AOL vs. Web journalism, part 3: Engadget strikes back

AOL promised to be a source of endless drama in 2011 (or amusement, depending on your point of view), and so far it has not disappointed.

It seems the company was furiously working on an ego-compression algorithm that would allow both Michael Arrington and Arianna Huffington to be in the same building at the same time when an explosion occurred and eight Engadget staffers were blown clear. Hey, I read it on the InterWebs, so it must be true.

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An alternate theory is that the folks at Engadget, some of whom had been working under the AOL yoke since the site was acquired in 2005, just couldn’t stomach the trifecta of Arrington’s TechCrunch, Arianna’s HuffPo, and Tim Armstrong’s “The AOL Way,” a 58-page internal memo that detailed CEO’s plans to heap sewage onto the Internet and make blogging for AOL — already far from the most dignified or lucrative of professions — akin to scrubbing toilets without a brush. So they bailed.

Now it turns out the ex-Engadgeteers will be launching a new gadget blog under the wing of sports megasite SB Nation, which is run by former AOLer Jim Bankoff.

After New York Times reporter David Carr spilled the beans about the new site, ex-Engadget editor in chief Joshua Topolsky confirmed the move in a blog post where he couldn’t resist taking several large swipes at AOL and HuffPo:

But… there’s another factor here that’s driving my decision. It’s that SB Nation believes in real, independent journalism and the potential for new media to serve as an answer and antidote to big publishing houses and SEO spam — a point we couldn’t be more aligned on. ….This isn’t tabloid page grabbing or content farming — it’s news and insight by and for a passionate and informed group of people.

First thought: Good onya, mate. Tell Arianna and Armstrong exactly what they can do with “The AOL Way.” They can split it in half and take 29 pages apiece. Make it a race, see who finishes first. (My money’s on Arianna.)

Second thought: Another gadget blog? Really? Because you simply can’t have enough overworked/underpaid bloggers rewriting the same press release and/or breathlessly repeating the same unsubstantiated rumors? It seems not.

And that got me to thinking about all the other things the world doesn’t really need more of:

• Justin Bieber.
• Justin Bieber jokes.
• Gadgets. I think we’re good for a while, don’t you?
• Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, and the Kardashians, all 327 of them.
• Memos proclaiming how you’re going to use trained monkeys with keyboards and sophisticated search engine optimization to drive gazillions in ad revenue.
• Dick Vitale.
• Telling the world you’re “curating” Web content when you’re really just stealing other people’s work.
• Vwl-chllnged Wb strtps. Or any company name ending in “.ly.”
• Web pundits proclaiming “information wants to be free” when what they really mean is “people want information for free.” They also want to win the lottery and ride pink ponies. I wish them luck.
• Another “free” service from Google that siphons off our data like a tick on a hemophiliac.
• Fanboys of any stripe, but especially those aligned with the cities of Cupertino or Redmond.
• The millionth/billionth/trillionth Twitter anything.
• Another billion dollars in fictional Zuckerbucks.
• AOL. Seriously — Grandma got on the InterWebs a decade ago. Why is AOL still here?
• Cranky columnist-bloggers who publish lists like this one.

What do you think the world needs less of? Post your thoughts below or email me: cringe@infoworld.com.

This article, “AOL vs. Web journalism, part 3: Engadget strikes back,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Track the crazy twists and turns of the tech industry with Robert X. Cringely’s Notes from the Field blog, and subscribe to Cringely’s Notes from the Underground newsletter. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.