How does a website smoke, anyway?

Hooray for more weird news websites!

I discovered http://www.thesmokinggun.com/ while browsing the internet the other day. It’s a website that hosts entertainment news, odd tidbits that make headlines and in general stuff that doesn’t get much attention, but is still weird anyway.

The site is a hassle to navigate. There, I said it. It infuriates me so much not to know what I’m clicking on, and by the time I get to the page that I was looking for, I’ve lost a way back to the page I was on. Also, there’s really no way to do a basic search of everything the site has because, despite it having a search bar, it has no keywords, no dates, no nothing available as a search reference. But… the site is still interesting. As a visitor, you don’t really have the choice to immediately go to a specific story, but instead are forced to either search the site for something you already know exists, or go directly to the featured article of each section for the day.

Articles featured have a lot to do with public records. This may not sound interesting, at first, but the site uses it to post crazy arrests, police chases, mug shots, and the like, as well as musician contracts with vendors. Anyone with a serious need for Hollywood entertainment can find mugshots of famous stars. Or just funny mugshots in general. I particularly enjoyed reading the backstage rider paperwork for the Foo Fighters. The document is almost dripping in sarcasm as a result of, what I assume is, playing at far too many bad venues with little accommodations for the band. It’s just a little interesting tidbit about the band that I never knew before, and would not have seen, had I not read it on this site.

The site features a newsletter and RSS feeds that keep fans of the site updated. They also have weekly contests, like this week’s game of match the woman’s mugshot with the blood alcohol level. It’s kind of, not a contest I’ve seen on a website before… But at least the prizes are intelligent (a free pick off the New York Times best selling book list).

Anyway, I’m not sure whether this site would be a real news site or not. On one hand, it does provide actual stories that are based on hard facts and evidence. On the other hand… does anything posted on this really matter? Also, the site in no way takes itself seriously, and does not update at any sort of regular pace. It’s also not conducive to any sort of social media, or networking, and lacks many of the features that other news sites have today, such as blogs and the ability to comment on stories. The site could benefit from a serious layout overhaul that would make it more user-friendly.

In the end, www.thesmokinggun.com is probably something I’ll only look at once, and then completely forget about the next day. It’s good for a few laughs and eyebrow raises, at least.