“CNET Networks has acquired the TechTracker family of Web sites, including VersionTracker, MacFixIt and iPhone Atlas. Separate notes confirming the acquisition were posted to all three sites late on Wednesday,” Peter Cohen reports for Macworld.
More info in the full article here.
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DAMMIT! I guess this means that we may have to find ra replacement website for Version Tracker. 🙁
I hope not, but we’ve been down this all-too-familiar road before.
ie: Bungie, Virtual PC, etc.
They have been on a slippery slope into irrelevance ever since they started charging for “archive” articles. Most of which were contributed to them by readers for FREE. I can get pretty much the same contents by googling around. As long as they keep this $-grubbing policy, they’re dead to me.
Another jedi lost to the dark side.
Goodbye, VersionTracker and MacFixit. Was nice knowin’ ya! Why couldn’t it have been Macworld or Mac Life?
@ tvdoqi: Welcome to the world of the mainstream Mac. It will only get worse. I mean that about neither left- nor right-wing types, but the influx of ex-Windows-using mouthbreathers in general.
Just to be clear, “Why couldn’t it have been Macworld or Mac Life?” should read, “Why couldn’t it have been Macworld or Mac Life that acquired you?”
I hate CNET as much as the next rabid Apple fan. But after bringing the Macalope onboard, they have left him alone to bite the hand that feeds him.
They may just benignly neglect the sites and collect the profits.
“…Who let these right-wing freakoids in, anyway? What happened to the Mac community I used to know and love?…”
It never existed, except in your own mind. The mac community has never been so politically one-sided. The feeling you have is a by-product of you thinking that since we all use the same computer, we all must think the same as well.
And have you ever actually been stopped from browsing Macupdate before answering questions about religion? I’ve been using it for years and I’ve never been harassed or seen any evidence of proselytizing going on.
Me, I’m now done with those three, as I have been for a lone time with CNet…
Let’s hope that CNET will enhance these sites instead of cancelling them…
MacFixit is an incredible site, hope they don’t ruin that one…
MacFixit et.al. must in dire financial straits to go in this direction. Nothing productive or useful ever comes out of CNET’s mouth. MacFixit just made itself irrelevant.
My subscription will not be renewed.
Just adding to those crying NO! Versiontracker was a refuge of sanity!
Who uses CNet anymore?
Wow! So what’s the alternative? Because these sites are doomed. MacFixIt will be focused on Symantec Virus installer issues on the Mac…as if anyone’s ever installed one…
F*ck C|NET and their blatantly bias “journalism”
If ever there was a story for an opinion! Well??
I just died inside a little bit.
How long until cNet sucks the soul out of VersionTracker?
F**K!
MDN Word ‘Mean’
Sad!! Yet if it is a sign that Cnet gots religin* then it is not soo bad. Those big boys be learnin’ where all of da money is going to be in the future… Another brick in the Apple edifice… not too long until 50% market share… and besides..if you don’t have inside talent, you must buy it!
MW: season, as it Appl season… crisp, crunchy and luscious
This is horrible news. Those sites are going to go to hell in a handbasket unless CNET just owns it on paper but leaves daily running to those good folk who have made the sites what they are now. Let’s hope CNET stays out of day-to-day management.
Oh this has just made today a sad day…
We will build more!!!! Thanks for funding the Mac Community!
you know, Someone Else is right. A long time ago, I used to use MacFixIt all the time as my first resource for Mac troubleshooting. Then they started charging for archive articles and so I have never used them since, looking elsewhere on the web for help.
But I never realized it until now when Someone Else pointed out that all these troubleshooting suggestions were submitted by users visiting the site and were submitted for free. It was kinda’ sh*tty that MacFixIt started charging to view help tips submitted to them freely by their readers.
MW: range as in home, home on the…
Can you say Advertisement Revenue? That’s what you will see MORE of on those sites now. All with C|NET logos everywhere too.
This is yet another shot across Mac users’ bow. Apple itself hasn’t learned that there are some entities –Adobe being the most obvious– which, in someone else’s hands, have the potential to harm Apple and the whole Mac community. Apple needs to protect itself (and us) by BUYING ADOBE and any other developer that has become critical to Mac use. I would certainly suggest that Apple looks at Parallels and other developers’ software. But the loss of VersionTracker and related sites is also a bad thing. Luckily, we have a backup to VT at the moment, but that can also be gobbled up.
There is still MacUpdate.com.
There goes the store…
…Even though I mention a “backup” to VT, that is not at all to say it is nearly equal. VT has been a solid mainstay for Mac users to get the most out of the Mac. I have always been sure to add a bookmark to it in the menu bar when setting up someone’s new Mac. I share the concern “others” [MW] express. Condolences should be sent to VT along with gratitude for their past years of excellent service.
@ Paul Johnson says, “Great news! Key Mac service websites acquired by an anti-Mac publisher.”
I think that sums up my feelings as well. Nevertheless, don’t forget that being desirable can also mean you’re profitable. Could be (yes I know this is wishful thinking on my part), that CNET just wants to make sure they get a sliver of the upside of being connected with Apple Inc. in any way shape or form.
Forgive me for being over optimistic, but you never know. We should track it for awhile and see what happens.