Why did you change the site?

When Amazon.com went online in 1995, we sold only books. Now we have over 40 departments, from tools to toys, and we wanted to make it easier for you to find items in each and every one of them.

How did you decide on this design?

We consulted the foremost experts in the field: our customers.

We traveled around the world, inviting customers like you to come and try out the new features and design. We listened to their feedback and made changes based on their opinions. Then we asked more customers for their advice, and we made more changes from their feedback. The design you see today reflects the input of many real-life customers of our U.S. and international websites.

What's different?

We concentrated on shopping, searching, saving, and buying--the four activities that customers have repeatedly told us are the most important to them. They're now prominently featured at the top of every page on the site.

Shopping: Jump to any department from the upper left of any page. Individual departments are grouped into categories like "Food & Grocery" and "Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry" to make them a little easier to find.

Searching: Find someone's Wish List or registry from the top of any page.

Saving and Buying: Your Lists--where you can save all the items you'd like to look at later on--and your cart are more prominent and easier to find.

That's cool. But when you said "saving," I thought you meant "saving me money."

We want to do that too! We've consolidated links to our bargain features in the "Today's Deals" section at the top of each page. Now you can get directly to Gold Box, Today's Deals, Outlet, and the Friday Sale from the top of every page.

Hmm. Something else looks different too. What is it?

Good eye! The color of the top navigation bar has changed--it's now a different (and slightly more fetching) shade of blue.

But I liked Amazon the way it was! I really dug [insert your favorite feature here].

Don't worry--we didn't remove anything. All your favorite features are still here. If you have any difficulty finding anything, please let us know. A few of you have already written in and asked about the following:

Bestsellers: Look for the "Amazon Bestsellers" link under "Amazon Exclusives" in the Features & Services box on the left-hand side of the Amazon homepage. You can also find bestsellers (or top sellers) for each department under the search bar in that department.

E-cards: Find free e-cards under the search bar in the Gifts store. To get to the Gifts store, just click on the "Gifts & Wish Lists" link above the Search box on any page.

International websites: The easiest way to navigate to our international sites is to scroll all the way down to the bottom of any page. There you will see links for our other sites.

Your Seller Account: Click on Your Account above the Cart button. On Your Account page, click on the "Your Seller Account" link found on the right-hand side of the page underneath the Cart button.

Why do I see the new design on my home computer but not at work?

We're still in our testing phase, and you may not see the new design all the time.

Don't you want to know what I think about all this?

Absolutely. Since we couldn't meet with every single one of you beforehand (though that could have been really, really fun), we'd still love to know what you think, so please share your thoughts with us. We'll consider all your comments as we continue to work to improve the site. Thank you--we couldn't do this without you.