CrunchGate 06 Coverage
Michael Arrington’s New Design (err destruction attempt) has taught me a lesson. Don’t break shit worse that’s already broken bad enough. And if you are a designer and don’t have the spine to say this sucks you shouldn’t be in design in the first place.
Mike Arrington has punked his own business Edgeio by being one step to late to the game. Now he’s trying to blow his whole entire reputation by selling his blog up shit river creak without a paddle. How is he doing it? He’s decided to pick the ugliest colors in the world to redesign his already slowly selling out blog of nonsense coverage of Web 2.0
From my earlier days of Snark and Gossip and sometimes madeup coverage I tried to cover the dirtiest nastiest fights always making enemies. However this has nothing to do with that. Let’s see what others opinions of Mike’s attempt to destroy his blog, his business, and his personal life by introducing the worst redesign of 2006.
Here are quotes from around the web. (Injected with a few I made up)
CrunchGate 06 Coverage Mostly Fresher than day old turds
President Bush has a better approval rating than TechCrunch’s New Design
I think the fresh layout lacks a sense of professionalism that I felt the last layout comprised
Oh my god my eyes it burns its horrid
It’s Broken
I will only read the feed from now on.
It’s just a shame that the readers got put in the backseat, while the advertisers got frontseat privileges.
Tweaking the old site would have been smarter.
For the past 8 months, TechCrunch has become my first destination every morning – I guess you could say I’m somewhat addicted.
However, this new web-design $#@@!
jesus christ the new techcrunch looks awful! wow i can’t believe they would launch with it looking the way it does. ugggh.!
“Did Calacanis buy TechCrunch?”
4×7500=30,000×12=$360,000 a year
Here’s my more constructive take:
If your looking to fuck your readers. Here’s a perfect example how to do it. BE GREEDY. CHASE DA MONEY. Don’t listen to anyone and Take a ride on their shoulders to the bank. Come on Rachel I can’t believe you designed this. Can you actually condone these ad rates?
Mike couldn’t get Edgeio to make money. Instead he decides to bend us the readers over his blog and squeze the money out of us. At a cost of 360,000 dollars a year. Shit I think I will go somewhere else for an ugly design and plain out old greedsucking.
With the audience he has he could have asked readers to design and vote for the all new Techcrunch with a couple of grand and linktastic appreciation thrown in so that the blogosphere wouldn’t come crashing down like this.
Anthony said this on May 12, 2006 9:03 pm
Pete cashmore’s mashable is just as good as the old tech crunch and simple contemporary design
Anthony is right. he has such enthusiastic users he could have explained this.
The whole mess will probably not stop me from reading and most others as well, so he may not lose anything from the move
howard lindzon said this on May 13, 2006 12:59 am
It is ugly. No question about that.
Liz Strauss said this on May 13, 2006 6:35 am
I think that while the green is rather loud, it is a statement color and I like it! Mike is in a great spot to set a trend and make a statement. I think it is ahead of the curve. I showed the design to my girlfriend who does not read TechCrunch and she loved it. She thought it conveys approachability…since green is an approachable color. Bottomline: There is no such thing as bad press.
Frank Gruber said this on May 13, 2006 10:53 am
Yes, but there are poor design critics
Chris P. said this on May 13, 2006 12:17 pm
Ha, you snagged my line with the missing sense of professionalism. I contemplated whether or not I should have bloated Technorati with an additional post of my own criticism of TC’s new drab look(s). What I’m wondering now is what’s going through Mike’s head as he undoubtedly reads through the hundreds of comments regarding the redesign.
Derek Punsalan said this on May 13, 2006 3:36 pm
Sounds like a money making opportunity for some one that actually knows what “web 2.0 designs” are supposed to look like…
http://marlincreek.com/content/view/66/35/
Graydon said this on May 14, 2006 10:28 pm
“Did Calcanis buy Techcrunch”. ROFL!! My fav one!
I wouldn’t really tag this layout as bad, just that I preferred the old one better and Techcrunch is not the best place for the current layout. Moreover, not really sure that the current choice of green is the best green in the market.
While I don’t mind the ads (Thanks to blocking images & ads in my browser), I mind the whole layout. Mike arrington could do some good by listening to people, or atleast Rachel.
Luckily, I read Techcrunch as a a full text feed and I don’t care.
Chrono Cr@cker said this on May 15, 2006 3:02 am
[...] Looks like Mike Arrington got into a whole pile of trouble whilst I was away after shafting his web designer. Lot of coverage here, here, here, here and here. [...]
duncanriley.com » Give me green, lots of green….. said this on May 19, 2006 9:45 pm
I’m love this great website. Many thanks guy
kermilla said this on June 22, 2006 12:18 pm
I love this site. Good work…
ellder said this on June 22, 2006 9:30 pm
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zivberofbi said this on June 23, 2006 3:17 am
[...] Predictably, the launch of the new TechCrunch was met with unparalleled amounts of negative criticism. Almost unbelievably, Michael says this about his new design: We’ve also made some changes to allow for more advertising…And if you’re wondering about the green theme, there’s a reason for it (hint – it keeps me focused on my goals). [...]
Why Hire an Expert? (Or What the Hell is Mike Thinking?) | Pearsonified said this on November 13, 2006 10:23 pm