cnet.com redesign and first impression feedback
The recent re-design of cnet.com is a pleasant surprise to me. cnet.com has switched to a new all-dark theme similar to IGN and many other hardware sites. For some strange reasons i feel the design is inspired by iphone’s look. May not be true.. but there is a chance that there is some iphone look infuence. Earlier I used to see a lot of contents per-page. But now, the contents has been reduced and the overall site looks chic! 
I don’t have much experience with the new site. But as far it goes.. I’d say the cnet.com is chic, clean and good.
And yes, there are some noticeable issues too. One prominent issue I faced is, the download does not start automatically. Nor there is a direct link to download. I am sitting behind a firewall and this could be the reason, but why not give a direct link. Their help documentation says, scrolling past the sponsored ads will reveal the software developer’s site or download link. But the new design doesnt show any thing. If they could provide a direct download link, it would be very useful for people like me, who are sitting behind a corporate firewall.
- Rajesh Sundaram