This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Dionyseus (talk | contribs) at 00:40, 10 July 2006 (technology tabloid news website). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 00:40, 10 July 2006 by Dionyseus (talk | contribs) (technology tabloid news website)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) This article is about the British technology news website. For Inquirer (disambiguation), see The Inquirer (disambiguation).
The Inquirer (sometimes shortened to the Inq) is a British technology tabloid news website focusing on the computer and semiconductor industries.
History
The Inquirer was founded by Mike Magee after his departure from The Register, in 2001.
The Inquirer was later acquired by Magee's former employer, Dutch publishing giant VNU Business Media Europe on January 26, 2006.
Writing style
The site hews to The Register's slogan, "Biting the hand that feeds IT", and is known for its early access to industry news based on insider sources. It often runs stories that are less than complimentary to tech companies. When served with "cease and desist" orders, the website often publishes them in full, with commentary. It has also recently started publishing information regarding cheap hardware available in the U.K., U.S.A., France, and other countries.
The Inquirer's articles are written with a subjective and opinionated tone; the site is quite colourful at times and often considered offensive. This is deliberate editorial policy, and mimics the style of reporting common in the British tabloid newspapers (for reference check out The Sun). This often leads to accusations of bias from both sides of a debate, particularly Intel versus AMD.
The comments from the editor (Ed.) often inserted in articles was inspired by Private Eye, including borrowing phrases like "Inspector Knacker from the Yard" there.
The Inquirer has been accused of manufacturing rumours or speculating aimlessly in order to inflate its number of visitors. Others rebuke these claims, saying it is a byproduct of getting information early, that company's plans change which invalidates earlier information.
Some of The Inquirer's writers regularly visit the Ace's Hardware website's message board. In particular, Charlie Demerjian, who uses the nickname Groo_ on the board.
Nicknames and terminology
Like The Register, The Inquirer uses nicknames for many IT firms and persons:
- Chipzilla - Intel
- Chimpzilla or Cheapzilla - AMD
- Graphzilla - nVidia
- Fruitzilla - Apple Computer
- the Vole - Microsoft
- the Pabster - Thomas Pabst of Tom's Hardware Guide
- the boy wonder - Anand Shimpi of AnandTech
- another Plaice - The Register
- FireFerret - Firefox
- Mozzarella - Mozilla
- Open Sauce - Open Source
- iAMD - Intel's 64-bit Pentium 4 CPUs, also known as Pentium 4 EM64T (Extended Memory 64-bit Technology).
Another Plaice is a pun on the term used in the House of Commons to refer to the House of Lords (another place) and vice-versa.
The Inquirer also uses some terms of their own, like "marchitecture", which stands for marketing architecture, or the process of designing products and naming technologies in a way which will benefit marketing and/or sales. It also refers to the Intel Itanium processor as the Itanic. Lastly, it commonly refers to the internet as the "interweb" in tongue-in-cheek fashion.
See also
- The Everywhere Girl. After seeing the same stock photo being used simultaneously in ads for both Dell Computers and Gateway Computers, The Inquirer has made a sport tracking the ads which the unnamed girl is used in.
External links
- The Inquirer
- Article about The Inquirer at ExtremeTech
- "VNU buys into tabloid news - The Guardian"
- The London Sun - Tabloid Newspaper, and probable inspiration for The Inquirer