Will AOL buying TechCrunch hurt the quality, even the integrity, of technology coverage? Consider this — Suzanne Choney of MSNBC.com reported:

Heather Harde, TechCrunch’s CEO, said that the sale ”represents a compelling opportunity to extend the TechCrunch brand while complementing the great work of sites like Engadget and Switched,” which are also owned by AOL.

Engadget and TechCrunch were direct competition, especially through TechCrunch’s CrunchGear site, until today. Also going head to head, until today: TechCrunch’s MobileCrunch site v. Engadget Mobile.

Now AOL owns it all, and two of the top names in ”tech news” are going to ”complement” each other. Scoble calls this ”the end of an era in tech blogging.”

I added a new avatar to represent the Science and Technology Coverage group and forum.