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Monday March 20, 2006 6:05 pm

Engadget Called Out For Unethical Blogging

Posted by Andru Edwards
Categories: Blogging, Business

Oh man, the people at Digg are having a field day with this one. There is a submission titled ”Engadget: Busted for Unethical Blogging” that currently has almost 700 Diggs and over 120 comments. As it turns out, Engadget posted a story crediting DAPreview, and using their watermarked picture. A short while later, the picture was cropped, removing DAPreview’s watermark - and the link was changed from DAPreview to an alternate source. They were called out on it on Digg, and after a bit, changed the article back to the way it should have been.

Very interesting - I had always heard there was a “blacklist” at Engadget, and figured Gear Live was on it when they stopped linking to us. Check this out:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/01/kill-tivos-big-announcement-kidzone-parental-controls/

That link was live after we broke the KidZone story, citing our internal source at TiVo. Now, you can’t find it at Engadget, unless you go straight to that URL. You will not find it by searching for it. You will NOT find it by browsing their Home Entertainment category. Go ahead - it isn’t there. It’s as if it doesn’t exist. Why, though?

Peter - care to comment? Maybe something is just broken on Engadget as it pertains to the database?

It looks like this is causing some commotion on Engadget’s Wikipedia entry as well. DesignTechnica and HardOCP have also picked up t he story.

From my end, I really, really hope this was an oversight - if not, it sucks.

UPDATE: A very interesting take on this over at OhGizmo

UPDATE 2: After observing how Peter and Ryan from Engadget have been responding to everything that has been thrown their way over the past few days, I am impressed. Let’s make one things clear - Engadget didn’t steal content. I would say that only those on the outside looking in would have that mindset. What impressed me most is how responsive Peter and Ryan have been. The issues that were pointed out here were addressed and fixed almost immediately. Anywhere on the Internet that this issue was addressed, they were there to offer their take.

They could have easily ignored it - but they didn’t. Kudos.




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Comments

  • Peter Rojas
    By Peter Rojas at 3/20/06

    I’m not sure what you want. It’s clear that the post is still on Engadget and that it DOES exist. You can see that by clicking on the link in his comment. I’m not sure what else he wants. Our search tool and archives have been really screwy since we switched to newer blogging software, another problem we’ve found is that lots of older posts got cut off or had images disappear.

    Guess it’s easier to chalk things up to some sort of conspiracy, isn’t it?

    link to this comment

  • Andru Edwards
    By Andru Edwards at 3/20/06

    This was actually pointed out to me by TiVo. They noticed Engadget picked it up, and then they couldn’t find the post anymore. I tried to find it for them, and realized that searching did no good. I then manually clicked through to Home Entertainment, and went back a page or two to March 1 - wasn’t (and still isn’t) there.

    Basically, unless you have a direct link to the story, it doesn’t exist. As I mentioned though, this could simply be a database error - I know we have come across issues like this in the past.  As soon as I noticed them, I had them fixed. Technology messes up sometimes - in fact, I count on it to do so.

    Nonetheless, I just thought this anomaly was particularly odd.

    link to this comment

  • Peter Rojas
    By Peter Rojas at 3/20/06

    If you can’t find something through our search then I recommend using Google’s site search function, it tends to pick up stuff.

    link to this comment

  • Chris P
    By Chris P at 3/21/06

    Actually, Peter, look here:

    http://www.engadget.com/2004/07/29/free-sony-wega-really/

    Notice how you mention this Gear Live article:

    http://www.gearlive.com/index.php/news/article/sony_wega_received_free_flat_screens_proves_to_be_true/

    You even use an image from Gear Live.

    You even MENTION Gear Live by name.

    Notice - there is no link to Gear Live.

    Let me guess - another database error, right?

    link to this comment

  • Peter Rojas
    By Peter Rojas at 3/21/06

    I don’t know what happened there. It’s possible that Phillip simply forgot to put in a link.

    link to this comment

  • Peter Rojas
    By Peter Rojas at 3/21/06

    And by the way, not including a link is wrong, I wish you’d emailed me about this in 2004 when the post went up. We certainly would have corrected it right then and there.

    link to this comment

  • Ryan Block
    By Ryan Block at 3/21/06

    Speaking of corrections, I made the correction. Please feel free to let me know if there are other issues you’ve noticed (you have my email). Thanks!

