BBC beta - new design, same old content

The BBC has launched a new beta version of its homepage. It smells like web 2.0, it looks like web 2.0. But it isn't.

It smells like web 2.0 because there is (as readwriteweb puts it) "rounded corners, large fonts, big buttons, a soft color palette, and a liberal dash of AJAX... (it is) comprised of drag and drop content modules similar to Netvibes or iGoogle."

But there's a big something missing: You can only choose from BBC content.

So, no feeds in from sources you choose, no communal rating or ranking of content. You can choose blogs - but only if they are BBC ones. And that's why it's nothing like Netvibes or iGoogle.

The Beeb has to wake up to aggregation and lose its addiction to its own content. For a born-digital generation, this just ain't going to be good enough.