Hardware Reviews Online

A reader writes "The Tech Report has an article up discussing a new hardware site. What makes this one special? Well, to paraphrase Die Hard, Ziff-Davis has the "How to build a hardware site" playbook, and they're running it step by step. According to sources cited in the article, this is an ominous development for the future of objective hardware reviews online."

Comments

OMG, This is SHOCKING

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for pointing out this huge news, this should really be on the cover of the New York Times tomorrow. The fact that it won't proves that the government is run by an evil Microsoft conspiracy.

Ziff-Davis started a hardware site?? And the site is worth reading?? HOW DARE THEY!! This is unfair, someone call the DOJ. Just think about all the poor independant hardware reviewers who will be put out of business. Tom Papst will have to go on welfare and you'll probably see Anand out giving blow jobs on the street tomorrow. Everyone should email their congressman and demand that Ziff-Davis be split into three companies right away before they become the next Microsoft.

I hope Extreme Tech continues the tradition ...

[rho]

... of the "enthusiast" hardware sites' HTML 'skillz'. You know, the 8-deep nested tables filled with 1-pixel transparent GIFs, rounded corners on sidebar titles (a la Slashdot), and the whole slow-loading mess surrounded by one big-ass <TABLE>, all kept from our eager eyes by the slow-ass banner ad server.

No such thing as "indy" HW sites

[SClitheroe]

Let's face it..the indy HW sites rely upon vendors providing them with samples of their goods to play with, benchmark, and generally drool over (as geeks tend to do with any new hardware). Sometimes, yes, you do see examples of an indy site getting pressured by a big name vendor to do a good review (was Nvidia the latest culprit? Can't remember...), but by and large, they are no better than a large network like CNet or ZDNet

The simple fact of the matter is that the best so-called "indy" sites have an incestous and recursive relationship with the vendors, which goes like this:
1) review cool hardware, get lots of readers
2) get lots of readers, get more cool hardware for free to review
3) get lots of banner revenue :)
4) goto (2)

I still find the best way to evaluate new hardware is to:
1) wait at least 4 weeks before making your purchase
2) read the "indy" sites :)
3) check the newsgroups and see what the pioneers with the arrows in their backs have to say
4) weed out the idiots on the newsgroups who couldn't get new hardware to work to save their lives
5) start looking for the best prices
6) never buy any hardware until the second driver revision.

Re:Biased sites insult our intelligence.

[hillct]

OK, how stupid do you have to be to go out trust hardware reviews you get on a website that on the next page offers to sell you that hardware?

The disturbing thing is there are an inordinate number of users who would do just that. See how convenient the web is? I can learn about the best hardware and buy it on the same page! Oh, Boy! Wait a minute, this would never fly outside the online world. Go to a computer store and ask the sales 'consultant' what to buy, then he hands it to you and you fork over the green. There's an idea. Oh, and while you're at it, you might as well bend over and grab your ankles.

Think for a moment how rediculous the above is, to the enthusiast comunity. No one would fall for this. It's merely the evolution of advertising. These new sites aren't geared tward technically astute people (read Geeks). They're grared tward the slightly more knowlegable general user, he who thinks he is aware of events within the industry and developments in technology. This is a logical progression. C|Net content was always geared tward the entry level user, the lowest common denominator. Their aquisition of ZDNet allows them to cater to a slightly (vary slightly) more sophistocated crowd, and now the introduction of these enthusiast-site look-alikes is simply a means to capture former ZDNet readers who fancy themselves morer astute than to continue teading ZD publications, probably anticipating their being dumbed down (even further) by CNet editors.

Just as television advertising has become more sophistocated over the past two decades, online marketing has become infinately more sophistovated in the past half decade. The issue online though, is users will 'graduate' from one calibre of publication to another vary quickly and to keep users in the CNet network of content sites, they aquired ZDNet as the next logical progression and are now pushing another class of site to fit in between ZDNet and the true techie sites like Toms Hardware and AnandTech.

CNet is out to expand their audience. They'll try to a more technically astute readership over time, but online publication is a reputation game. They'll pick up a few users here and there, but no self respecting /. reader would confuse AnandTech with Extreme Tech.

--CTH


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