    Best, Ryan

    link to this comment

  • Ryan Block
    By Ryan Block at 3/21/06

    The KidZone article issue is solved and it does now appear in the category (http://homeentertainment.engadget.com/category/homeentertainment/page/2/ as of right now). Again, this might have been handled with a simple email regarding the issue, but whatever, it’s sorted. Thanks.

    Best, Ryan

    link to this comment

  • Scott
    By Scott at 3/21/06

    What’s that saying about having your hand in the cookie jar? Face it Engadget: YOU STEAL. You credit your empire of Weblogsinc sites while stealing content from passionate bloggers everywhere. It’s the way you do business and it sucks. That’s why you’ve been off my RSS reader for a long time. And you won’t ever return.

    link to this comment

  • Peter Rojas
    By Peter Rojas at 3/21/06

    We do NOT steal, and I think it’s disgusting that some anonymous troll thinks it’s ok to make a slanderous accusation like that. It’s fine if you don’t want to read us—I respect your choice—but to make that sort of attack is totally unacceptable.

    link to this comment

  • Matt
    By Matt at 3/21/06

    I would guess that Engaadget’s traffic is being siphoned off by more informative blogs, so they are trying to retain eyes by simply not giving credit the places where real work is actually being done.

    link to this comment

  • Mark
    By Mark at 3/22/06

    >this might have been handled with a simple email

    From what I understand people are saying, Engadget doesn’t respond very well to simple email. People have gotten snippy replies from Engadget, I guess along the lines of the snide attitude displayed above.

    But then, what do I know, I’m just an anonymous Internet user, and therefore my understanding doesn’t matter, from what Peter has said.

    My hunch is, where there is a stench, something is rotten.

    link to this comment

  • Andru Edwards
    By Andru Edwards at 3/23/06

    After observing how Peter and Ryan from Engadget have been responding to everything that has been thrown their way over the past few days, I am impressed. Let’s make one things clear - Engadget didn’t steal content. I would say that only those on the outside looking in would have that mindset.

    What impressed me most is how responsive Peter and Ryan have been. The issues that were pointed out here were addressed and fixed almost immediately. Anywhere on the Internet that this issue was addressed, they were there to offer their take.

    They could have easily ignored it - but they didn’t. Kudos.

    link to this comment

  • Austin Vaughan
    By Austin Vaughan at 3/26/06

    Austin here, from DAPreview.net

    To clarify, the issue is not relevent with Engadget and ALL blogs, just some - including DAPreview. Peter and Ryan have a personal problem with us dating back to 2004, as I explained in the article.

    So, do you buy their response?

    “Ooops, we didn’t really mean to do that, it was all an accident.”

    OK, so, they took the time to go back and edit an article that was already published, from another author. They took the time to rewrite the credit, removing all reference to DAPreview. They took the time to edit the picture and repost it, cutting out the DAPreview logo. They did all this - for no apparent reason - and without checking a single fact?

    Keep in mind, out of the 100+ items that they credited to us before August 2005, only a handful of our images were ever watermarked. The few that were, had been originals of ours taken at CES or CeBIT… never once have we watermarked somebody’s else’s photo.

    Their explanation is ridiclous, but what else can they say? We didn’t expect them to admit anything.

    Anyway… we had to call them out, it’s done, and we’re moving on.

    Thanks for bringing this issue to light on your blog.

    Best,
    Austin

    link to this comment

  • Scilynt
    By Scilynt at 4/8/06

    Wow.

    Ok, so engadget claims they don’t steal and there is no “blacklist”. Fair enough.

    The conclusions I come to just from reading this post:

    engadget is blatantly incompetent when it comes to their linking standards but excellent in post waste cleanup.

    link to this comment

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