Engadget

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Engadget
URL http://www.engadget.com/
Commercial? Yes
Type of site Weblog
Registration No
Owner Weblogs, Inc.
Created by Peter Rojas

Engadget is a popular technology weblog and podcast about consumer electronics. The weblog has won several awards. Engadget currently has four different sites, all operating simultaneously with each having its own staff, which cover technology news in different parts of the world in their respective languages. The US Engadget site made its 20,000th post on 25th August 2006.

Contents

[edit] Founding and membership

Engadget was co-founded by former Gizmodo technology weblog editor and co-founder, Peter Rojas. Engadget is a member of Weblogs, Inc., a blog network with over 75 weblogs including Autoblog and Joystiq and formerly including Hack-A-Day. Weblogs Inc. was purchased by AOL in 2005. Engadget's managing editor is Ryan Block.

[edit] Weblog

Launched in March 2004, Engadget is updated multiple times a day with articles on gadgets and consumer electronics. It also posts popular rumours about the technological world, plus a weekly podcast, the Engadget Podcast that covers tech and gadget news stories that happened during the week.

Since its founding, dozens of writers have written for or contributed to Engadget, Engadget Mobile and Engadget hd, including high profile bloggers, industry analysts, and professional journalists. These writers include Jason Calacanis, Paul Boutin, Phillip Torrone, and Susan Mernit.

Engadget has been nominated for numerous awards, including a 2004 Bloggie for Best Technology Weblog, and 2005 Bloggies for Best Computers or Technology Weblog and Best Group Weblog; Engadget won Best Tech Blog in the 2004 and 2005 Weblog Awards.

Gmail, Google's webmail service, as well as many other RSS readers, has included Engadget as a default RSS feed, pulling the latest articles which appear at the top of all user's mailboxes.

To extend readership, the blog is available in several languages including Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese (traditional and simplified). As the blog continues to gain popularity around the world, the available languages will most likely increase.

Engadget was one of the first places woot.com advertised its site, and provided a large customer base for the then small startup company.

[edit] Podcast

The Engadget podcast was launched in October 2004, hosted by Phillip Torrone, a writer for Makezine and the senior editor of the Make blog. He was the host for the first 22 episodes of the podcast at which point Eric Rice took over. Eric Rice is known for his own podcast unsurprisingly called The Eric Rice Show and has also produced podcasts for Weblogs Inc. Eric hosted and produced 4 episodes of the podcast for Engadget until the show was taken over by Peter Rojas and Ryan Block. After about twelve episodes of both hosting and producing (episode 38,) Engadget hired podcast producer Randall Bennett, who worked as Engadget, and Weblogs, Inc.'s rich media producer till May of 2006.

The topic of discussion for the podcast is technology related and closely linked to events that have happened during the week in the world of technology. The show generally lasts from between 30 minutes and an hour. The show is normally weekly, however there are events that disrupt this occasionally. When events such as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) come around each year the podcast has been known to be broadcasts daily during the event to cover the latest news on gadgets. More recently special versions of the podcast have been made including the Engadget lovecast and a listeners voicemail podcast.

More recently the podcast has been sponsored. Organisations sponsor the podcast in return for a mention in the show. The host of the podcast will typically mention the sponsor during the beginning, middle and end of the show. Sponsors have included Best Buy, Nikon and most recently Castrol.

The Engadget podcast is available as a subscription through iTunes and as an RSS feed. Alternatively, it can be downloaded directly from the site in either MP3, Ogg, AAC or m4b format. The m4b version features images related to the current topic of discussion and can be displayed in iTunes or on a compatible player.

[edit] Trademark Infringement

In early 2006 the website engadget.com had reported that they were victims of their likeness being stolen and used as a store name at a mall in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.

[edit] Reader meetups

Engadget hosts meetups for readers in different cities. They are completely free to attend and prizes are handed out. Previous locations include New York, Iceland, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Amsterdam, Seattle, and Boston.

Part IV - Seattle, Washington Sponsors: Griffin, Microsoft, Nintendo, Samsung, and T-Mobile.

[edit] Current Senior Editors

[edit] Contributing Editors

[edit] Former Editors

[edit] Criticisms

[edit] Misattribution

In March 2006, DAPreview, a website about digital audio players, noted that Engadget used a photo that had originally been taken by DAPreview, and then removed attribution by cropping the DAPreview logo off [1]. Engadget's managing editor Ryan Block agreed that the photo had been copied and cropped, stated that it had been a mistake, and apologized and restored the image's attribution [2].

[edit] External links

[edit] Related and Similar Sites

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