In the new Boston.com redesign you’ll notice one thing missing: a left-side navigation bar. The new look is cohesive — as both the homepage and story pages share the same look-and-feel — and may single a mainstream trend. Many independent sites have already abadoned the left-side navigation (thanks in part to blogging templates), and more commercial sites may be headed in that direction to accomdate the “big box” that eat up too much screen width.

News.com has a well-informed summary of the frustrations facing many Web designers who face a CSS roadblock when working with Internet Explorer 6. After all, IE 6 is the new Netscape 4.

For those who like to understand how things work:

• the MIT Technology Review has a good discussion about how peer-to-peer technology could save the Internet;
• and the New York Times explains that the universe may be shaped like a soccerball.

Follow-up: apparently, “the most unanticipated media launch in Canadian history” has still not happened.