It’s been just a little over a month since CBS completed its acquisition of Cnet and some of the first outward signs of the deal can be seen in a forthcoming logo for CBS Interactive that we obtained and a new design for Cnet’s Websites that it is testing in random batches. Judging purely by the design shifts, it appears that the cultures of the acquirer and the acquiree are moving towards each other. 
CBS Interactive is ditching its corporate black-and-blue logo for a friendlier orange and white one. (Assuming the version shown here is the one it ends up going with).
At the same time, Cnet is testing a new design in beta that is much sleeker, and replaces the familiar hippy-school-bus-yellow backdrop with a more serious CBS black. (I was randomly selected to see the sneak peek, which is how I found out about it). The new design is an improvement. The site is less cluttered, and on News.com blogs are featured prominently throughout.
The blog-centric approach is a direction News.com has been going in ever since it named blogging journo Dan Farber editor in chief last February. But now the navigational tabs on top all link directly to blogs such as Crave and Webware.
How do you like the new look? Check out the screen shots below. Here’s the old nav bar:
Update: And of course, CBSNews.com is already republishing stories from Cnet’s News.com. (Kind of makes you wonder whether those two brands will just merge at some point).
Here is the beta design:
And here is a Cnet story on CBSnews.com:
I’ve been an avid reader of news.com for close to a decade. Glad to see they’re not going down without a fight.
cant believe they removed the News.com domain from there new homepage. SeeNet.com and maybe they’d have a chance. Cnet is like aol, on its way out. probably too late for a comeback. the sooner they launch the Search.com domain into a locationengine and organize the planet than maybe they could get a grip on the internet and have a premium seat in internet history.
I know they’ve been working hard on this new design. They have implemented a new backend too which should make the site very speedy. Nice article.
Cnet will have to shed its hokey, jokey approach to technology news. What Tom Merritt and the other editors do on camera (that kid with the spiky hair?) is an abortive attempt to sound carefree and breezy, but it comes off oh so irritating. The only on camera commentator that can pull it off is Molly Wood, who is a natural.
Definitely looks better. Problem is that yellow is an important part of their brand, would be interesting to know how much long time damage this change will make, or how long it will take for consumers to get accustomed to that.
(This sounds like a minor issue – believe me, though: it isn’t.)
Wow! Liking the new look. Good to see the increased focus on the blogs; I’m sure we all can appreciate this attentional shift.
Seems like a lot of news sources, whether large or small, are slowly starting to embrace blogging further. I like what I’m seeing!
The site looks more sophisticated, cleaner, overall much easier to read. I don’t see an issue w/ loosing the yellow; the red holds the most brand equity. However, the general layout and design needs work. Wired, NYT, and CNN have the best news sites.
Wow. This is VERY OLD NEWS.
Farber has been announcing this several times on his blog. First time may have been back in May.
CNet is breaking more news these days than the “re-write the press release or imitate Valleywag” TechCrunch.
Maybe. It was the first time I noticed.
The new design looks great.. will defenately be appreciated..
Was also randomly selected and I really like the new design. Funny thing is that I am part of the beta on Safari on my home Mac, but not Firefox. And on my work Dell I get the beta on both Firefox and IE.
The new design looks much better than the old one. I hope to see this rolled out to all users soon… the colors are much nicer and less “annoying.”
I always liked the “|” in C|Net…too bad it’s gone in the new logo.
CNET email newsletter service sucks!!! I never receive my email email alerts and updates.
Maybe if CNET was able to keep their readers in tune with whats going on they might still have an engaged and loyal audience.
Instead they’ve just fallen behind the times and remain obsolete in today’s news market.
-Jason
With design it pretty much has “all been done”… I used the same color scheme of the identity on my site last year: http://www.fotagraft.com
So naturally I like it.
Maybe I’m preaching to the wrong congregation here, but I wonder if it will help the Cnet brand to have blogs given the same status as their paid (branded) journalists.
Who do you think writes those blogs? Get with it.
Has been part of beta UI for about a month on my FF. On my IE I still see the old yellow. Definitely a step forward.
CBS is already integrating Last.fm and other properties on TV. This whole deal was necessary for CNET to remain viable despite it’s size and scope (and something tells me Les Moonves could put this multi-media play into high gear). It’s a win-win for CBS and CNET … and the colors don’t really matter
i like the new look. like the content as well.
btw, what’s with alan wilensky. thought the guy’s name was familiar. do a google on this guy. he’s been all over the blogosphere…including an interview with the wall street journal…dissing cnet. did halsey or someone bone his wife? the guy sounds like he’s waging a personal vendetta. gotta love search engines
it reminds me of cnn.com. nicer design than what cnet is now but they need to keep there colors and not still cnns.
Del, thanks for the all the help with viral marketing and SEO campaign – that check is in the mail, and I won’t, ya know….
And, Major Minor, I have not forgotten…I am just biding my time.
the new logo looks trendy but tired. the layout could use some whitespace zen. i agree, cnn & bbc do it best. sorry.
The site looks like it’s from 1997! Sucks ass, bring back the yellow baby!
I’ve wrote about this like a month ago at http://www.grap...-something-new/
I like the new design. More hi-tech feel…
ya VERY OLD NEWS.
http://www.penc...nger-just-tech/
“The pendulum of parent brands vs. individual brands swings back and forth at CNET, but it’s clear this time news.com is being prepped for bigger things.”