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January 25, 2008

Scoble Sells Out

Michael Arrington

108 comments »

Robert Scoble, who has long been proud of the fact that his popular blog remains free of advertisements or sponsorships, will soon put ads on his site, he told me yesterday.

The change comes as part of his move to Fast Company, who will sell the ads on his behalf and will also be redesigning the site.

Scoble and Dave Winer have been the main proponents of advertising-free blogs over the years, arguing that it creates conflicts that should be avoided. In 2005, when we first put ads on TechCrunch, Winer wrote a long comment expressing disappointment and regretting linking to the site, and followed up with a podcast on the issue. He’s been writing about this since at least 2000.

This isn’t the first time Scoble has run into issues around financial conflicts of interest, but it’s the first time it directly involved his personal blog. So Scoble has changed his tune. Will Winer be next?

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 2:46 am and is filed under Web 2.0 News & Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Technicle

    January 25th, 2008 at 2:53 am

    Money is good anyway.

    Winer known to be changing tunes once in a while.. eg., his stand towards the then (still is) monopolistic feedburner.com before its acquisition by goog, in that, one feedburner is enough, whatever his then reason was, or reasons were..

  2. Scrub

    January 25th, 2008 at 3:03 am

    Who reads this d#ckhead’s blog anyway

  3. allen stern

    January 25th, 2008 at 3:11 am

    I also touched on this a week ago when he made the announcement of adding the ads:
    http://www.centernetworks.com/.....st-company

    I wondered if this changed how he handles things going forward - esp. after his bashing of gizmodo for making news, not writing about it. (which i agreed with)

  4. Search◊ Engines Web

    January 25th, 2008 at 3:14 am

    It is understandable why popular blogs like Techcrunch and others would need to sell ads- due to the need to pay Bloggers and the high cost of maintenance when you have a heavily traffic blog.

    It does create conflicts - one example is TURNING THE COMMENTS OFF - on some posts that are thanking sponsors.

    The comments should NEVER be turned off - the public should be warned by others if a services is not as hot as it is being marketed to be. Of course, you still have the right to filter reckless comments. The whole concept of a blog is democratic communication.

    Don’t participate in censorship about the services you are promoting. They have to know if the services have not lived up to expectations after being initially introduced. It is to their benefit to be told they are sub standard.

    Even Engadget had become very proactive about changing their comment polices. Readers are not as frank as they used to be. They have even added a rating system to the comments. That can sometimes hinder frankness.

    Scoble also does some reviews - not as much as TechCrunch - but perhaps this is the direction his blog is going. He may not be able to maintain his objectivity and may be forced to cater to the clients. Also the frankness of the comments may be compromised by filtering and ratings etc.

    This will just make it another commercial tech blog

  5. Rajeev

    January 25th, 2008 at 3:30 am

    I mean withads you can do more research andput up better content and ultimately raise the benchmarks of Blogging to more than that of offbeat media to comparabl eor even better than main stream media.

    http://tekno-world.blogspot.com

  6. hyokon

    January 25th, 2008 at 3:31 am

    In market economy, it is a good thing to make money as long as you don’t cheat. You can worry about side effects, but that doesn’t mean it should be banned.

    But I am a bit confused about this and TC’s position on paid blogging. What’s the difference?

  7. Soap

    January 25th, 2008 at 3:40 am

    blah… give the guy a break. i’m not going to start/stop reading a blog that is given to me FOR FREE and with NO OBLIGATION simply because the owner decides to put ads. that goes for Scoble. I really don’t care what that other guy does.

  8. Adrian Keys

    January 25th, 2008 at 3:44 am

    Some reasons:

    1. He has seen the light (the light of the soon-to-be-again mighty greenback)

    2. Someone made him an offer he couldn’t refuse

    3. He has caught a bad case of capitalistic fever; and last but not least

    4. He has finally come to his (insert word here) senses….

  9. Daniel Thomaser

    January 25th, 2008 at 3:45 am

    If print and TV journalists are able to handle this “conflict”, blogs are too.
    It just is important to be a person of integrity, because the system never has integrity…

  10. Anatoly

    January 25th, 2008 at 3:58 am

    Darn, I normally dont read Scoble’s blog, but now I might go to his site just to look at the ads.

