Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes of the world’s two most popular gadget blogs, Engadget and Gizmodo? In an industry where having a ten-minute scoop on a particular gadget or new technology can drive thousands of additional page views, the cut-throat competition between these two power brokers is quite extraordinary to observe, as detailed in the excellent Wired article Gear Blog Rivals Engadget and Gizmodo Turn the Competition Up to 11.

And like a couple of rival hometown newspapers, Engadget and Gizmodo have seen their competition develop into a full-blown feud, complete with charges of malfeasance and sabotage. Engadget rarely links to Gizmodo, and often it’s to ridicule the site for faulty predictions; Gizmodo’s publisher, blogging impresario Nick Denton, has accused Engadget of being “amateurish” and “gullible.” “I don’t think we are nice or decent to each other,” Lam says. “There is so much animosity, so much pettiness.”

Fascinating stuff. For my part, I don’t take sides, and have both blogs in my RSS feeds - all the better to have a comprehensive insight on what’s currently going on in the gadget world. But it’s interesting to observe that the bigger a blog gets, the less inclined it is to link to competitors, which is when it stops being reader-centric and starts focussing on driving more hits internally. Which, to be fair, is difficult to avoid when the site is a commercial entity and answerable to various stakeholders that aren’t too fussed about maintaining editorial integrity.

What are your thoughts on gadget blog rivalry? (For the record, Gear Diary has no blogging blacklist and likes to get along with everybody :lol: )