later this month or early next month...

Sounds like the part begging for the most attention got little or none. Dollars to doughnuts it's just a new main page with a bunch of plugs for Disney products and TV shows so some moron can present it in PowerPoint and use the word "synergy" over and over again. :rolleyes:

The new Disney insider was about the new website with a look at the new design.

http://disney.go.com/inside/mainattraction/070115/index.html