Since our launch, we’ve been thrilled to see users contribute thousands of data sets and visualizations to Many Eyes. But as we watched the collection grow, we started to realize that we had an embarrassment of riches. With so many things to see and conversations to read, it’s getting to be hard to find your way around the site. One user email put it directly: “Time to organize the visualizations!”

In keeping with the spirit of the site, we’re turning to the collective intelligence of you, our users. Today we’re introducing a suite of features aimed at bringing the Many Eyes community together and letting you contribute to the site structure. We’ll discuss each feature in depth in the coming days, but here are the highlights:

Topic hubs: Now users can create miniature “portal pages” to collect data sets and visualizations on a particular topic or theme.
User profiles: Our old user pages were simply a list of activity. The new ones let you introduce yourself to the other people on the site and send messages to each other.

Ratings: Sometimes we see a great contribution and want to bring it to everyone’s attention. Now you can do that: the “rate it” button that’s underneath each visualization and data set. (If you see a mistake in a data set or misuse of a visualization technique–not that that ever happens –you can give a negative rating.) You can sort visualizations and data sets by rating, so the best ideas float to the top.

Watch lists: If you want to track activity related to a particular set of visualizations or data, use your new watchlist. When you go to your user page, you’ll see a single organized list of all the latest news.

There are many other new features and bug fixes, as well. Take the new site for a spin and tell us what you think!