In the click-happy world of e-commerce, there's no shortage of companies eager to sell you stuff. However, how many online outfits aspire to make you a smarter shopper? How many dot-com darlings use editorially superior content to make themselves your first stop -- before you even know you want to buy something in the first place?

That's where CNET Networks (NASDAQ:CNET) comes in. You're probably familiar with some of CNET's many popular websites, but I'll bet you don't know them all. Some of the company's most active properties include:

  • CNET, of course. The namesake site serves up product reviews of the latest consumer-electronics gadgetry as well as forward-thinking news items. Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) is trying to make a similar splash with its Yahoo! Tech, but where does the search-engine superstar turn for most of its professional reviews? That's right: CNET.

  • Download.com is the hub of legal file downloading. Whether you want the latest version of WinZip or the hottest spyware zapper, it's the place to go for free programs or trial versions of commercial ones.

  • Gamespot is the diehard gamer's place to be. The new wave of gaming platforms isn't cheap, and their games aren't a bargain, either. Before video game enthusiasts plunk down hard cash on a new title, they're likely to gauge its worthiness in Gamespot's reviews.

  • MySimon is one of the original comparison-shopping sites. Enter an item, and it will scour several merchants for you and spit back the best prices.

Elsewhere, TechRepublic offers up a vibrant community of tech-savvy enthusiasts. Chow.com combines well-done culinary content with consumers' reviews of local eateries. Webshots may be slipping compared to photo-sharing rivals like Yahoo!'s Flickr or News Corp.'s (NYSE:NWS) MySpace, but it's still a massive collection of user-uploaded snapshots. Other properties like TV.com and MP3.com are pretty self-explanatory.

In short, CNET is just about everywhere you want to be.

Single-digit bargain
If CNET is so great, why is it still trading in the single digits? That's a fair question. The company stumbled last year, amid profit warnings and an options backdating scandal that ultimately claimed the rocky departure of its CEO.

Thankfully, the options fiasco is now rapidly receding in the rearview mirror. The same can probably be said for its bottom-line shortfall. After all, the problem with CNET's reliance on things like computing and video games in 2006 was that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) delayed the release of Windows Vista, while Sony (NYSE:SNE) also pushed back the release of its PlayStation 3. Advertisers who relied on the PC upgrade cycle or an installed base of console platform users had little reason to open their wallets, while consumers also had less call for CNET during the technological lull.

Now that we've finally made it to 2007, the party's just getting started. Analysts expect CNET's earnings to soar 50% to $0.21 a share this year, and even greater upside awaits. Given Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) routine destruction of Wall Street's targets, the growth of paid search appears to be in its infancy. A content-rich company like CNET, which attracts 125 million unique monthly visitors, is going to feast on the future -- if one of the search-engine heavies doesn't buy it out at a healthy premium first.

A tip of the CAPS
Most of you seem to agree with me. Of the 271 investors who have registered an opinion on CNET in the Motley Fool CAPS community intelligence database, all but 35 feel that the stock will beat the market in the future.

You already know where I stand. I've recommended the stock -- twice -- to Rule Breakers growth-stock newsletter subscribers. Feel the same? Disagree? Let your voice be heard. Click here to vote for CNET as the best e-commerce stock for 2007.

Once you're done with that, I'm sure there's a CNET-owned website just waiting for your visit.

See all our Foolish candidates for 2007's best e-commerce stock, then add your own ratings in Motley Fool CAPS.

Microsoft is an Inside Value pick. Yahoo! is a Stock Advisor selection. CNET, of course, is a Rule Breakers pick.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a frequent visitor of CNET's sites. These days, he's addicted to CNET TV. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. Rick is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.