    I can see it now. To advertise for say Levi’s jeans, Scoble will have a video where he draws a pair of Levi’s on a whiteboard, and writes out the benefits.

  11. Maximus

    January 25th, 2008 at 4:03 am

    Journalism is not unbiased in “new media” or “old media.”

    In one, it is the bloggers/journalists who stand the most gain themselves, while in the other it is the executives who control content and profit from the objectivity.

    Why else do we see write ups on specific companies ( a.k.a. Apple gets tons and tons of press), movies, music, books, etc. for certain content publishers, and not so much for others.

    People assume way too much if they think old media is truly objective (have you watched Fox News recently?)

    Each man and woman has got to decide whats best for him or her.

  12. david

    January 25th, 2008 at 4:24 am

    who cares… big deal… yawn

  13. Justin

    January 25th, 2008 at 4:48 am

    I agree with david - who cares - really? Seems like a rant on your part and a “told you so” post which is of little relevance to us all…

  14. ben

    January 25th, 2008 at 4:51 am

    its all about the benjamins

  15. Sebastian

    January 25th, 2008 at 5:16 am

    I always wondered why Scoble wouldn’t do that and I’m happy to see it happen, eventually.

    He has a big audience, why not directly making money off it?

    As long as he does disclose every possible conflict of interest, like he (and most other big bloggers) did earlier already anyway, I don’t see a problem.

    He invests a lot of his personal life into the Scoble-brand. He should make as much money out of it as possible, especially after the PodTech-failure that didn’t bring him the big acquisition bucks. :)

  16. Chameleon Headsets

    January 25th, 2008 at 5:19 am

    “.. To advertise for say, Levi’s jeans, Scoble will have a video where he draws a pair of Levi’s on a whiteboard, and writes out the benefits.”

    Or maybe he’ll have a video where he discusses with Billy Mays, why exactly Oxyclean does such a good job ;-) !!

    Your Audio Content, Your Live Streams, & more…
    To every phone: Shout-Outs, or On-Demand
    http://phoneportals.com

  17. Sindbad the Sailor

    January 25th, 2008 at 5:21 am

    Will Google get his pagerank to ZERO?

  18. Pran Kurup

    January 25th, 2008 at 5:26 am

    Michael, Its all your fault! :-)

    They see you raking in the moolah and decided it isn’t worth being saints anymore!

    Anyway I am happy for both of you! :-)

  19. Brett

    January 25th, 2008 at 5:31 am

    why does techcrunch cover this guy’s every move? it’s so f’ing stupid. it reminds me of tmz and britney spears or something. seriously arrington, write about issues that matter.

  20. WebSideVentures

    January 25th, 2008 at 6:20 am

    I don’t have ads on my blog, but that’s because I don’t have any traffic! You can bet your bottom dollar I would be putting ads up if it was worth it. I think it’s stupid, especially now, to NOT monetize your blog.

  21. evan williams

    January 25th, 2008 at 6:24 am

    Not that TC owes us anything but there are hundreds of small startups actually creating stuff (versus blogging and vcasting about stuff) that would kill for one mention in TC and yet again more space given to “The Friends of TC”.

    I guess this story matters to pro bloggers, right? It’s not a non-story but it’s pretty darn close.

  22. Andrew

    January 25th, 2008 at 6:33 am

    wtf cares abt this. slow news day or something?

  23. Ken Leebow

    January 25th, 2008 at 6:38 am

    You guys are like the paparazzi of tech-geekdom.

    David has it right: “who cares… big deal… yawn”

  24. The mandatory....

    January 25th, 2008 at 6:44 am

    Doesn’t everyone use adblock plus (or something comparable)?

  25. John Carson

    January 25th, 2008 at 6:46 am

    It’s taken him this long? What a lot of cash he’s missed out on so far.

  26. Thomas Hawk

    January 25th, 2008 at 6:53 am

    Ads do not have to represent a conflict of interest. I added ads on my blog with Federated Media a few years back and found it to be a very positive thing. Never have I felt that I needed to pimp a product or do anything less than express my full and honest opinion while blogging.

