TOM TV looks into the Alpha Eye

Top of Mind TV has spent alot of time over the last few weeks discussing the latest shows - but it seemed time for a few reviews of what the 'Nets are doing online to support the Fall Season.

Let's start with our friends at the Eye. After launching a new Alpha site in September - you probably expected the full site rollout to quickly follow, but I hope you didn't put any cash on the line. While the hottest show subsites like "Amazing Race" sport the new look, CBS standards and Naked favs "Numb3rs" and "The Unit" are still in the old style.

If you haven't seen the alpha yet, going to CBS.com still won't get you there. Alpha.CBS.com is where you wanna go for a peek at the new site in progress. IMHO, it looks very Apple meets ABC player - so to help you tell them apart, we'll call this one the 'Bowtie'.

The look may be new but the programming is rooted in the existing model - along the left side is a combination of primetime for the current night's programming, along with previews of the upcoming night. The rest of the lineup is represented graphically across the rest of the rows in the tie. You can view a clip directly in the bowtie by clicking a 'View this clip' link after you select a show via it's image, or choose to link directly to the show site. It's looks great when you first open the video window, until you want to adjust the experience for more comfortable viewing... then you notice the lack of video controls - you can only stop and start. *Sigh*

If you choose one of the elements within the Bowtie connected to a show subsite that hasn't been migrated before, clicking to view the clip has a totally different experience. It will actually launch the Innertube player within a new window to view the clip from there. Pretty wierd, but I think it's safe to assume that this will NOT be a part of the final experience.

If you're adventurous, you might scroll past the natural break in the page to find there's more 2.0-type features below the fold. I picked the Jericho widget, even though it's yet another reminder that Kid Nation is playing in the Wednesday slot... Unfortunately, you can see that this widget is clearly a left-over from when they reran the series earlier this year, as evidenced by the 'Friday' messaging (now that's just sloppy).

It's pulling in a current feed, so the copy is representative of the latest producton blog posts - but unfortunately clicking on any of them won't take you to the actual post. So if you're interested, you'll have to navigate separately to CBS to read it. *Double Sigh*

Exploring the BTF space even further, you'll find more 2.0-type features such as popular tags, most active users, and an image-based carousel ala Apple (and every other site that has copied this style). All good solid features and they look crisp and fresh within the new design, so I must say that even with the buggy Alpha experience, I do like where this is headed. We can only hope that the really innovative features are still to come.

So keep your eye on the Eye to watch how this alpha evolves. Enjoy!