Verne Kopytoff of the New York Times writes Monday about the war of words between TechCrunch and Engadget, two tech blogs that are both owned by AOL.
Kopytoff writes, “Since its acquisition by AOL for more than $25 million, TechCrunch has covered AOL extensively, publishing articles that are often tinged with ridicule, like the headline, ‘AOL e-mail goes down. No one notices.’ But until now, it had kept its irreverent commentary within the loose norms of online news coverage.
“On a superficial level, the latest fight started when a post by Mr. Arrington accused Engadget of buying ads on Google to lift its traffic; he said that strategy broke an unspoken industrywide rule against buying “bad traffic that doesn’t stick around.”
“He also complained about an Engadget editor who left the dismissive comment ‘slow news day’ on a TechCrunch article, calling it just one of many slights against TechCrunch by Engadget employees over the last year.
“In an interview, Mr. Topolsky said that AOL bought the ads without his knowledge and, in any case, rebutted the idea that advertising is wrong. He acknowledged that an editor commented on a TechCrunch article, but called it a joke and hardly part of a broader effort to damage TechCrunch.”
Read more here.
