Tag Archives | About Technologizer

Starting a New Chapter

Posted by Harry McCracken on March 1, 2012 at 8:23 am

Back on February 9th, I announced that I had a cool new job, as an editor at large for TIME. I’ll be writing about personal technology for the publication in both its online and print incarnations. And Technologizer is coming along with me: Starting later today, it will become part of TIME.com.

When we flip the switch, heading to Technologizer.com will take you to the new version that’s part of TIME.com. You’ll also find Technologizer posts, and scads more stuff, at TIME.com’s all-encompassing tech section, Techland.

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Technologizer’s Greatest Hits, 2008-2012

Posted by Harry McCracken on February 29, 2012 at 11:53 am

Whenever people ask me what the topic of Technologizer is–which they do all the time–I have a stock answer which happens to be true. This site is about the intersection between the tech-related stuff that I’m interested in, and the tech-related stuff that a critical mass of other people are interested in. You see, I’m not very good at covering topics I don’t care about–but I do like people to read what I’ve written.

My interests are eclectic enough that Technologizer has tended to be eclectic. And when other folks started writing for the site, it sometimes got eclectic in ways that surprised even me. One of the great pleasures of blogging here is that so many of you have gotten what we do here, even in cases when the subject matter has gotten a tad peculiar.

Now that Technologizer is about to end its life as a stand-alone site and become part of TIME.com,  I wanted to look back at some of our most popular stories to date. Here’s a month-by-month accounting of the most-read items we’ve published, by unique visitors. (Unless otherwise specified, I wrote all of these.)

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It’s TIME for a New Adventure

Posted by Harry McCracken on February 9, 2012 at 2:10 pm

Three and a half years ago, I quit a cool job and started Technologizer. It’s been the best gig I’ve ever had. So far.

As a sideline, starting in September of 2010, I’ve been writing for TIME.com and TIME magazine. That too has been huge fun, and an honor. Over the past few decades, TIME has influenced my editorial brain as much as any publication. Just as important, I’ve been impressed by its current incarnation online, in print, on tablets, and elsewhere.

I’m pleased to announce that my relationship with TIME is about to become way more than a sideline: I’ve agreed to join its staff as an editor at large.

 

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The Top 25 Technologizer Stories of 2011

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 2, 2012 at 12:25 pm

2011, as you may have noticed, is finally over. And what a year it was in tech. The news just kept on coming, and while some of it was sad (the passing of Steve Jobs), alarming (the PlayStation Network break-in), or just plain weird (Qwikster!), it was never tedious.

Technologizer has never set out to be a plain-vanilla tech news site, so what gets read around here isn’t a snapshot of the year’s most momentous stories. Instead, it’s something a bit more idiosyncratic: a gumbo of major events, personal observations, history, and more. Basically, it’s what I and my fellow Technologizer scribes thought you’d find interesting.

And here are the 25 stories that you found to be most interesting–as ranked by the number of people who read them.

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Not the Light Bulb, But an Interesting Idea Nonetheless

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 12, 2011 at 9:39 pm

Every once in awhile, an old Technologizer post gets rediscovered and read all over again. That’s happening today over on Reddit, where someone linked to “Mr. Edison’s Kindle,” a story on unsuccessful visionary inventions which I wrote last year. The Reddit user liked Thomas Edison’s dream of 40,000-page books printed on nickel rather than paper. And so do I.

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Benj Edwards’s Oddities: The Box Set!

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 24, 2011 at 12:30 am

Yesterday, we celebrated the twentieth anniversary of Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series by publishing Benj Edwards’s Sonic the Hedgehog Oddities–a retrospective not of the speedy little critter’s greatest moments, but of his oddest ones, from his ill-fated collaboration with Michael Jackson to his work as a spokesbeast for ketchup and canned pasta.

You might almost have been able to predict that Benj would compile such a tribute and that we’d publish it–for more than two years now, we’ve been marking major anniversaries of big-name products (especially game-related ones) this way. They’re among the most popular things we’ve ever published.  So here’s a box set for you–with all of Benj’s Oddities slideshows to date. Click on the images below to enjoy them again for the first time…

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Self-Promotion Department: Technologizer Wins an Award

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 30, 2011 at 10:23 pm

I attended the Western Publishing Association’s 60th annual Maggie awards last night in Los Angeles. Technologizer was a finalist in three categories, and I’m delighted to report that we were also a winner–“Fanboy! The Strange True Story of the Tech World’s Favorite Put-Down,” which I wrote last May, was honored as the best Web or digital article/consumer. (The other two categories that we were finalists for were won by exceptional contenders: Mother Jones for best Web or digital publication blog and Chow for best Web publication/consumer.)

Here’s a full list of winners. As I said in my fifteen-second acceptance speech, I wrote the story mostly to please myself, but I’m sure glad that the Maggie judges liked it, too…

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We’re Up for Some Awards!

Posted by Harry McCracken on March 16, 2011 at 11:30 am

I’m tickled to report that Technologizer is a finalist in this year’s Maggie Awards, a sixty-year-old competition conducted by the Western Publishing Association, an organization of print and online publishers located in the western US states. In fact, we’re in the running in three of the Web categories:

Best Web Publication/Consumer (hey, we’re up against our friends at PCWorld here)

Best Web or Digital Publication Article/Consumer (for Fanboy! The Strange True Tale of the Tech World’s Favorite Put-Down)

Best Web or Digital Publication Blog/Trade and Consumer

The winners will be announced at an awards gala on April 29th in LA. I’ll let you know how we do.

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And That's What You Missed on Technologizer

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 31, 2010 at 12:33 pm

From a standpoint of tech newsworthiness, how did 2010 rate? Pretty high, I think–it certainly had more than its fare share of surprises. And we at Technologizer had fun covering them. After the jump, a look at some of our stories on major (and minor) events from the first half of the year, plus some of the oddball historical stuff and other random weirdness that’s also part of our stock in trade. If you read all this stuff when we published it, I’m impressed and grateful…

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The Technologizer Year in Review

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 30, 2010 at 11:30 am

[NOTE: Here’s a story from our most recent Technologizer’s T-Week newsletter–go here to sign up to receive it each Friday. You’ll get original stuff that won’t show up on the site until later, if at all.]

It’s been Google’s wont for a number of years to publish a year-end wrap-up reflecting what people searched searched for. It calls this report Google Zeitgeist, and several other sites  produce counterparts, such as YouTube Rewind and the Yahoo Year in Review.

If the big guys can do this, why not Technologizer? Here’s a recap of 2010–what you folks were reading and searching for, which sites sent you here, which browsers and operating systems you used, and where in the world you came from.

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