Since its establishment in 1998 as the Core77 Job Board, the site now known as Coroflot.com has gone through several rounds of changes. These expansions and updates have all been directed toward providing our readers--the global network of creative professionals--with the most useful and flexible set of tools possible, for posting their work, staying current, and finding new employment.

Ten years on, with web-based portfolios and job searches the norm rather than a curiosity, the focus in finding and communicating creative talent has shifted to the task of creative community-building. Fortunately, this is something we know all about: Core77 and Coroflot together comprise a vibrant, engaged network of employers, students and professionals several hundred thousand strong, that's growing faster every day, and the newest changes at Coroflot aim to use it to full advantage.

To that end, we're thrilled to announce the release of Coroflot Version 5, retaining the high exposure, diversity, and unlimited posting capacity Coroflot has long boasted, and adding search and networking capabilities unrivaled in the creative portfolio field. Recognizing that 80+% of all creative jobs are discovered through personal networks rather than advertisement, enabling Coroflot's job-seekers and employers to expand these networks is the most effective way to serve their needs. Where previous incarnations of Coroflot--and most other portfolio sites--concentrated solely on giving users tools for displaying work, V5 adds multiple ways for designers to get to know each other, developing relationships with their peers, potential hires, and potential employers.The first new feature you'll notice is an image bookmarking system, evidenced by the "Me Likey" button that now sits beneath every one of the 1.2 million images on the site. Tapping this button lets any registered user announce to the entire community that they've discovered interesting, innovative or visually stunning work worthy of greater attention. Well-Likey'd images get featured more prominently on the Portfolio and Member Gallery pages, and often become candidates for additional publicity, in the form of Featured Image or Featured Portfolio designation. Moreover, any member who has Likey'd an image will show up beneath that image when its Gallery Page is viewed, along with other images they favor. This allows curious browsers to stumble upon interesting work they might not otherwise find, by following the lead of other users--many of them successful creative professionals themselves. As the number of Likeys grows, so does the richness of the browsing experience.

The Member Gallery itself is also a new feature, affording more fluid, image-based browsing than previously possible. Users looking for work to inspire and inform will find this an invaluable tool: individual images can be filtered by Specialty (Art Direction, Illustration, etc.) or commonly used tags (3D, Fashion, etc.), and sorted by currency or popularity. Users seeking professionals with specific attributes like location, training, or availability for hire can still make use of Coroflot's highly customizable Portfolio Search to sort through the 120,000+ portfolios on the site.

One of the most exciting new features is the microblogging tool: here members can publish short announcements, links, and news in their public profile. These updates are also sent out to a member's network, keeping everyone up to date on their latest professional accomplishments, new work, and personal thoughts. In the near future this tool will be tied into other publishing platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, allowing members to more efficiently integrate their promotional activity across disparate media.

Each profile now has a robust Account Summary Page from which they can view and edit their Portfolio, Likebox, Followed Members list, and other account specifics. This page also ties into the network, by showing a steady feed of recently featured and Likey'd work. Other existing networking tools like Coroflot Groups and image Comment boxes continue to be supported, and have in fact shown increased activity with the introduction of the V5 improvements.

Externally, there are several new or recently updated ways of keeping current on Coroflot's activity: subscribing to job and news feeds via RSS, Twitter and Facebook, checking the Creative Seeds blog, and looking through the Redesign page for detailed explanations of how to get the most out of the new Coroflot. For those who liked things just the way they were, the new features can be suppressed, leaving Coroflot as it's long been: the largest, most established, most diverse creative portfolio site in the world.

For those of you as excited as we are about these new opportunities, keep an eye on this space--there's plenty more on the way.