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CBS Websites - too laden with crapola

4

4mr4Caster

Guest
Not sure if this is the best board to place this gripe on, but it's as good as any. On multiple computers, I have noticed that the various combined CBS websites (i.e. CBS Boston, CBS Chicago, CBS Sacramento, etc.) are so full of ads and garbage that they're crashing Shockwave flash and basically freezing up my browser until I close the tab and bail out. This is been especially common over the past month or so, when it's done it almost every time. It really stinks when you go to read a news story and the page is frozen while the browser chews and chews on the various ads they have running there.

So, the question I pose is: has anyone else had this happen? And, what do you all think of these corporate websites? Personally, I hate them. You can't tell WBZ's website from KCBS'. And none are very useful or easy to navigate - and that's when they aren't crashing my system. None of the big 3 network O&O's web platforms are all that good; of that group, ABC's are probably the best. NBC's are fluffy and lacking; CBS' websites are the ugliest to navigate. And that's unfortunate because the people who work for CBS affiliates break a lot of interesting news.

My opinion is that localized web sites are far more interesting and useful - but that's just me......
 
4mr4Caster said:
Not sure if this is the best board to place this gripe on, but it's as good as any. On multiple computers, I have noticed that the various combined CBS websites (i.e. CBS Boston, CBS Chicago, CBS Sacramento, etc.) are so full of ads and garbage that they're crashing Shockwave flash and basically freezing up my browser until I close the tab and bail out. This is been especially common over the past month or so, when it's done it almost every time. It really stinks when you go to read a news story and the page is frozen while the browser chews and chews on the various ads they have running there.

So, the question I pose is: has anyone else had this happen? And, what do you all think of these corporate websites? Personally, I hate them. You can't tell WBZ's website from KCBS'. And none are very useful or easy to navigate - and that's when they aren't crashing my system. None of the big 3 network O&O's web platforms are all that good; of that group, ABC's are probably the best. NBC's are fluffy and lacking; CBS' websites are the ugliest to navigate. And that's unfortunate because the people who work for CBS affiliates break a lot of interesting news.

My opinion is that localized web sites are far more interesting and useful - but that's just me......
Click to expand...

I never have a problem with these websites crashing my system, but I agree about the CBS sites. My local site - "CBS San Francisco" is not one I particularly care for. I get my web news primarily from NY Times, BBC, SF Gate (Chronicle for local news), Daily Beast, Bay Insider (local), and occasionally CNN.

There are so many choices that it's easy to just ignore the sites I don't like.

On my i-phone I've downloaded the app for "ABC 7" (KGO-TV) and I get binged when some big story breaks, but it hasn't even occurred to me to visit their website on my computer.
 
You're not wrong. However if you use a browser with Ad Block, it makes them usable. I use Chrome, but I think there is Ad Block for IE and Firefox. Then you use Flashblock the sites are useable. Flashblock doesn't totally block it out, what it does, is allow the site to load without Flash or Silverlight. Then if you want to see it, you click on the Flash icon
 
Reward such websites with your absence.
I have a 3G card in my laptop, and the only place I need it to work has such low signal that
many web pages never, ever load completely. This is pretty sad when all I wanted to do is read a text
story on a news item. Then, too, it is becoming harder to find news stories which don't come with videos,
where the same problem crops up.

The best links inform in advance when there is a video, so they can be avoided.
I DO NOT need to spend 10 minutes watching a video when text story can be read in 60 seconds.
Especially on an actual newspaper's website.
The worst are videos with 10 words at a time over pretentious music, each "screen" taking 30 seconds to
view, requiring 15 minutes of attention for what should be 2 minutes of reading straight text.

I'm just not interesting in seeing everything presented as a lttle movie.
Just because creating videos is so easy doesn't mean everything now must be done that way.
And I'm tired of paying for the bandwidth to deliver advertising SO busy that the desired content never gets there.
 
Almost all television station websites are loaded with needless garbage. Outside of Tribune's sites (which allow localization) and the ones for Weigel in my area, many of the ones hosted by IBS and WorldNow seem to exist more to get pageclicks to those sponsored junky fake-eHow sites that have page click agreements to them along with the loud 'one old trick' pop-ups and flashy mortgage ads. They keep you off-track from what you're looking for. The worst by far are the sites for Nexstar, which even with their new template feel like they're stuck in 1999 and video players programmed with code from a high school student who did it for extra credit, along with their ".biz" sites only the most gullible go to for overpriced contractors and plumbers which are Angie's Hate List regulars.

