If I am to remain a sports fan without ESPN, I will still need sources for news and information. I'm also looking for a new home page, and the first site I am trying out for that spot is cnnsi.com. The presence of the Sports Illustrated brand, and access to writers and photographs from the magazine, certainly should appeal to the sports fan. I'm on the site this morning, following the NBA Draft, and will comment on their coverage of it, but first some general overall impressions are in order.
espn.com has what I have found to be as close to real time score updating as one would have a right to expect. cnnsi.com appears to lag a bit behind, or so my instincts tell me. A couple of weeks ago, I had up their real time NBA Finals box score, and the score in the header information was behind that in the article itself. (I have not made any direct comparisons between sites, since I would now have to break my vow to do so.)
I also note that I had to refresh my screen to learn that Kyrie Irving was the first pick in the draft; apparently their home page will not automatically refresh, which is surprising.
As for layout, ESPN seems to have set the standard for sports sites, and cnnsi.com falls in line. The lead story at the moment one accesses the site is front and center, and the other headlines of the day are to the right of the lead story box. Scores and current action updates (like the NBA draft tonight) are at the top of the screen, as well as links to specific sports and various SI places of interest (which have a slightly odd position, above the links for specific sports). How frequently are the scores updated, and where is that information?
Maybe the presence of the draft information influences my thoughts here, but cnnsi.com seems a bit cluttered to me. I also find the presence of, shall we say, less than hard news links, so near the top of the screen a bit disconcerting. However, the listing of relevant articles from SI writers underneath the main story of the day is handy (again, just as ESPN does it), and the ads for SI publications seamlessly integrate into the site and look like they belong there.
Continuing with the story of the night, the NBA draft, cnnsi.com seems to be sticking with facts, so any talk of trades on the site seems to be limited to deals actually announced. That's not so bad, really, although armchair general managing can be one of the highlights of a draft.
I will comment on other aspects of the site (how specific sports are handled, the mySI personalization, specific writers of note) in my next post.
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