TED archive website revamped ahead of 30th TED conference anniversary

The TED.com re-design was the first major overhaul since the website launched in April of 2007, and comes as the flagship TED gathering behind the talks is poised to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

"It is a moment when Ted.com evolves from a site of individual videos to really being a living archive of ideas," TED media executive producer June Cohen told AFP while providing an early look at the redesign.

"Talks are moments in time that have been captured; we reframed the website to let ideas evolve over time."

TED.com launched seven years ago with 100 videos of talks only available in English. The website now boasts about 1,700 talks in a broad array of languages.

Improvements include a new media viewer for widescreen, high-resolution videos along with tools for accessing books, research papers, or other material supporting ideas presented in talks.

TED speakers are urged to pack "the talk of their lives" into 18 minutes or less, and now the website lets the curious take time to further explore concepts.

Along with tracking the total number of times online talks are viewed, the redesigned website lets people know how many of those viewings resulted from them sharing links.

The website also features ways for viewers to take action on topics.

Annual TED conferences are known for perspective-shifting presentations by the brilliant and famous.

The gathering that began in 1984 as a private dinner party in Northern California has won a broad global following for thought-provoking talks it makes available free online.

Videos from TED conferences, offering varying perspectives on anything from music or dance to climate change, have logged more than a billion views.

The nonprofit Sapling Foundation behind the conferences began making its recordings of talks available online as podcasts in 2006, then began streaming videos free at a TED.com website the following year to reach a global audience.