    I did point out once to FM when they posted an ad with a crying baby on it that I’d written some pretty harsh things about artist Jill Greenberg’s crying baby portrait series and they pulled the ads. Who the hell cares.

    Why shouldn’t Scoble ad ads? It’s simply like leaving money on the table if he does not.

    Scobles “brand” is worth far more than it’s advertising value. He’s simply doing the smart thing and accepting some free money. Scoble Sells Out is a bit of a misleading headline.

  27. Mark Evans

    January 25th, 2008 at 6:58 am

    Not sure why it’s such a big deal. After deciding to leave the safe confines of Microsoft, it’s clear that he is looking to make some dough so why not try to leverage the popularity of his blog.

  28. JeffC

    January 25th, 2008 at 6:58 am

    Hopefully, his site re-design will look better than the current version, which can be compared car-wise to the East German Trabant.

  29. Daniel Thomaser

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:04 am

    @JeffC
    C’mon the Trabant doesn’t look that bad! :-)
    It’s a classic. In Berlin you can still see some driving around.

  30. nemrut

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:05 am

    Idealism usually succumbs to economic necessity when one has mortgage payments and extra mouths to feed.

  31. Chris Brogan...

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:06 am

    Ads will allow him to hit more events that might not be funded by his new gig. It means a chance to expand out, try more things. And he’s worth it.

    I know that wasn’t your point in the post. I know you’re saying that he had a different stance than yours. But to others, I think ads will be a good thing for Robert.

    @JeffC - good one!

  32. Tim Coyne

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:21 am

    Good for him. This is a guy who built his reputation on the fact that he could be honest and transparent while being paid by one of the hugest corporations in the world, Microsoft. I have no reason to believe web ads would change him or his content in any way. The dude has a family feed. Good for him.

    Tim

  33. Christoph Jaggi

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:24 am

    The mere fact of displaying ads on a blog has nothing to do with a sell out. You only can start talking about a sell out the moment the blogger pushes the products of his/her advertisers against his/her own better judgement.

    It is each blogger’s personal freedom to put on his blog nearly everything that he/she wants. This includes ads.

  34. John

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:28 am

    The funny thing about this is that he hasn’t replied…maybe he’s waiting for the Fast Company PR dept to approve his reply…don’t want to piss of his advertisers! :)

  35. Eric

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:28 am

    Subscriber of several years unsubscribing. TechCrunch’s value add trending to zero.

    This post in particular reads like an election year television ad produced by some anonymous 529 (”Concerned Bloggers Against Flip Flopping in Blogging”?) that positions politics/business as usual as sizzling scandal.

    “Will Winer be next?” Hadn’t thought about it. But thanks for asking. Maybe you could talk to Dave and let us know — you know, like a journalist might.

  36. heddy

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:29 am

    So if Scoble ’sells out’ with ads on his site, Techcrunch sold out years ago?

    Don’t understand this world anymore.

  37. heddy

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:31 am

    like a journalist might

    Come on Eric, this place has never been about journalism. And now with the whole Davos-Bono-omg-i-must-be-soooooooo-famous-to-be-here rubbish, it’s finally lost any shred of interest. I’m joining you in the delete-tc-rss-feed thing.

  38. San

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:36 am

    I am actually surprised that Scoble didn’t have any ads until now. That seems like a big waste of opportunity. As a reader/subscriber to his blog I hardly find ads as a bother to me.

    In fact, even here at TechCrunch I rarely notice the ads. I am programmed to skip them. I guess I have a built-in ad-filter in me :-)

  39. Ben

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:36 am

    How dare he change his mind. Why can’t he be a real american, and choose a stance, sticking to it till the end of all time?

  40. Chris

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:48 am

    Thanks for the “news” Valleywag…ur…TechCrunch.

    BTW, no Scoble response? Strange!

  41. Cvos SEO

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:48 am

    No worries - I read blogs through Google Reader which conveniently displays text only. When I actually want to comment on a blog adblock nicely strips all advertising and speeds site load times.

