Michael Arrington has announced the relaunch of a more localised Techcrunch, Techcrunch UK – sometimes referred to as Techcrunch UK & Ireland. It’s good to see a place which will bring more coverage to Irish tech news, but it is disappointing to see the owner (of all people) referring to it as “Techcrunch UK”. Yes, I’m being a bit picky about this, but I’ve seen it cropping up so often lately, it is not a good precedent to set. I have no problem with people lumping the UK and Ireland in together – it makes a lot of sense. But at least the likes of Yahoo UK & Ireland give us our own subdomain!
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5 Comments
This is something I’m picky about as well, and as you say, it is fair enough to lump us together as that just makes sense. But is it really that hard to remember that we aren’t part of the UK?
I’m probably speaking out of my arse here, but is the web2.0 industry in Ireland sufficiently active to warrant a dedicated subdomain? The tech industry in Ireland is very heavily entrenched in traditional/safer ventures (in my opinion).
Unlike the heydays during the dot-com bubble, investment opportunities for web2.0 startups are probably rare. And even more so, in countries like Ireland with it’s overt reliance on blue-chip companies/multi-nationals.
Izer, you’re right and I agree with you, although I didn’t make it clear in my post. I don’t have a problem with Techcrunch Ireland being lumped in with UK – I’m glad they gave us consideration in the first place and didn’t just make it Techcrunch UK.
My problem is with the inconsistency, the owners and the site itself referring to it as Techcrunch UK instead of Techcrunch UK and Ireland. By subdomain, I meant along the lines of ie.techcrunch.com mirroring exactly uk.techcrunch.com, like Yahoo does with ie.yahoo.com showing up the same as uk.yahoo.com, to make us feel like we are equally represented!
Thanks for all the feedback. As someone who has written for both UK and Irish publications (including, I’m delighted to say, regularly for The Irish Times) I too struggle with this issue, especially as I am now editing TechCrunch UK & Ireland. There are a couple of issues here. Mike Arrington’s slip was really a cultural slip, not a malicious one. Americans often tend to think only in terms of the UK. Also, you have to realise that despite it’s profile, TechCrunch is a tiny company with less than 10 people, unlike Yahoo!. And we have also only JUST relanched the site (2 weeks ago). My aim is to start to lift UK and Irish coverage to the point were an IE domain is a real legitimate move, based on a good amount of editorial. Until then, I humbly apologise for the lack of a dedicated domain at this point.
Thanks Mike – I’m glad that you didn’t interpret this as unconstructive nitpicking
I know that there is no malice in any of the instances where Techcrunch UK & Ireland is abbreviated, and that’s why it is not something that I feel strongly about, but because I had seen it cropping up so often lately in relation to other sides too, I figured it is worth a mention. Good luck with the site – the coverage in the last two weeks has been top notch.
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