@caribou,
I dunno about small, but it is a different font ... it's Georgia now, it used to be - I dont remember, something sans serif.
I liked the old font better myself, but a couple of people have said they found this font easier to read (Thomas and, I dunno, someone else) -- and thanks to protracted discussions with my work site's web developer I know that that's the expert opinion too, so I guess I'm in a minority.
There is a lot more white space now... dont know what I think of that. Again I saw some people praising it, some complaining... matter of taste I guess. I saw Craven in another thread saying that they'll reduce the standard (non-expanded) length for a post by a little, so there'll likely soon be less whitespace.