    Do yourself a favor and surf ad free https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10

  42. drew olanoff

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:48 am

    I don’t see the problems with ads, persay. The issue here is that it’s a part of his new gig. So I’ll be interested what happens in the event that something that happens as a part of FastCompany.tv (biffo over placed ads/bias) affects his personal brand. It’s a pretty ballsy move on his part, lets hope it doesn’t bite him in the rear.

    Gigs come and go.

  43. Wills

    January 25th, 2008 at 8:02 am

    Its easy for Winer to criticise given that he is most likely a millionaire from the Weblogs sale.

    But Scoble has a family to feed. A new kid just born. Can’t begrudge him what he is doing.

  44. Levi Figueira

    January 25th, 2008 at 8:09 am

    That’s good news for 2 reasons:

    1. His blog/website *definetly* needs a design overhaul!
    2. Ads are not bad… when used wisely! They have to take time to integrate this point with point 1. above!! And after all, I read his Twitter and Feed/Shared Feed more than I read the actual blog, sooo… :)

  45. Stephane

    January 25th, 2008 at 8:22 am

    Scoble lodt his creds when he left Microsoft. Those who are still subscribing to his feed will experience his eventual downfall.

  46. John Piercy

    January 25th, 2008 at 8:40 am

    Welcome to the Nascar-ized world of Blogs

    Most blogs resemble a Nascar car anyways ,, why not sell every inch for maximum effect .

    Money comes in handy , especially for a new daddy .

  47. Poker Sharks

    January 25th, 2008 at 8:43 am

    Nice personal dig - he’s an arse so i’m all for it.

    If you slam someone for putting ads on their site and take the high ground, dont be suprised to get laughed at when you put ads on your own site.

    Techcrunch never said there was anything wrong with ads.

    Knob head did.

    Hence Knob head sold out and its time to point and laugh.

  48. Larry Larrikin

    January 25th, 2008 at 8:44 am

    It’s amazing how easy it is to deal with this conflict when the money is coming from a company but it’s insurmountable when it comes from government.

  49. dexxon

    January 25th, 2008 at 8:45 am

    Cvos SEO
    I love irony
    Especially in posts / commenets that use an inserted ad to make a point about being add free

    dumbass

  50. Gerald Buckley

    January 25th, 2008 at 8:45 am

    It’s about time he hung some hides on the Scobleizer.com

    He’s part of a big media property. Of course they want access to the audience. Only natural. Mr. Scoble’s cut the deal his way, has been pretty transparent (maybe even completely) about the whole thing along the way…

    “Way to go!” I say. One more thing he’s trying. Look… you have to admit he’s taking some well calculated risks. It’s not like he’s recklessly doing stupid stunts. He’s definitely making inroads and bringing red meat to the table.

  51. Jim

    January 25th, 2008 at 8:47 am

    Arrington covers Scoble like he’s got some secret gay-lover crush on him. Really kind of sick, if you ask me

  52. Erick

    January 25th, 2008 at 8:49 am

    Like a bunch of high school girls fighting over trivial crap.

  53. Weak News

    January 25th, 2008 at 9:01 am

    Mike: is this the best stuff coming out of Davos. you looked like an idiot hanging out with Scoble. Scoble looked like a kid chasing around so called big wigs.

    I feel bad that you put this kind of story on techcrunch. At Davos all you can come up with is Bono’s Davos question and Scoble’s blog news.

    Weak

  54. ZOMGPWN!

    January 25th, 2008 at 9:02 am

    So silly. Either you have integrity or you don’t… and if you feel that putting ads on your site would compromise the ‘journalistic ethos’ of your bloggorz then you didn’t have it in the first place. Also, as has been said here already there’s NOTHING wrong with selling out. Just cop to it… and MAKE SURE that you fold it in seamlessly with no heavy ass up front loads or I’m backing out and never coming back again. It only takes one doubleclick freeze up to make me an enemy forever.

