Huffpo readers up in arms

Consider the source and all that, but the Daily Beast found that 81 percent of the 500 comments it reviewed on the Huffington Post were opposed to the acquisition by AOL. Many of them were outraged and suggested that Huffington had simply sold out to a larger media interest (she's making around $100 million on the deal, according to reports).

Within hours after the merger was announced, Huffington Post readers had even made a game of one-upping each other with metaphors that conveyed the depth of their despair about the sale. "This feels like walking into my credit union only to find out it was bought by Bank of America," one said. "[It's] like Carol Channing taking over for Fergie in the Black Eyed Peas. Legendary, but past the expiration date by about 10 years," another lamented. A user with the tech analogy might have been the closest to the broader sentiment: "It's like Friendster buying Facebook."