TechFold - Bold tech & web commentary

The Techcrunch Circus: Losing Focus?

This blog, and many, many other “2.0 tech” blogs owe much of our inspiration and popularity to Techcrunch, who’s reporting popularized both the ethos of web 2.0, and the concept of writing about it. I’ve been a long-time TC reader and fan.

TC’s “obsessive profiling” of new companies was what made it an icon of the web 2.0 movement, but as of late, growth seems to be pushing TC into the territory of MSM “lifestyle” site, complete with circus tent celebrities, filler posts, and inoffensive reporting.

1. MC Hammer - a great buzz building mechanism around TC20 (it got my linkback, didn’t it?) but is a move like this turning tech into a circus?
2. Unopinonated reporting - many TC articles are now “just the news,” without the opinions and insight that used to make TC more than just a PR tool.
3. Focus Dilution - there’s been a number of Apple/iPod articles this week, which seemingly escaped from Crunchgear. Why?

Has TC gone mainstream? Should true 2.0′ers stick to reading Uncov? Probably not. There’ll always be a place in my blogroll for TC, but its starting to get pushed down the list.

Share This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!