I have been using TOI for more than a decade now. and will probably continue to do so, despite my comments and review below, probably because of lack of suitable competition.
Pros:
*Wide variety of news** General coverage of new is good. Politics, Sports, Science, Local, *masala*(will come back on this later) and so. Though some articles don’t make sense in indian context. but still a good source
*Easy to understand language** English used isn’t too *hi-fi* and maintains a good level. I won’t says it helps you if you are preparing from UPSC/GMAT/CAT, but it is still beneficial to some extend.
*Site layout** Site layout is good. Sections are well-defined. There are some inline includes from twitter(related to article) which add to value.(Also see tweaks section)
*Rewards** The site has a reward point program for all activity you do in site(including just log-in and browsing) which can be redeemed for rewards.
Cons:
*Cheap Site** Sometimes, site feels like a soft porn site with too much vulgar and nudity related photos right on home page. Stories in some section don’t seem to help the cause either with heavily sex-themed articles.
*Too many ads and pop-ups** Almost everybody is there to earn money, but TOI isn’t leaving a pixel’s opportunity to earn it. Not only is there ads on top, bottom and sides of articles, there are ads in between article text, besides the innumerable pop-ups. Thank God for Ab-block plus though;)
*No Moderation**With rewards, comes users and with users comes spam! TOI has not been moderating properly and even the mails went unanswered. There are lots of promotional messages and spam in comments, some for advertising and some for affiliate and some for plain rewards.
Tweaks:
I use ad-block plus with some custom filters to remove useless sections and block almost all ads. This is the only way to use the site sanely.