Pour one out: One of the longest-running online technology outlets has reached the end of the road. After more than 27 years of serving enthusiasts around the globe, AnandTech has published its final story.
AnandTech is practically a household name among serious tech enthusiasts that have spent any meaningful amount of time online. The site went live way back in 1997 as the brainchild of Anand Lal Shimpi, a teen with a passion for computers.
Shimpi built AnandTech into one of the most respected online tech sites over the next 15+ years, but decided to step away from the publishing industry in 2014 and took a job with Apple. Ryan Smith, a longtime contributor to the site, was named as Shimpi’s successor and has kept the ship afloat ever since.
In his farewell post, Smith noted how written tech journalism is no longer what it once was, or will ever be again. Indeed, with the advent of social media and newer vehicles of content delivery like video, written media has certainly slowed down as of late.
AnandTech is not the first established tech site to go the way of the dodo, and it will not be the last.
All Things Digital, an expansion of the All Things Digital conference, launched in 2007 and ran for roughly six years before being dissolved. Founders Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg launched another site, Recode, in 2014, which was acquired by Vox Media a year later.
Others may recall HardOCP, which catered more to hardware enthusiasts and overclockers, and the dozens of other smaller sites like it that have come and gone over the years including Virtual-Hideout, Bit-Tech, and Hexus, just to name a few. What were some of your favorites that are no longer with us?
As for AnandTech, the site isn’t going away entirely. Additional content will no longer be generated, but the site’s publisher, Future PLC, will keep the archives online indefinitely. The AnandTech forums will also live on, we are told.
Image credit: Giuse