Okay Geek Farm
Download Squad, Switched shut down after AOL and Huffington merger
Ricardo Trejo
Whenever I was tired of using the same old applications on my computer, knowing that there might be something sleeker and faster recently released, I would always venture onto DownloadSquad to see what they might’ve uncovered. Well, alas that time is at an end, thanks to Arianna and her AOL pals making everything that’s been awesome on the internet into utter trash. It’s like the hand of Midas but only in reverse. — More after the break!
AOL’s DownloadSquad and Switched are going the way of the dinosaurs, being shut down from anything awesome ever gracing their front page’s again. Undoubtedly this is the work of Arianna Huffington’s hand, who merged her infamous and controversial news blog, Huffington Post, with AOL back in February and was given Editorial control over all of AOL’s blogs. This has changed the very landscape of sites like Engadget, and so this has had its repercusions on sites like Download Squad. And while the sites will remain up in a sort of archival remembrance for search engines to catch and display, they won’t be adding any further new content. This took quite a few of us by surprise, especially at how quick this goodbye was. After hitting my usual bookmark I read the following message as their final post:
“Well, here we are. More than four years after launching, Switched and DownloadSquad are unfortunately being closed. I’ve been thrilled to work at these two sites that have expanded tech coverage beyond the usual gadgets and social networks to cooking, culture, design, art and more. It’s been humbling to work with these incredibly dedicated and talented teams of writers, and it would have been impossible to do it without them.
Going forward, you’ll still be able to get the best tech news coverage from Engadget, HuffingtonPost Tech, Joystiq and TUAW. While we’re still working out some of the details, Switched and DownloadSquad will continue to live on the Web and be fully accessible via search. Understandably, our Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr presences will quiet down, but you can still follow the Switched and DownloadSquad writers on their personal accounts. Thanks for reading.”
Switched is also showing the exact same message as their last post, which again just shows us at how sudden this departure. Well, here’s hoping to see those guys get employed by someone less money hungry than Ariana and her flunkies, allowing for users to enjoy the best of the internet and its resources without having to jump through corporate hoops of creative downsizing.