  55. Elliott Ng

    January 25th, 2008 at 9:07 am

    Michael, I guess I am a Scoble fanboy because I found the headline a bit too sensationalistic for my taste. I would have appreciated some more thoughtful framing of the decisions that one has to make as a blogger when deciding to create a editorial vs. advertising church-state split. After all, TC has lots of experience navigating those issues. Anyway, I’m a TC fanboy too, that’s probably why I found the post title a bit irksome! Help raise the bar by educating us all!

  56. Dave Winer

    January 25th, 2008 at 9:11 am

    Mike, it’s hard to believe I wrote that comment about TC taking ads. I don’t remember writing it, but it does sound like something I’d write.

    I guess I used to place a much higher value on TC than I do now. I am impressed with how many sites repurpose your content, every one of them is linking to me today, and Technorati’s spam filters don’t catch them, so my rank is going up a lot.

    I see a pattern here. You go to a European conference and sneak in a big post exposing something about Scoble, who also happens to be there in Europe with you. I hope Scoble isn’t wasting any angst wondering whether I’ll still be his friend after he takes ads, it doesn’t matter to me. I’ll ignore the ads there as I ignore them on all the other commercial sites. I’ll let you know if eventually it causes me to tune out Scoble’s blog too. Could happen. I’m sure he knows that.

    For sure if you had not taken ads on TC and were now adding them, I wouldn’t care Mike. Not sure why that changed. I used to read TC, I don’t anymore, I’m way overloaded on all the new startups. I figure if any of them become important enough for me to look at they’ll start showing up in my referrer logs or I’d read about them on Techmeme.

    In hindsight, not that you asked, I still think you sold out way way too cheap. I think you should have been the Ben Rosen of this generation, using your unique insider’s view of the industry to see what the leaders were missing and then starting a few companies to take advantage of that. I don’t know what you’re making from TC, at best it’s probably $2 or $3 million a year. The kind of money Ben Rosen made from starting Lotus and Compaq dwarfs that by several orders of magnitute and that was in 80s dollars, not inflated by all the mania of the 90s and Web 2.0.

    But that’s hindsight.

    Mike, I say this with all my heart — stop wasting your time on this bullshit. You have a once in a lifetime opportunity there in Davos to meet new people from industries and professions very far afield of the small petty issue of whether Scoble has ads on his blog or not, or whether I approve of you, or don’t. Go do us and yourself some good out there in the Alps.

    Hugs,

    Dave

  57. heddy

    January 25th, 2008 at 9:18 am

    Winer FTW.

  58. San

    January 25th, 2008 at 9:22 am

    I don’t know Dave (Winer) … I think you are highly overestimating Mr. Arrington here.

    But I totally agree with your advice to him … there are better things going on in Davos and I know Mike is posting it too but the order of the posts tells us what is more important to him.

    Ya … and like someone else said … this is weak news and certainly gay(ish) sounding.

  59. Adam

    January 25th, 2008 at 9:30 am

    Am I the only person who actually likes to see whos advertising on what blogs?

  60. Tom O'Leary

    January 25th, 2008 at 9:35 am

    The dollar isn’t worth much at the moment anyway. That note that Scoble seems so excited about in the photo wouldn’t get the SUV too far today. Nor will the advertising revenue that is generated by his blog.

    I wonder if Fast Company is making a mistake welding their corporate brand so tightly to Scoble’s personal one. They might be better off concentrating on and evolving the Fast Company space than giving too much attention to Scoble’s.

  61. Joe Hunkins

    January 25th, 2008 at 9:37 am

    I’m a lot less concerned with ads than I am with good disclosure, and I think both you and Robert have been pretty good about this. In my eyes you are both very credible sources and I don’t worry that you are misleading the readers to turn a buck. That said, blog news ethics and behavior are not up to traditional journalistic standards, crappy as they often are, and I think the blogging community needs to develop more standard ways of disclosing conflicts and punishing those who do not disclose.

  62. Brett

    January 25th, 2008 at 10:12 am

    @ Dave #56 - couldn’t agree more.

    Bloggers don’t belong in Davos for reasons like this. One of the most important world forums is happening and we get to hear about what Scoble is doing with his worthless blog.

