Today, gossip and entertainment site Crushable.com launched, under the able guidance of editor Erin Carlson and deputy editor Amanda Ernst. We’re happy for them and hope the site will be a success. But our first thought was, “gee, Crushable sounds a lot like Mashable, doesn’t it? After all, both names denote the ability of something to be flattened by compression.”
Crushable might be able to get away with it because its target demographic probably aren’t obsessed with social media news, but in the course of our geeky browsing, we’ve noticed some sites in the (pardon the expression) geekosystem that sound a whole lot like other, better-known sites. Coincidence?
Here they are, in increasing order of copycattery:
1. Hacker News
This one is actually the better-known Hacker News’ fault: the minimalist, influential techy social news site can be found at http://news.ycombinator.com/. But a trip to http://www.hackernews.com/ proper takes you to the “Hacker News Network,” who fly their colors proudly by not surrendering in the turf war.
2. Gizmodose
Most folks know about Gawker Media’s Gizmodo, the gadget news megalith with a gazillion editors. Less familiar: Gizmodose.com, the “Gadget Reviews & Cool Stuff” site that still finds time to blog about Acne Free in 3 Days™.
3. Rgadget
Engadget is the tech yin to Gizmodo’s yang, and so it makes sense that it would have an alphabetic twin: RGadget, for “Gadgets, Technology and Consumer Electronics.” There’s also an even more similar ngadget.com, but there’s not all that much there.
4. Geeksology
OK: there are tons of tech sites out there with “gizmo” and “gadget” in the name; blame the mid-2000s. But “Geeksology” — in light of geeky curiosity blog Geekologie? That just sounds like the sincerest form of flattery at work.
5. TecCrunch
If you make the mistake of leaving of an “h” when you’re headed to TechCrunch, you’ll find yourself at TecCrunch, which is one speedy redirect away from German Mac fansite Macbug.de. Wilkommen!
6. stackiverflow
Demonstraiting either a brilliant or a dastardly knowledge of their consumer base, “buyMMOaccounts.com” has turned the not very MMO-sounding “Stack Iverflow” into a redirect to hawk their wares, leaving a handful of programmers whose index fingers slip on their way to Stack Overflow very, very confused.
7. digg.com.my
Now, we venture from piggybacking to cloning: digg.com.my, or “Layann,” is a Malaysian Digg clone that not only has the word Digg in the name, but even copies Digg’s iconic post-it notes. We’re guessing “pergh” means “digg.”
