A few months ago CBS bought CNET. And now it appears that CBS has evaporated CNET. Look at these screen grabs –
Go to the sites and see for yourself.
CNET wasn’t perfect, but it had a certain warm ‘yellow’ personality that came along with it’s relevant content. It added a bit of the flavor of the historic SF techie scene. Especially for it’s readers that have been reading it for a very long time.
Now it feels like a silvery highrise in Manhattan. Wonder if the content will absorb that same metalic taste. To be fair, as you go through the site, it’s clear that more work is to be done in the integration. I just thought that CBS would want to bask in that golden glow for a bit longer.
It’s apparent that CBS didn’t pay $1.8 billion for the ‘brand’s personality.’ Let’s see if they continue to like the content.
It’s puzzling that anyone would buy an online company (new media) for it’s online audience, etc. and then quickly transform it into broadcast (old media) format and image? Again, that was $1.8 billion they paid. The answer must lie deep in the deck of research that was most certainly conducted.
Has anyone else noticed how many sites are starting to look like these two? Is it the influence of Flex, Ajax, etc.?
