CNN opened a “beta” version of their site to the public today and are encouraging feedback from users.

At first glance it looks pretty nice, very clean, very Web 2.0-y. What I really love is that there seem to be no overly-obtrusive ads on the site (unlike some other big sites) beyond promotions of their own podcasts and shows – though this is just the beta, so that could very well change.

I like the search at the top and bottom of the page, I like the prominence of the ‘Most Popular’ section and the fact that it includes videos. I’ll be interested to see what their ‘Live Videos’ are going to be – will it just be a feed of the TV channel or extra footage being shot on various locations? That could be kind of cool.

I also love the fact that Mac users can actually easily watch their videos as well now (I hadn’t even bothered trying in a while, but the last time I did it seemed like they were basically telling me to get either IE or Windows Media Player – both of which I hate). I’d be nice if you could get code to embed these videos on our own sites (and I think that could be a very smart move for CNN in the long run), but baby steps here, I’m just glad the videos play at all.

Several people have already brought up their disappointment over the lack of social features on the site and I have to agree with this. While the new USAToday seems to be doing really well with its various social features like comments and user profiles, CNN is likely still afraid to open up their site to such features. They do have what are called I-Reports for users to submit videos, comments, etc, but this is quite a bit more managed and closed then your typical social standards.

The ‘We Recommend’ section seems like the standard approach these days for sites to show you that they know you. It’s straight-forward, they look at the stories you read on the site and give you recommendations for others you might like as well. iTunes does this, Amazon does this, it’s a good idea, but nothing new.

All in all the site looks nice – I’ll definitely be using it to read some news. CNN.com has it good don’t they? Their domain name is just so easy to not only remember, but to type as well. C N N [DOT] C O M: seven characters, two of which repeat (‘c’ and ‘n’). Hell, all but the ‘O’ reside on the same line on a keyboard. That’s why I started using it so much back in the day over say msnbc.com. It’s the little things…