It may not seem like much of a big deal, but AOL’s newly redesigned news portal illustrates a change in thinking that goes along with a lot of what we talk about here. According to Reuters, AOL’s primary inspiration was a medium you’re probably already quite familiar with: the blog.

If you compare the new version of AOL News to the old one, the blog inspiration is apparent. The layout is clean and very “unportalish”. The navigation is simple and easy to understand. And user-generated content abounds. AOL says that options for customizing the site will roll out in a few months.

I think this is a prime example of a change in attitude that will continue to make its way across the web. Since the birth of the portal in the 1990s, many websites have taken an “all things to all people” approach and tried to cram as much content into as small a space as possible.

The problem is… people can only consume so much information at once. I think the portal approach to content simply overwhelms a lot of people and adds to the popularity of blogs. Save for some, most blogs are much simpler and easier to navigate than a portal. There’s never really a question about what’s new or how to interact with a blog.

AOL has rightly taken notice and the result is one of the cleanest, easiest to navigate news portals that I’ve seen in a long time. Congrats, AOL, on a nice change of pace. I think your users will be pleased.