There’s less and less separating commercial from certain hobbyist-born websites these days. – Ed
Something curious has slowly been occurring.
Take a look here and here. Are these pages covering the same sort of things they would have covered a year or two or three years ago?
Now take a look here. Doesn’t this look a bit different than what PC Magazine would have looked like one or two or three years ago?
Finally, take a look here and contrast the relative results (both in quality and quantity) from a review six months ago to one done recently.
You’ll see that the relative scores and number of people scoring for Extremetech have gone up, while the scores of the other two have been heading downward.
I just pointed out two particular polls, but if you look at the ones inbetween, there is a trend. It’s hardly a scientific survey, but combined with some of our surveying data, I think it tells tell us something.
It seems to me that Anandtech and Tom’s Hardware are trying to be more like the commercial outlets, while the commercial outlets are trying to be more like the Internet sites. I’ve even noticed that in the print magazines; there seems to be a shift of tone from a couple years ago.
It also seems like the Extremetech folks are doing a better (though hardly miraculous) job of it, even among the hardcore.
Maybe when it’s a matter of going from fish to fowl or vice versa; it’s easier for the fowl to learn how to swim a little than for the fish to grow legs.
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