    Picture this…I get invited to the forum. Instead of covering the issues I go get drunk at the local pub and blog about it. Thanks for the invite Davos.

  63. Arachne Jericho

    January 25th, 2008 at 10:18 am

    I don’t like putting advertising on my blogs either, but I’m not going to whack people over the head about it (just advise them not to until the audience matters enough to go through the trouble, if they do decide to do it at all). Even if they are “going back on their word”.

    That said, I put a little Entrecard on my site. I guess it’s about finding the advertising model that works for different people—I don’t like corporate sponsors, but I’m willing to put up ads to promote sites I find useful or entertaining. (Go Adventures of Lord Likely!)

    As long as ads are not (1) crashing the browser, (2) obscuring the content, (3) untargeted, (4) obnoxious and/or ugly, why make a fuss? (And of course, if any of 1-4 do apply, then make a fuss. But not before.) I like the new concept of the 125×125 picture ads these days.

  64. steve

    January 25th, 2008 at 10:23 am

    Pretty petty post

    let’s hope he odes it more tastefully than TC

  65. rainbow

    January 25th, 2008 at 10:25 am

    Robert is not consecuent with your acts, he´s losing authority and enslaving himself with his words.

  66. ZOMGPWN!

    January 25th, 2008 at 10:26 am

    osnap! Winer just put tcrunch on blast!! *takes a lap*

  67. blammo

    January 25th, 2008 at 10:34 am

    nice scoop … it was all covered in the press release that came out like, two weeks ago.

  68. Don Jones

    January 25th, 2008 at 11:15 am

    Frankly I’m confused by Mike’s positions on paid advertising:

    1. Slams Pay Per Post, even if the paid posts are disclosed (Just like Mike discloses his conflicts)

    2. TC takes ads - some of which are Mike’s investments

    3. Mike hits Scoble for taking ads

    4. During a spat with Federated Media last year, Mike complains about how reduced ad revenues are hurting his ability to pay his staffers.

    What a load of mumbo-jumbo…

    Maybe in some alternate universe, we can all exist without the money required to pay for content, but not in my universe.

  69. User447

    January 25th, 2008 at 11:18 am

    http://www.alexa.com/data/deta.....ize=Medium

    The titanic wouldn’t have sunk if it had as many corporate flotation devices as Mr. Scoble.
    Keep in mind that aside from his opinion, which is pretty shoddy when it comes to technology, he hasn’t contributed anything to Tech. …. ever.

  70. Rodney Rumford

    January 25th, 2008 at 11:49 am

    Go Robert.

    Why should he not advertise and get the financial rewards of his hard work?

    People act like advertising is evil. If the ad is relevant …click it… If it is not… just ignore it.

    Advertisers want to reach their target market, and it just might be on Scoble’s blog.

    One might claim unbiasedness; people are smart enough to see through bullshit.

  71. Debbie Davies

    January 25th, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    Dave Winer has ads on his blog, he just reserves all the advertising space on his blog for himself. He makes more money advertising himself than he would advertising third parties and he’s advising Michael to do the same. That would mean Michael giving up something he loves more than money: writing.

  72. Humble Pie

    January 25th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

    Rodney: “One might claim unbiasedness; people are smart enough to see through bullshit.”

    Yes, and no. Remember, we elected Bush twice.
    However, the kind of folks reading tech blogs are usually a cut above (i.e. the can actually figure things out on their own, more often than not).

    However, the idealists really need a dose of reality now and then.

    No $ = no website… eventually.
    Period.
    One at least needs to cover one’s expenses to stay in one’s business full time (whether that’s making widgets in a factory, or blogging, traveling, and attending expensive conferences).

    As Allen Ginsberg once wrote in America: “When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?” — (http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/america.html)

  73. Tom

    January 25th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

    On Scoble I’d just echo what many others have said which is “I can’t believe he waited this long” He has a lot of traffic, he needs to make a living, the ads will be right there in the open so its totally transparent. I don’t see the issue.

    What really interests me is the fact that this made it to Techcrunch. In the old days this was the sort of thing that was relegated to Mike Arrington’s personal Crunchnotes blog. But more and more this type of thing is making its way onto the mother ship and it makes me wonder why.

