Comments on: Preview: CNET's new, improved look

After more than a dozen years of bringing you our content surrounded by yellow and green, CNET is getting a makeover. Check out beta screenshots of the new look.

[adasha76]

I'll miss that yellow - while it was always a bit bright for my liking it gave your brand a unique feel. This is much more generic, and - dare I say it - your title banner looks quite like Ars Technica now.

[TekSpectator]

@dfarber will the new CNET support full text feeds and better URLs (getting rid of the cryptic mix_of_numbers.html)?

The UI looks great though! :)

[dfarber]

We are testing full text feeds...for example my blog is full text....and your are right about the old style URLs....we need to fix....glad you like the UI...
DF

[indusani]

I am not too keen about this layout. I liked the one that gave more details about each news item so that you could read a couple of lines and then decide whether you want to dig in deeper or not. This one liner thing doesn't get my vote. And I also wish you could cut down on the blingy ads a bit... they are too obtrusive and distracting. I like the colours though... looks smart... not very distinctive, but smart.

[dfarber]

The CNET News page will have the headlines and description..you are looking at the front door of CNET.com....there are not more ads on the page....thx

[umbrae]

Looks like a Sharepoint design: You guys in bed with Microsoft now?

[drew08867]

Looks good!

[ognen93]

Hmmm... It looks cool... But I can't beta test it yet : ( Waiting to see it live : )

[regulluz]

I appreciate the time that has been spent developing this new design, but thanks. I like the yellow and the current logo. Please look around (Toms Hardware for example) and take note of what happens when designing like crazy, with no reason at all.

[stringboy]

The new look looks a lot cleaner. Glad to see you have avoided the Ribbon UI. ;-)

[SFGUY999]

It's the Advertising Stupid!
-----------------------------------------------
The redesign is primarily to feed us more banners!
If CNET "needed" a redesign it would have been done a long time ago...
=> The current design has lasted because it's effective
=> They're simple looking to monetize even more at the expense of read ers/ability
If they screw up news.com - I won't be be visiting daily anymore and that will be a shame!

[rsmolkin]

Cnet is my absolute favorite site. I'm here every day along with the webware.com.

I am also a designer and web developer. I really do not like the new design. The fonts are way harder to read, stick to Verdana! The new color scheme is worse, too much black. Stick to the clean white, maybe use the black on top instead of yellow, but don't loose the clean feel of the current site. The current tabs were one of my favorite tab implementations on the web, the new ones don't even come close.

I think a lot more work needs to be done. A redesign would be welcome, but the new fonts are bad, the fonts in the new logo are bad. The new color pallet is bad. Please don't ruin my favorite site on the web!

[DatabaseDoctor]

If you are going for a new look, make it a NEW look...not what everyone else has. Incorporate more dhtml, make the site work for us, not just display for us, don't try to cram everyhing onto one page and use color! We all knew we were on CNET by the yellow/red. Dont go black as everyone is on that. Keep a yellow gradient to black, animate the background with the cnet logo flitting to and fro in the background using smart technology. Be different, be bold and don't follow the others.

[hardaway]

Thank goodness. Everyone needs a makeover every once in a while, Dan. Nice job.

[howclever]

I'd love to read an article about how the Information Architecture was developed for the redesign. What choices were made and why, etc.

[mrEman7]

Much better lay out. Way worse color palette. Too dark/boring. Looks like a combination of engadget, arstechnica and tomshardware. Go to those sites....you'll see what I mean. Cnet is unique with the yellow/green and it creates a sense of approachability to consumer electronics.

[JImmyJungJung]

Hmmm, I think I like the old look better. In fact I know I do, I dont like change.

JT
http://www.FireMe.To/udi

[erexsha]

Don't do it! the yellow color is kindda your logo!

[kevinpmil]

I like it a lot. Can't wait for the new interface. Looks much more contemporary and fresh.

[Goldspeaker]

The text on the logo is wrong. If it's supposed to be a sphere then the text should either be warped to curve around the sphere or a drop shadow should be used instead of an inner shadow to show the words are floating in front of the sphere.

But I welcome any shift to a more modern design. Well done CNET!

[Loo52]

I think the current design could be improved but not in the direction of this preview. The new look reminds me of CNN and I think I saw someone mention CBS. When I, or many of my friends think C|Net we think yellow! Informative and a great resource for tech info. I feel that brand recognition is lost here and that's a shame.

[hdezela]

No no no....Cnet is YELLOW.......yellow darn it.