For 99 percent of you, the following will be way too insidery. But that’s part of what makes TechCrunch great, posting about fights about basically nothing. It’s sort of like Seinfeld, it’s just about the characters. We’ve gotten too far away from that under our new corporate parent in my opinion, so it’s time to jump back into the bullshit and fully embrace it in the new year.
This evening I was just minding my own business and doing what I like to do from time to time, look over data. In particular, I was looking over the 2010 TechCrunch data, because we had earlier posted some data given to us by WordPress.com (which hosts TechCrunch) that seemed a bit odd. Namely, Facebook was nowhere to be found as a top referrer to TechCrunch. That’s weird because as we’re all well aware by now, Facebook was the most visited site in the U.S. in 2010.
Anyway, looking at our Google Reader data, I noticed that Facebook was actually (unsurprisingly) a huge source of traffic for TechCrunch. But I noticed something else interesting too: Google Reader had taken a big hit in that regard when compared to 2009. In other words, the most popular feed reader seemed to take a big dip among TechCrunch readers. In fighting words, RSS is dead.
What followed was a war of words about the state of RSS, the state of TechCrunch, the state of AOL, Rackspace, Twitter, the open web, Quora, and even… Sweden.
To be fair, I did kick things off a bit earlier in the day by posting a quick thought about the state of RSS on my blog based on a Dave Winer post earlier in the day. And Winer quickly responded to that. Then started to spiral out of control… (as has happened before).
This will not be over quick. You will not enjoy this.
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22156871813038080
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22173946447134720
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22176173391880192
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22176663123001344
http://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/22188760032612352
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22189597412827136
http://twitter.com/#!/erickschonfeld/status/22186626868322304
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22191306843361280
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22191710503178241
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22192059620270080
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22192403653861376
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22192872644149249
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22194263802511360
http://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/22195018190032896
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22195257756098561
http://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/22196351127257088
http://twitter.com/#!/rwwmike/status/22197056282034177
http://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/22197327527677952
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22195035176968192
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22195992619122688
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22198188664422402
http://twitter.com/#!/dannysullivan/status/22196094804951040
http://twitter.com/#!/mmccue/status/22199044130476032
http://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/22199424788729856
http://twitter.com/#!/deanberris/status/22198000575053824
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22198366435807232
http://twitter.com/#!/mgdell/status/22198404725612544
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22198810490970112
http://twitter.com/#!/mgdell/status/22200059437260800
http://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/22200164315832320
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22199489552982016
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22199751076220928
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22200154392109056
http://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/22200767058280449
http://twitter.com/#!/alexia/status/22201201336524800
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22201595005505536
http://twitter.com/#!/thetombryan/status/22199183217795072
http://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/22200903306055680
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22201927894831104
http://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/22202189837508608
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22202840868982785
http://twitter.com/#!/VeronicaLudwig/status/22202807872397312
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22203189663109120
http://twitter.com/#!/xeyr/status/22203031957274624
http://twitter.com/#!/gregbanbury/status/22202904949555200
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22203449194057728
http://twitter.com/#!/willsmith/status/22203422430199808
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22203762584064000
http://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/22203642161397760
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22204006981963776
http://twitter.com/#!/campeaux/status/22201643894308864
http://twitter.com/#!/hmkern99/status/22204006759669761
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22204248930390016
http://twitter.com/#!/alexia/status/22205441991770112
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22205793650606080
http://twitter.com/#!/alexia/status/22206842281140224
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22207303113515008
http://twitter.com/#!/parislemon/status/22201295230214144
http://twitter.com/#!/mmccue/status/22204804407238656
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22206055656198144
http://twitter.com/#!/Scobleizer/status/22199503884914688
http://twitter.com/#!/deanberris/status/22207138654855168
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22207542356611072
http://twitter.com/#!/zachflauaus/status/22207631414267905
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22207823655993344
http://twitter.com/#!/zachflauaus/status/22208009069395968
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22208106058481664
http://twitter.com/#!/brookslpowell/status/22208022348570625
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22208750429405185
http://twitter.com/#!/joshuakarthik/status/22209232761786368
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22209574102634496
http://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/22201226397491201
http://twitter.com/#!/mmccue/status/22208739578744832
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22209069037133824
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22209329876701184
(side note: not sure Winer realizes that McCue is now on Twitter’s Board)
http://twitter.com/#!/Bandrew/status/22208405728919552
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22209895931580417
(that would be the company that Twitter CEO Dick Costolo co-founded)
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22210296504389633
http://twitter.com/#!/technosailor/status/22201579499159552
http://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/22201829148336128
http://twitter.com/#!/joshuakarthik/status/22210122507882496
http://twitter.com/#!/joshuakarthik/status/22210684280377344
http://twitter.com/#!/davewiner/status/22211035352010752
http://twitter.com/#!/houbi/status/22203531821846528
http://twitter.com/#!/robinwauters/status/22204620805775360
http://twitter.com/#!/davegrun/status/22204182702329856
http://twitter.com/#!/arrington/status/22205096142053376
http://twitter.com/#!/thetombryan/status/22207003636006914
http://twitter.com/#!/ryanchris/status/22202831574409216
http://twitter.com/#!/cap/status/22204629651554304
http://twitter.com/#!/alexhorre/status/22203970097258496
http://twitter.com/#!/alexhorre/status/22206121552908288
http://twitter.com/#!/Bandrew/status/22206192600227840
http://twitter.com/#!/andrewpbrett/status/22206645085937665
http://twitter.com/#!/Scobleizer/status/22206746852331520
http://twitter.com/#!/miguelrios/status/22193226840543232
http://twitter.com/#!/nickhalstead/status/22213254671499264
http://twitter.com/#!/nickhalstead/status/22213438293934080
http://twitter.com/#!/skbohra123/status/22214792324321280