One of the slowest and ugliest sites I have ever visited!
Overall
About five years ago, I used to visit cnet.com and download.com a lot as I was in high school and was fairly new to the Internet world. Over the years I have noticed improvements to the site, but now they (the whole organization, company, or entity) have ruined the site for everyone. Every time I type in cnet.com in my browser, all I get is a yellow page that takes forever to load and most of the items on the page do not even load at all.
At first, I thought there was a problem with my computer, so I tried many other computers and I encountered the same problem. I do not think this is a problem with the computers I have used. As of now, I only have had not so pleasant experiences with the new CNET website. I have now learned to avoid the site altogether.
DESIGN & FEATURES
cnet.com is designed so you can not see anything clearly let alone find what you are looking for. I used to be able to read product reviews on the site but now it is so hard to use that I can never get a decent view of the site.
As soon as you log on to this site, you may see (if you are lucky) five links (cnet.com, Reviews, Videos, Compare Prices, & How-to) on the very top and two main columns underneath. The first column (leftmost) has the search feature, category list of all the reviews, shopping links, tools, and links to other sites.
To shop: CNET is not really an online store, but more like a review site, an affiliate to a lot of other sites. So if you wish to shop, you will not actually shop from CNET. So all you have to do is either search for the item you want, pick the best price or deal, and click on the Buy It Here button to purchase it from an affiliate site.
EXPERIENCE
After about five years of up close and personal experience with this site, all I can say about it right now is that do not bother wasting your time with it. I suggest using other review sites and getting what you want quickly and easily. I still use download.com once in a while to download shareware or freeware applications, but that is just about it. I have stopped using the CNET main site as it only gives me problems.
A few years back, the site was really easy to use and navigate through, but now it is just slow and no pictures load. I used to be able to find all the drivers for my computer there, download applications, and compare prices; but it is just too darn slow now. Now I cannot even read reviews about products without getting distracted by the “unable to load picture” icons. I have tried to ignore the slow loading and no graphics, but it is all too much distraction that I can never pay attention to what I need.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If there was only the slow speed but the pictures loaded fine, I would have at least recommended this site to everyone, but I have just had so many bad experiences that I do not want anyone else to go through that. I am not sure if everyone else is having the same problem as me, but it is just too distracting and painful for me.
In the past, the site provided me with very helpful information about products and software for my computer quickly and easily, but now the whole site is slow and none of the graphics load. This makes it too distracting to actually get what you need to get done. I would NOT recommend this site to anyone who has experienced what I am experiencing with this site.