By Garrison Fairfield

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This is not a battle I would want to be in the middle of.  A few weeks ago Duncan Riley left Techcrunch to start his own online tech news publication called the Inquisitr.  Micahel Arrington, editor of Techcrunch, said that the relationship ended amicably.  However it appears that this may not have been the case.  The Inquisitr is a direct competitor to Techcrunch as far as news reporting goes, and today Riley announced the launch of QBase.  QBase is a database of start up websites and companies, pretty cool idea, especially because Arrington launched a nearly identical site quite awhile ago, CrunchBase.

Riley most likely isn’t working with the same level of capital as Arrington, so he is relying on TradeVibes to power this new service.  Even though I personally believe this was a cheap shot aimed straight from Riley at his former employer, Techcrunch, the site is actually really engaging.  Companies are positioned against each other and members get to vote for their favorites and the site is very well categorized and easy to navigate.  Here is what Riley says about the possible controversy this service could create:

“There was some emotion involved with going with a product like this, however a compelling pitch and product ultimately won the day for Tradevibes. It is not an attack on anybody else, despite the delusional private rants of one competitor preceding this announcement. I have long preached that the build it and they will come days have past, and Tradevibes is a company that gets it, while others are completely clueless.”

I, like many of you, received an intriguing Tweet from Arrington this morning when he mysteriously messaged, “I learned something about my friends today.”  I didn’t know what that meant until this annoucement came across my RSS reader.  I don’t have confirmation, however it appears that this annoucement came as a shock to Arrington and the Techcrunch crew.  Meanwhile, Riley is attempting to say that the Tradevibes executives were the one’s that convinced him that he NEEDED to use their platform.  Good luck with that pitch.

Since the launch of The Inquisitr, Compete.com tracks nearly 150,000 unique visitors coming to the site in the past month, this must put Arrington in a sour mood given the fact that Riley would most likely have no visitors if he would not have garnered such a sizable fanbase while writing for Techcrunch.