Nerds, rev your browsers! Time Inc. has just launched a new site titled Techland. In his introductory post, technology editor Peter Ha writes: “Think of TECHLAND as the
In January 2007, Lev Grossman started a blog called Nerd World for Time.com. He wrote about one or two posts a week his various nerdy interests (from snuggies to Mafia Wars). “It was a different time then,” Mr. Grossman wrote in a blog post. “A time when I would actually write a 700-word post, instead of just pasting in a YouTube video plus three words of commentary, italicized for humorous effect.“
Techland will cover similar subjects… with a faster metabolism. The site relaunched this weekend with a few writers contributing, including Matt Selman, a writer and producer who has worked on Seinfeld and eleven seasons of The Simpsons. There are, of course, several verticals, including gadgets, gaming, culture, news and video.
Here’s Mr. Ha, a former CrunchGear news editor, and Mr. Grossman giving a little preview of the site, between clicks of their video game controllers:
Techland will have fierce competition from tons of other tech-y blogs that already have news scoops–from TechCrunch to Mashable to News Corp’s All Things D. (Although, McKinsey is sharpening its knives to review Dow Jones, which runs All Things D, we’ll see if it makes it through or goes to the Gourmet grave).
However, the editors warn that the site will be much less “tech news” focused and more about nerd culture–which is ever-so quickly becoming mainstream culture. Mr. Ha explained:
You might not consider yourself to be a nerd, but step back for a moment and consider the things you enjoy the most in life. I can guarantee that one of those things falls under the realm of nerd. It doesn’t matter whether your favorite game is Wii Sports or Modern Warfare 2. Perhaps you enjoy reading Robert Kirkman’s Invincible or Harry Potter or even The Magicians. Maybe you still rock a Motorola RAZR but long for an iPhone 3GS, DROID or BlackBerry. Are you into How I Met Your Mother, LOST, BSG or Myth Busters? The point is that we all have varying interests but we cross paths at one point or another. We’re all nerds one way or another.
In other words, it’s kind of cool to be a nerd these days, Poindexter.
