Can Sesame Street 's new website compete with other kidvid networks?

"Sesame Street's new website is no 'Gabba Gabba'," writes Maria Russo in an Los Angeles Times review. "It pains me to says this as someone who grew up loving PBS--overall, on Noggin and Playhouse Disney, the creativity factor is in another league," and those networks have "more fun computer games," she writes, referencing Nick Jr.'s "funkadelic variety show" Yo Gabba Gabba. Sesame's game-driven site, which officially launches August 11 (sneak peak here), is hosted by Sesame Workshop instead of PBS, the show's primary broadcaster, and cost $14 million to develop, according to an earlier New York Times story. Navigation is preschool-friendly--the cursor is a star instead of an arrow, sparkles indicate which images are clickable, and a boisterous Muppet leads children through the site. "We view this as really the future of the workshop, as becoming the primary channel of distribution down the line," Gary E. Knell, president and chief executive of Sesame Workshop, told the Times.