AOL and HackADay?
p2p news / p2pnet:- Time Warner`s America Online gets Engadget, Autoblog, Joystiq on gaming, Hackaday.com, and so on, as part of its $25 million buy of Weblogs Inc.
The deal, expands AOL’s presence in the blogging community and the company’s potential to attract advertising dollars, says the Associated Press.
Step back! HackADay?
But, no worries.
Credit goes to Josh Smith for noticing that something fishy was going on, posts Eliot Phillips, but, We were not part of the AOL purchase deal of Weblogs, Inc. If you look around, you`ll see that the Weblogs, Inc. directory listings have been removed from the site.
Jason Calacanis’ blog goes into detail.
“I`ll never cease to be amazing at how fast and perceptive the blogosphere is,” he says. “So, it`s true HackADay wasn`t part of the deal to go to AOL. This was a choice that Brian and I made when we did the deal. Our thinking was that HackADay frequently gets itself into hot water doing things like voiding warranties, unlocking DRM schemes, and the like. This is what makes HackADay a success in factâit`s unfiltered and no one tells them to stop doing what they`re doing. In fact, we`ve encouraged them to be ummm . creative.
He also observes that being part of AOL, “would make it open season on them and their partners, just like hacking HackaDay and Weblogs, Inc. became a pastime for the HackADay readers.”
HackADay will run as a side project and, “eventually we`ll probably make it a non-profit with the profits going to the EFF,” adds Calacanis.
“We`re open on suggestions of what we should do with it.”
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
Associated Press – AOL Buys Weblogs to Boost Blog Presence, October 6, 2005
Jason Calacanis’ blog – HackADay stays indie!, October 11, 2005
