The Consumer Electronics Association, which runs the CES conference each year in Las Vegas, has never had an offical blog partner. But they do now, and it’s AOL’s Engadget: “The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) selected Engadget as the Official Blog Partner of the 2009 International CES to be held January 8-11, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada,” AOL says in a press release.
This doesn’t mean much – or anything – when it comes to covering the event. Engadget, along with all blogs and media that cover gadget-related news (see our own CrunchGear), has always had a strong presence at CES, and will do so again this year. But it is a stamp of approval for Engadget, which is the largest gadget-focused blog with 3.4 million unique monthly visitors (Comscore worldwide, August 2008).
And it’s definitely a slap to no. 2 Gizmodo, which was embroiled in controversy last year when Gizmodo blogger Richard Blakeley used a TV-B-Gone remote control to turn off exhibitor’s TVs during demos. Blakey was permanently banned from future CES events.
But whatever the reason for naming Engadget the official blog of CES, it’s certainly a sign of the increasing acceptance of blogs at mainstream events, and a recognition of the huge audience they bring.
Engadget is also launching three new international versions of its blog – Korea, Poland and Germany.
a match made in heaven
Grats Engadget Team! Have been a fan for years. I remember Giz’s antics last year. Pretty childish IMO. Could have smashed two Apple computers together or something more dramatic…turning off TV’s is child’s play.
WIsh I could be @ CES but I have a wedding in the Philippines.
Will be keepin’ an eye on the big three: Engadget, CrunchGear and Giz.
Cheers,
Arn
When an industry body sponsors a blog that reviews that industry, there’s instant conflict of interest. I don’t see the need to draw conclusion blogs are ‘going mainstream’ – jumping the shark, maybe. And isn’t AOL about as mainstream as you can get – as are most gadget blogs?
Exactly. Textbook case of begging the question, why does the CES want a blog partner at all? Maybe they chose Engadget because they’re the most unbiased blog out there.
Great! Congrats to engadget.
Conventions had lots of magazine sponsors. Why limit to one?
-Dash
http://adecon101.blogspot.com/
Interesting…
all round win
Actually, according to compete.com, Gizmodo is the #1 gadget blog in terms of traffic – http://siteanal....com/?metric=uv
Compete is great, but it’s US only. For large sites, Comscore does a good job comparing traffic. Any bias is usually normalized across a sector.
Curses! Those Engasia dogs are making inroads on our glorious territories.
Gizmoldovia has always been our ally.
Just to nitpick: None of the new Engadget sites is multilingual, so I don’t think either should be referred to as an “international version”. ‘Non-English versions’ would do, instead.
Congrats to Engadget. They are doing a super job and well deserving of the acknowledgement.
Have no idea what the difference is between “multinational”, “international” or “non-English version” refers to AK. Engadget Japan is a great site producing excellent original content in Japanese. Well worth a read.. ah, if you can. http://japanese.engadget.com
Engadget is really a wonderful blog i like it very much
I actually removed Gizmodo from my feed reader after that situtation. Congrats to Engadget.
Makes sense to me. Since they are owned by AOL, they have accountability, something Gizmodo lacks.
Congrats to Engadget.
Hurrah! Gizmodo is the most outrageously biased tech blog I have the misfortune to have ever read. Its ridiculous continual ‘hard on’ for apple is intensely irritating – how about some perspective and balance applemodo?;)