My suggestion; if you don't mind it, always go to the mobile version ("m.(site).com" or "wap.(site).com"). If you need video, go to the full site; if you just need the story, the mobile version is always faster and is never laden with obnoxious pop-ups and autoplay videos. And if a station has a mobile app, that's always how I prefer to go to them on my phone.
 
I think what irks me about all web designers these days is that they all work on the assumption that everyone has a high speed connection piped into their home, office, or wherever. With that they add all the flash and videos they can to make everything so busy and noticeable that nothing useful will load until all that junk is finished.

Folks like myself who live far enough out in the country don't have the luxury of high speed internet. Satellite is the only thing besides dial-up we get. Period. We are just beyond the reach of wireless broadband, there are no fiber optic lines or cable. 3G isn't reliable because of spotty cell signal as well. Load a few vids or visit a few websites like those mentioned above several times a day with lots of content, and you push the Hughes Net limit over the 250Mb limit. Then you get throttled back to dial-up like speeds. You can buy more capacity, but it gets very expensive, very fast.
 
I could not find any real local news (other than TMZ type gossip) or even the current weather of all things when I went to CBS Los Angeles the other day. But NBC LA is the same a well. Our local ABC site is still worth visiting, but it is really sad to see the other two give up and become essentially parking places for all kinds of idiotic advertising.
 
nocomradio said:
I think what irks me about all web designers these days is that they all work on the assumption that everyone has a high speed connection piped into their home, office, or wherever. With that they add all the flash and videos they can to make everything so busy and noticeable that nothing useful will load until all that junk is finished.

Folks like myself who live far enough out in the country don't have the luxury of high speed internet. Satellite is the only thing besides dial-up we get. Period. We are just beyond the reach of wireless broadband, there are no fiber optic lines or cable. 3G isn't reliable because of spotty cell signal as well. Load a few vids or visit a few websites like those mentioned above several times a day with lots of content, and you push the Hughes Net limit over the 250Mb limit. Then you get throttled back to dial-up like speeds. You can buy more capacity, but it gets very expensive, very fast.
Click to expand...

Totally agree, but this has been a problem for years now. You gotta remember that no one who designs these sites cares to test them out in the field where are the rest of us live and they probably don't have that capability anyway. They are created in a bubble and unless they don't bring in the revenue, they are very likely ignored by the company which puts them out there, once they are launched. Plus the ads on the sites are probably coming from several different servers belonging to multiple companies and if one or two ad servers linked to a site are down or slow loading at any particular time you are not going to be able to see real content.
 
Agreed with practically everything posted here! It just seems like there's so much junk code on these websites that they can cause problems. Also, the previous (locally based) CBS station websites were SO much better than the corporate garbage they now have that it's amazing. And they all have such a generic quality to them. If you don't look at the banner, you can't even tell if you're on the website for Philly, Boston or Phoenix. And I think that stinks too.
 
Major web design firms do usability testing and focus groups and other research, but only if it is requested by the client. A little baffling to me how so many TV web sites, national and local, feature the auto-playing video that no one seems to like.
 
The Cox station group (especially their radio group) for years had the most cluttered design for their websites. Looking at wsbtv.com, they're still pretty bad. Not only do Nexstar's sites lack information, but they have some of the most ridiculous and hard-to-remember addresses too (KARK's arkansasmatters.com, for example).

The worst TV site (in terms of ease of use) in Phoenix is FOX O&O KSAZ's myfoxphoenix.com. Talk about "design on the cheap."
 
Eric Stein said:
The Cox station group (especially their radio group) for years had the most cluttered design for their websites. Looking at wsbtv.com, they're still pretty bad. Not only do Nexstar's sites lack information, but they have some of the most ridiculous and hard-to-remember addresses too (KARK's arkansasmatters.com, for example).

The worst TV site (in terms of ease of use) in Phoenix is FOX O&O KSAZ's myfoxphoenix.com. Talk about "design on the cheap."
Click to expand...

Yeah, I remember those MyFox templates from years ago. Just awful! My local FOX affiliate dropped it immediately after FOX sold it to Local LLC.

And CBS's sites are all terrible. CBS hasn't a clue about how to do anything on the internet. Their websites have always been clunky, CNET has gone down the crapper since they came under the CBS umbrella, and their streaming web app, radio.com, is an absolute embarrassment.
 
mescutia said:
FightingIrish said:
...CNET has gone down the crapper since they came under the CBS umbrella...
Click to expand...

How so? Don't tell me you miss their yellow-and-green site.
Click to expand...

What? You mean you like the installers that CNET now forces you to download when downloading software? Or the ridiculous number of pages one has to go through to get what they want.

The old site was much more functional. Never pretty, but it did the job.
 
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