Rivitid

I know I just wrote a post about Mashable’s new website design, and the adjacency of this post to the one right before it is coincidental at best.

While watching the yawn-worthy CES Keynote by Microsoft, I came across a curious tweet mentioning that AOL wants to buy MashableMashable! Naturally, I did some more digging and came across this convincing (but still rumorish) article by Gawker: AOL Lusts for the Brad Pitt of the Blogosphere (and His Company) . Gawker explained that AOL is interested in Mashable as a content generator and a ‘GoogleGoogle & TwitterTwitter gaming’ company.

I don’t think Mashable gamed the system, I just think they have such a huge following to begin with, that their SEOSEO reviews is naturally through the roof from incoming links and social media hype.

Gawker then went on to quote an AOL insider: “[Mashable has] definitely been brought up in meetings as possible driving force behind SeedSeed reviews.”

This next sentence by the AOLer, however, was really a backhanded slap to the amazing writers at Mashable: “Mashable has been getting so Mainstream News, and their writers get paid in Twitter followers and air, so it just seems like a good fit.”

I think that the employee quoted in Gawker may have just a bit of a grudge considering AOL let go of 1/3 of the writing staff, so I think it’s safe to say that is not a true statement. As a matter of fact, Pete Cashmore, in a statement said the following:

“We don’t comment on speculation, but we do hold our writers in high regard and pay a competitive salary for their tireless efforts.”

That’s the official word from Mashable at the moment, and although it’s still in rumor-mode. I have written to Mashable for updates once they’re ready to make an official statement. Until then, here’s a tweet by Robert Scoble that’s sure to keep you guessing!

By the way – while AOL says they want to become more content-centric, their Social Mediasocial media presence shows nothing even close to that! Check out the lameness on @aol!

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