Web Design from Scratch has a pretty good analysis of the current style in web design:

Today’s web designs are so fresh, they feel like they’ve taken a deep breath.

Sometimes I imagine taking a page design that’s too crowded and sticking it on a balloon, then blowing air in until everything on the page pulls apart to leave healthy gaps.

Your eye needs space (guttering in typo language) round stuff to help you clearly and cleanly identify things.

In general, the more white space the better. It’s very rare that I look at a page and think: “Gosh, they really need to cram that page up a bit!”

Via Boing Boing.