One of the nice things about traditional newspaper layout is that story placement and size help readers instantly understand the relative importance of each news article. (Of course "importance" is an entirely subjective notion, but you see what I mean.)
Other than the 2-box story at the top-left, having both X and Y axes and same-size boxes makes it difficult to determine what's worth reading and what's not. It would be interesting combine the grid with a Hacker News/Digg-like point system that reordered the stories by popularity.
The fact that you lose access to the Skimmer interface after clicking on a story seems weird, but that's fixable.
Still, I like that they're trying new ideas. And I love having a small photo with each headline.
Other than the 2-box story at the top-left, having both X and Y axes and same-size boxes makes it difficult to determine what's worth reading and what's not. It would be interesting combine the grid with a Hacker News/Digg-like point system that reordered the stories by popularity.
The fact that you lose access to the Skimmer interface after clicking on a story seems weird, but that's fixable.
Still, I like that they're trying new ideas. And I love having a small photo with each headline.