Response time during the evening was adequate, but did suffer from occasional slowdowns. The personalized home page created by Excite is cluttered and overwhelming, but the TV listings section is better. Gist Gist is the brainchild of Gist Communications, a leader in providing independent TV listings and information to online users. It offers the same type of comprehensive TV listings as most of the services reviewed here, but its strength is its feature article and content section. Users can read feature articles by clicking on links to specific shows.
Users registering for the service can select either a traditional grid or scroll-down list format.
For those who must have a printed guide in front of them, Gist offers The Daily Gist, downloaded automatically once a day and printed using HP Instant Delivery. Zap2It is probably the most familiar listings service to Road Runner subscribers - a link to their service appears on Road Runner's own pages. A division of Tribune Media Services, provider of TV listings to newspapers nationwide, Zap2It specializes in graphical and friendly looking TV listings pages. To navigate through the maze of channels available on cable today, channel logos and other graphics formatting makes reviewing the listings less tedious. Personalization features allow users to list only the channels or types of programming they want, and movie ratings and basic review information is included.