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What's About.com All About?

Renamed Mining.com offers human guides in an ambitious site that's often weak on content.

By Anne Fischer Lent, PCWorld   

The portal still presents topic-specific areas led by real live human guides, but now the emphasis seems to be more on offering a little information about a whole lot of things.

About.com's concentration on the human side of the Web is pervasive. Each of the 650 topics listed under the 18 major headings (such as Education and Sports) has a personal guide who is a so-called expert on the subject. Photos and bios of each guide lend personality, but what really adds the human touch is each guide's individual approach to their topic.

Great Idea, Needs Work

In general, the hype surrounding the About.com launch far exceeds the level of terrific content. Just as in the real world, some guides are better than others, and the quality and freshness of content is wildly mixed.

Some content, such as the e-commerce topic, which includes a load of links but not a lot of original thought, is just plain flat. Some, such as the article featured under the Parenting Children K-6 topic, which celebrates MiningCo's first birthday, more than a year ago, is old. And some, like the Broadcast News/Recent Headlines topic, in which the newest news is six days old, just fails to deliver.

It's also true that excellent articles abound. For example, the Parenting topic features an article on starting kindergarten, which is a real keeper, even though it's nearly two years old.

I was surprised that with all the experience gained through MiningCo, About.com's designers were unable to make navigation more intuitive. News on the Stanley Cup playoffs, for example, was hard to come by, buried many levels deep under Winter Sports.

Don't get me wrong: About.com is based on a terrific concept. Guides really do add a human touch, and the community area within each topic offers a chance to chat with others who have similar interests.

Maybe content and focus will improve after the worldwide chat scheduled for this Thursday, May 20, when guides and Web surfers will be able to chit chat to their heart's content.