Dan Farber previewed the next phase of CNET’s rolling redesign in today’s blog post. See the full image of CNET News here.
My previous comments hold. The body of the home page looks fine, with no complaints. However, I find the reflection in the sub-brands of “News” and “Download.com” quite distracting, and hard to read. The Web 2.0 reflection will be very dated in the near future, too.
Download.com new logo design
CNET News new logo design…without the .com
Larger question highlighted by these sub-brand treatments: how long until CBS Interactive puts the domain news.com in the service of general news?
Today’s preview includes a .com for the download design, but it’s notably absent for news. Also, www.news.com redirects to news.cnet.com now. For too long, news.com redirected to the never-beloved news.com.com (long story…not now). For a few brief weeks earlier this year, before the CBS deal, the tech news site reclaimed its original 1996 home at www.news.com. It was quickly switched over to news.cnet.com. The pendulum of parent brands vs. individual brands swings back and forth at CNET, but it’s clear this time news.com is being prepped for bigger things.
This change makes sense, since News.com is just too tempting a domain name to limit to tech news, especially given the broader portfolio of the new CBS Interactive. But stop dribbling this change out. Get the team working on the new News.com in higher gear before these design changes dampen the, well, news.
My comments are as a fan and former employee, but no inside information.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Stephen Shankland // Jul 19, 2008 at 8:24 am
I hate the subbrand reflection too, and not just because it’s Web 2.0 cliche and hard to read. I also find it inconsistent with the nonreflecting redball, so the logo area is inconsistent. Is the ball floating in the foreground? Off the edge of the reflecting table? Bah. If you’re going to do Web 2.0 cliches, at least be consistent to avoid undermining the spatial effect reflections can give if done right.
(I’m a CNET News employee, and note that I didn’t say CNET News.com like I used to.)
2 Jeff Pelline // Aug 2, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Let it go guys. CNET is a shadow of its former self. Award-winning journalism has been replaced by blogs that restate what others reported and “talking heads” videos. I’m not sure it’s even being monitized. The “hangers on” are doing just that – hanging on. How sad. I’m glad to see Halsey getting into bigger and better things: the horseracing business. I miss him. In the meantime, I hope you sold
CNET at 13 and bought it back again at 6. Lightening can strike twice.
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