As you might know already Squidoo has been sold to Hubpages. If you have lenses with them they will be transferred to Hubpages. A lot of people were upset because they really liked Squidoo. If I am correct Hubpages came after Squidoo. Some people were already writing at Hubpages and some people weren't. I wasn't writing at Hubpages. I had three lenses two were published and one wasn't (because I hadn't finished it). Squidoo locked one of my lenses and they did not reopen it.  All of my lenses were transferred to Hubpages. Before the transfer I had moved my lenses to Wizzley as I liked the format there. It kind of reminds me of Squidoo because you can add different modules to your page like you could do at Squidoo.

Squidoo had locked many people's lenses. The reason being they said was because the lenses were overly promotional. I kind of felt that was hypocritical of Squidoo because they encouraged people to become giant squids. You were a giant squid if you had 100 lenses or more. I started writing for Squidoo because I liked to write about different topics that always didn't pertain to my blog. Plus, I could add my blog and other social networks to my Squidoo profile. I thought it was a great way to get more readers not only for my blog but other topics that I liked writing about. Squidoo was also a community and I was able to meet other people and read and comment on their lenses too.

The reason that I said it was kind of hypocritical of Squidoo to start locking people's lenses was because they encouraged people to write lots of lenses because once you did you earned the title of being a giant squid. There were also special benefits of being one too. We all know that once people start focusing on quantity many times quality goes out the window. Also, some people were making money with Squidoo because they were able to sell things from their Squidoo lenses. With people making money and Squidoo encouraging you to make as many lenses as possible and rewarding you for it that kind of set the tone for poor quality lenses being made. Now, Squidoo went on a locking lense rampage. Many people felt that their lenses were being targeted unfairly. It was like Squidoo was now punishing you for the very thing they encouraged you to do.

Squidoo claimed that because there were so many poor quality lenses being made that it hurt their search engine rankings. Because of the Google Penguin and Panda's updates they were also being targeted. So, in an effort to get back on track they decided they had to get rid of these poor quality lenses. So, that is what they had been doing. It was a big surprise to everyone to learn that Squidoo was being sold to Hubpages. For one, it seemed like Squidoo had made it through the dark period. They were getting a new design for the lenses. It really seemed like things were looking up for Squidoo. Now, people are being hit with this news.

I know people are going to say this is why you should have your own blog. I agree. However, if you're like me and you like to write about different topics from time to time sites like Squidoo, Hubpages and Wizzley are nice to have. It's kind of hard to have blogs in all the niches that you might like. Plus, it takes a lot of hard work just to maintain one or two blogs. So, it's nice to have sites like Squidoo, Hubpages and Wizzley. Another reason is some people don't want to maintain a blog they just want to have some place to write. Sometimes you do get writing ideas that don't necessarily pertain to the topic of your blog and this way you can still write and not annoy your readers. If you would like to signup for Wizzley Click Here.

Will I be writing at Hubpages? I might. I just think Wizzley has modules that are similar to Squidoo and I like the look and feel of the pages. I don't understand why Squidoo is shutting down. Whatever Hubpages is doing it seemed like they could of done too. The platforms are similar. I know that when I used to search online about certain topics there used to always be a Squidoo lens that would come up but that wasn't happening lately. I really don't believe it was because of poor quality lenses because as many poor quality lenses there were also some very good lenses. I could tell that people had put a lot of time and effort in making their lenses. Unfortunately, when you have writing platforms you get people who will make bad content. Some purposely and some not purposely (they just don't have any writing skills). That just comes with the territory.

Do you think that Google was really the reason Squidoo is shutting down? I would love to here what you think.