CNET

Author: Kalicia Bateman

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The Good

• Deals
• Categories

CNET is a large site with many options, but the option to see deals was easy to locate. Right on the home page there is a link to the deals offered on the site. Once on the deals page, it is easy to view what is being offered. In a quick glance you can tell what is being offered, why it was a good deal, who was selling, and when it expired. With their "deal hotness" it is easy to see how good the deal being offered is in comparison with other deals on the site. It is also useful to be able to sort by categories while shopping. CNET Deals offers 13 categories to shop from. They are:

• All Deals
• Non-Tech
• Audio
• Desktops
• Phones & Acc.
• Storage
• Laptops
• Printers
• Tablets
• Cameras
• Monitors
• Software
• Televisions

By choosing one of these categories, it makes the search much narrower and easier to shop from. The deals being offered on CNET Shopper are easy to get to the seller's page. With one click of the product it directs you straight to the seller's site. The products being offered were up to date and accurate. Every product stated who it was being sold by at the bottom of the product's description; most of the products were being sold from well-known brands, directly from the brand's site at a highly discounted price.

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The Bad

• Product variety
• Limited notifications
• Reviews

The variety of products CNET Shopper offers are lacking. They had fewer products and a smaller range of products offered on the site than other shopping engines. The shopping aspect of CNET seemed to be a very small section which made the shopping less desirable. CNET does offer those who subscribe to be notified of new deals or specifically new tech deals, but it does not offer any type of program to notify the buyer when a price changes or when a promotion becomes available or is ending. This is unfortunate, since finding the right product at the best price is often times a time-sensitive task. Many competing shopping search engines sites have this feature. There are also no product reviews available on CNET's products. The site doesn't offer any reviews to be read or be written about the item being sold. Likewise, it does not offer any reviews of the sellers of items to be read or written. Having quality reviews gives needed product validity and confidence to online shoppers. Many other sites do offer reviews so we found this to be a negative for using CNET shopper.

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The Bottom Line

The deals provided on CNET Shopper are easy to find and view. They provide a good amount of information about the product and the deal being offered. However, the site is small in the number of products they provide and do not offer reviews of products or sellers. They do however have very reliable products from well-known brands and provide fast and easy links straight to the seller. CNET Shopper may not be the best site for someone looking to shop for a large number of products and a wide variety. But it would be a great site for someone looking for technology items from reliable sources. It would also be helpful for someone to evaluate how good of a deal they are getting from the product and why it's a good deal.