    If I had to guess I’d put money on the fact that these type of threads probably get more traffic than 90% of the other things on the site. If I had to further guess as to why that is I’d be willing to put bet a decent amount of money on the idea that all the people in this thread who were offended by this item are currently hitting refresh every 15 seconds.

  74. Danny Sullivan

    January 25th, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    “Am I the only person who actually likes to see whos advertising on what blogs?”

    No, Adam — those at Google AdSense really like to see them, too :)

  75. Dave Winer

    January 25th, 2008 at 12:45 pm

    “If I had to further guess as to why that is I’d be willing to put bet a decent amount of money on the idea that all the people in this thread who were offended by this item are currently hitting refresh every 15 seconds.”

    Ha! That’s funny. The advertisers aren’t getting a great deal cause we’re just refreshing the bottom of the page where there are no ads. Ooops.

    http://images.scripting.com/ar.....eheheh.gif

    Heheehe.

  76. User447

    January 25th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    This works pretty well. You should probably add the newer federated media hosts to this hosts file then it would be TechCrunch ready to boot.

    http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/

  77. EH

    January 25th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

    Shorter Scoble: They call it a merger but it’s really an acquisition.

  78. Charlie Anzman

    January 25th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    Crap … and I just took the ads off my blog …..

  79. ZOMGPWN!

    January 25th, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    This is the most entertaining comments roll in a while

  80. dale

    January 25th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

    You have to make money some how!

  81. beingaformertroll

    January 25th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

    By the time this year ends techcrunch will be in the “deadpool” I gaurantee it!

  82. Zach Weisman

    January 25th, 2008 at 3:05 pm

    Put Scoble in the Deadpool. No one cares. Just because he is YOUR friend doesn’t mean his business model is of any interest to us.

  83. luca

    January 25th, 2008 at 3:35 pm

    Just his business, who really cares? And, is TechCrunch more and more a gossip website? I don’t care of this, it’s only Scoble’s business, as well as I didn’t care of what Sam Sethi did. Please go on writing interesting news about startups, trends and anything related to the Web 2.0 space.

  84. Jay T

    January 25th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

    Who gives a flying flip whether Scoble puts ads on his blog? This is “news”? Reminds me of Junior High School.

  85. DWM

    January 25th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    I guess it’s not the fact that Scoble has sold his soul to Fast Company. The fact that he hasn’t taken ads until now shows how utterly devoid he is of any business sense whatsoever. Arrington is point out the hypocrisy of Scoble. Up until now he’s propped himself as the pantheon of purity and unbiasedness in blogging. Now he sells out…and to dead tree business at that.

    Scoble at Davos is a waste. No substance at all. He comes off as the tech equivalent of what sports journalists call a jock sniffer

  86. Ronald Lewis

    January 25th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

    Who really gives a damn about Scoble or anyone else adding ads to their sites? If there’s an opportunity to extract additional monetary resources from your work, then why not?

    If anyone were in Scoble’s shoes, they’d be singing a different tune — I guarantee it.

  87. Ronald Lewis

    January 25th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

    By the way, Michael, “Scoble Sells Out” is a ridiculous and irrelevant title. Are you “selling out” to mainstream tendencies just to grab more traffic via stirring up unnecessary drama?

  88. Insider in the Silicon Valley community

    January 25th, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    @dave 56
    I agree with you. First let me say Mike Arrington is exposed here. He has not talent at all in understanding the inside information. Case in point. He can’t be Ben Rosen. Why? Even though he gets the inside flow of information, the truth is he doesn’t understant it.

    Let me say that again. Even though he gets the inside flow of information, the truth is he doesn’t understant it. One more time. Even though he gets the inside flow of information, the truth is he doesn’t understant it.

    He goes to Davos and this is all he can do. He has lost his juice. We all know now he he is a phoney. When given the data he can’t make sense of it.

    Everyone in Silicon Valley is laughing at Mike and Scoble. Two blowhards with no friends. Dave Winer who was a big proponent of Techcrunch even calls our Mike. Now you know Techcrunch has peaked.

