Mike Arrington just gave me a heads up on Edgeio's new feature release, slated for later today. As promised, Edgeio is adding the ability to create listings directly on the site - no blog required. What's more, this feature acts as a kind of mini-blog, along with its own feed. In theory, you could aggregate these feeds and create an Edgeio rival. Nonetheless, this is a good fit with Edgeio's core philosophy: you own your data and can use it how you like.
The other big change is that you can now add your blog posts to Edgeio without tagging them: simply enter your blog URL and a list of your latest posts will appear. Tick which posts you want include and - volia! - your listings are added to the site.
These new features are great, and executed with pizazz. But I think this is a good time to take another look at Edgeio and think about how the site is positioned strategically. Now that it's no longer necessary to have a blog, that particular criticism goes out the window. But what about defensibility? Can edge aggregators be defended in any meaningful way? I may have stated this before, but I feel that Edgeio probably isn't the ultimate execution of the edge aggregator model. Nonetheless, I believe that it can be made to work, and with constant innovation Edgeio can stay ahead of the pack.