Thu Jan 17, 2008
If you want to see how a movie fared with the critics before you shell out your hard-earned bucks, check out rotten tomatoes. This popular website has recently been redesigned and has now gone into beta testing.
The new design isn’t bad, but then again, I didn’t have a problem with the old one either. I guess they were trying to go with a more community-based, web 2.0 format. The layout is still a bit cluttered, but looks lighter.
Anyway, it’s not the design that draws me to the site again and again, it’s the concept. Rotten tomatoes gathers critic reviews from across the country and adds them up. Enough positive reviews gives the movie a “fresh” rating, and too many negative ones garner a “rotten” rating. A sidebar on the home page lists current box office movies so that you can figure out what’s worth watching at a glance. If you want to search for a movie, type it in the search box and within seconds you can see if you should pop that movie into your DVD player or toss it into the returns bin.
Another website I dig is wired news, and again I go there mostly because the content is interesting and is regularly updated. At wired news, you can read the latest headlines in technology, cyberculture, and our digital lives.
Ease of navigation makes this site a delight to visit. Large, bold headlines are easy to read and if they catch your attention, you’re just one click away from reading the entire article. For those who like a little visual stimulation with their serving of words, there are plenty of well-chosen pictures to capture your attention and, in many cases, persuade you to read the article.