Chowhound Unveils New Layout

If you're an avid fan of the food message board community Chowhound, which is nearly 20 years old, you might have experienced somewhat of a shock earlier this week upon visiting the popular site. It's been completely redesigned, with an emphasis on making everything more organized and intuitive, easier to navigate, and more mobile-friendly.

The more than 70 boards and categories (separated into places and themes like cookware) are full of hundreds of discussions, which can be browsed and sorted by the date of the most recent post or reply, or by number of total replies. That's the same on mobile. If the post contains photos, a little photo icon appears.

You don't need to log in, but if you do you'll be able to contribute (obviously), and also see which boards you've already read.  If a board's name is in bold it hasn't been read yet, and if there's an arrow it's been updated. You can also save the categories and discussions you visit most often so you can come back to them later.

If in a discussion you've seen before, when you return the first thing you see will be what's been added since you left. You can also link, flag, or reply to an article just by hovering over it.

It's not too different from the old design, but it will still take a little getting used to. There's also a handy new video if you need a little additional guidance.