Gizmodo, Engadget Guys Launch GDGT (And Get Crushed By Traffic)
As a recap, Rojas helped found Nick Denton's Gizmodo, but then left to form Engadget, where he worked with Ryan Block. The fierce competition for scoops between the two sites is legendary. But now Peter and Ryan have launched their new baby, GDGT.
Don't bother clicking on the link right now: The site went down shortly after its launch. The site's Twitter feed is fine though, and currently reads, "So the amount of traffic we're getting is roughly 3-5x our 'even-that-will-never-happen' estimates... doing the best we can!"
Brad Stone at the Times says GDGT, "differs from Engadget or Gizmodo by aspiring to be a gadget-oriented social network. Users of the site can create profiles and specify which consumer electronics devices they have, had or want to buy."
Block says the point of GDGT is to outlive the "lust phase," of users drooling over the latest toys, and instead building a community for users to ogle the gear they already have getting the most out of it until they decide to replace it.
The site is opting out of the review wars that the two founders helped create; they plan to link to the other sites for breaking gadget news and headlines, and instead let their users write most of the news and reviews that runs on their own site. The site will earn money from ads and affiliate programs with online gadget stores. Blackberry parent RIM will be the site's exclusive advertiser for the first month. Apparently RIM's ads look a lot like GDGT content, but are clearly marked as advertising.
Block modestly tells the Times: "This could possibly be the last great gadget site."
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