    Mike: enjoy your little empire.

    Heather Harding: I feel for you to work there. Hope you’re getting paid well. Get your resume ready.

  89. EH

    January 25th, 2008 at 6:26 pm

    Robert Scoble: the Michael Kinsley of gadgetry.

  90. Jimmy V

    January 25th, 2008 at 7:05 pm

    I find no reasons why we should not put ads on our blogs. Money is bad? Up to your point of view; no money is worse, SURE!

  91. Ben Metcalfe

    January 25th, 2008 at 9:17 pm

    bah, I hate commenting on techcrunch - it’s the tradgegy of the ‘passionate but ill informed’ (”San: I don’t know who Dave Winer is, but you must not know Mr Arrington” haha) combined with nuggets of gold (#88).

    The point for me, in terms of ’selling out’ is not the advertising on Scoble’s blog but the fact that Fast Company has essentially taken ownership of it as part of Rob’s move to FC. He’s lost the independence. I don’t care about the ads - I’m more concerned that FC ‘redesigning’ his blog = it becoming an FC blog, and thus not an independent voice of Scoble.

    No one seems to have picked that up, and alas, this gets lost in the ether of the wally comments.

  92. Steel

    January 25th, 2008 at 9:40 pm

    Scoble is an immature, pompous lard ass who is getting all this coverage because because he isn’t shy about making an ass out of himself. Kinda like Oprah.

  93. DB

    January 25th, 2008 at 10:28 pm

    Dave has about 30 instances of I or me in his comment. The earth still revolves around the sun, right?

  94. Boring Market

    January 25th, 2008 at 11:28 pm

    Scoble has to do whatever the company who employs him says to do. Though, this isn’t very in line with his blogging policy in ‘Naked Conversations’.

  95. Robert Scoble

    January 26th, 2008 at 4:28 am

    Ben: that’s something I’m sensitive to, and will work hard to retain your trust.

    I respond to this thread on my blog: http://scobleizer.com/2008/01/.....nd-hiring/

  96. Robert Scoble

    January 26th, 2008 at 4:33 am

    Boring Market: I totally disagree. I didn’t always do things that Microsoft wanted me to do. Same at my other employers. And, at Fast Company, while I have bosses, I’m largely running my own show.

  97. orunner

    January 26th, 2008 at 9:19 am

    I didn’t notice the adverts ….until they were pointed out … have never read one …. probably never will.
    Am I missing something?

  98. lisa coultrup ( kystorms)

    January 26th, 2008 at 10:24 am

    I am so glad to hear this because it means one more thing he will write about, and I will learn from!
    :-) cheers to you Mr. S

  99. Robert Scoble

    January 26th, 2008 at 10:32 am

    orunner: my blog doesn’t yet have advertising. Ads won’t appear on my blog until March 3rd or afterward. When they do I’ll call them out and disclose them.

  100. User447

    January 26th, 2008 at 11:25 am

    “He’s lost the independence.”

    You must of missed that whole year that he was remote controlled monkey boy style from Bill Gates’s office via an embedded biochip. Orgami, IT’S GONNA BE SO BIG!!! Bill told me so.

    “bah, I hate commenting on techcrunch - it’s the tradgegy of the ‘passionate but ill informed’”

    Ill informed indeed. This whole industry is one big unfunny joke. The quicker you learn that, the better off you will be. The harder you try to take it seriously the worse it will become.

  101. thedanielrichard

    January 26th, 2008 at 11:52 am

    It’s definitely a good move for Scoble and I’m sure he won’t allow any distasteful pop-up ads and any frown upon stuffs that distract us from his content rich blog. I’d say Thumbs Up for him for monetizing his blog. :)

  102. GYUSZI BACSI

    January 26th, 2008 at 4:18 pm

    to put ads on the site is better than to let your visitors to read paid posts (which are told to be your opinion of course)

    I even click on ads if I like a site, I help them to earn their money

  103. Maurits

    January 27th, 2008 at 5:07 pm

    Who cares? blabla … we hate ads, but need the income, so, please concentrate on real topics!

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