Granted it is just a beta, but the early reviews are not good: “terrible” “horrible” “a yell fest” and designed by “a bunch of damn idiots.”

So what exactly is McClatchy trying to do with this new “Observer interactive” venture which seeks to “partner” with some outside content? I honestly cannot tell. User complaints about the beta are primarily generating reminders that the newspaper site is now charlotteobserver.com, which exactly misses the point. As several users have pointed out in cogent comments, the beta looks like an amateur URL squatter’s page, not the work of multi-million dollar media corp. Nor do established sites yank around their URLs — at least not since ABC’s infamous “go!” disaster and certainly do not drive users to a half-formed beta.

In fact, until someone from MNI says otherwise, the only reason I can see to slap a beta in front of users looking for their daily newspaper’s web site, the one they have visited for years and may even have as their browser’s home page, is to artificially inflate hit counts while implanting persistent cookies on thousands of unsuspecting users.