Website battle brewing

A conflict is brewing between two parenting websites. At issue is the alleged copying of a website feature.

Babble is "the magazine and community for a new generation of parents." It is a commercial venture by Nerve Media, which started as an online place for sex-related columns, discussions, fiction, pictures, et cetera. Babble seems like a vibrant website. Their home page pulls your attention all over the place. It's one of those sites that is a little too slick, but in a not completely offensive way.

Offsprung has the tag line: "your life didn't end when theirs began." Before their recent redesign, it said it was "for parents who don't suck." It is set up with a number a regular columnists and recently a video channel. The Playground portion of the site allows users to register, share information, select friends, upload photos, start and participate in discussions, and even start their own blog.

Nerve Media's Babble.com also unveiled their "Playground" feature. It's their social networking section, run by Ning, a company that creates social networking platforms. The Babble Playground allows you to register and create profile, connect to friends, upload pictures and video, create groups, and participate in forums. The Babble Playground home page randomly displays other users' uploaded photos much in the same way that Offsprung's The Playground does.

A frantic discussion has erupted over at Offsprung on how to respond. The overriding theme is how the corporate Nerve Media folks are stealing from the little guy. Now, both Offsprung and Babble are commercial ventures, but by judging the staff size and advertising of the two sites, it does seem like Babble is the big fish.

The word "playground" does lend itself to the social networking area of a parenting site. It is plausible that more than one person independently thought of it. Since everyone is getting into the social networking game, it is plausible that the web trend to turn readers into participants is repeated on the two sites.

Taking a look at the two "playground" variations, there do seem to be a bunch of coincidences. They aren't exactly alike, but share elements. Knowing that Offsprung had the idea first and that Babble is the corporate media whore, it starts to look like Babble took the idea, through it at consultants and the folks at Ning and told them, "Do this, but with added features and a little slicker."

And even if that isn't true, it's difficult to believe that Babble didn't look and see that a similar site already had a "playground" section for users.

Already one Offsprung-affiliated blogger has posted on the controversy.