JG etc.

It is bright, cute, user-friendly, and it definitely confirms the idea of blog search as a portal.

Niall Kennedy points out some of the walled garden features:

Unlike many other search sites Technorati’s link structure seems designed to keep people within its pages. A linked blog post title on the site homepage points to a URL search result and not the author’s original entry for example.

This seems to have been the case with many of the features within Technorati for awhile. Not the most forward thinking user experience but it also might help simplify the experience for many newcomers to the world of blog search/directory.

Conclusion: I think the new design is a great push towards bringing in the mainstream blog and social search audience.