Whats my point …

I stumbled on the TechCrush controversy on Stove Boyd’s Blog . Reading the post, it looked like that another Web 2.0 like controversy….

Stove: “Will Arrington fall into the reputation blender like Tim O’Reilly? His words from TechCrunch on the Web 2.0 trademark brouhaha are interesting: “

And TechCrush said, that they were going down

We put down our pencils here at the Crush-Room for the next days due to possible legal issues. Please stay with us, we will see how things are going to work out.
The plot thickens. I did some fact checking, and read the Mike’s side of the story how the TechCrunch vs TechCrush controversy started and how it was settled, in his post at CrunchNotes , which pretty much sets the record straight.

mid day, Sept 21: I speak with my lawyer. we discuss asking them to put a disclaimer on the site that they aren’t affiliated with techcrunch. I send an email to Lutz that says “Hey Lutz, Spoke to my lawyer at length today. How about a statement somewhere, preferably in the header area, that simply says you aren’t affiliated with TechCrunch in any way? If that doesn’t work for you, let’s keep talking…and there is no need to stop posting on the site…looking forward to more good content. Mike”

early, Sept 22: Lutz replies. Nice again. Says that sounds like a fine idea and will include a disclaimer. Concludes with “cheers, and a nice weekend”
And yes, Tech Crush website now has a disclaimer in bold “Techcrush – definately not affiliated with Techcrunch in any away”. This controversy can be burried now and the whole issue is settled. Right? Not so fast. Lets look at the impact of the controversy on TechCrush.

Alexa is showing the traffic trends as hockey stick:

Traffic Rank for techcrush.com:

Today : 18,277

1 wk. Avg. : 81,210

3 mos. Avg. : 2,182,344
and here is the number of posts refereing to ‘TechCrush’ on Technorati.

So what’s my point? Though the controversy seems to have died, these two graphs tell a different story in terms of traffic and the way this new blog is getting traction.

Shall we say Brilliant marketing strategy by Lutz of TechCrush?