OVERALL GRADE: C plus
Products/Services: B
We like the home-page overview: five headings, each with a
teaser and a link. The only flaw is (unfortunately!) on the very first item,
“Who we are and what we do.” That phrase promises at least a smidgen of
business history. Instead we get a teaser -- “CNET is a collective of the
tech-savvy and tech-obsessed” -- which doesn’t indicate what CNET does or why
it’s unique. CNET’s strengths are set out clearly and concisely on the Press and Investor page: they need
to be stated here as well, where far more people will see them.
CNET has the unusual challenge of listing categories,
criteria, and winners of awards they give, rather than trying to impress us
with awards they’ve received. Here and elsewhere on the About Us pages, we’d
like to see more images of the wide range of products that CNET reviews –
perhaps a slide show of the latest winners in major categories, changed weekly
or monthly.
Personality: C
When we rely on reviewers for high-end purchases, we like to
know something about their background and qualifications. The concept of CNET’s
individual pages on each editor is great: comments and reviews the expert has
posted on the left, short bio with interests and activities on the right. We
would have given CNET an A for personality, except that two of the four
reviewers highlighted on the CNET
Editors page didn’t bother to submit bios. This is the sort of detail we’d
expect tech-savvy and tech-obsessed people (or their editors) to pay attention
to.
Accessibility: C
Via links at the lower right of the About Us page or on Where to Find Us, we can
follow CNET nine different ways. Each of the editors has an email contact. But
what if we don’t know which editor we want to contact? There seems to be no general
email or online contact form.
TAKEAWAY
While we admire (for esthetic reasons) the uncluttered look
of CNET’s pages, we’d like more information: more photos of items reviewed,
better bios of the people who write the reviews, and a bit of corporate history
that reflects CNET’s well-deserved reputation among users of all tech stripes.
Does your Web site’s “About Us” section
accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks
we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential
customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for
us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). Contact us if you’d like to
have your site evaluated—there’s no charge and no obligation. Today’s example was chosen at random;
CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.
Posts
