Garmin taking on Geocaching.com?

It gives them a list of people to market geocache units to they couldn't get from another site.

I was kind of interested in Garmin's new Chirp. I went searching for it on the internet and there a few stories about a feud when Garmin released the Chirp. Geocaching.com (GC) wouldn't let them use it on their site, complained that Garmin dropped this on them at the last second. GC said that chirp is only available on certain Garmin devices so it goes against GC rules which says the caches have to be open to everyone with a GPSr. But then someone said "what about WhereIGo" which is only available to some people but not all. GC made a special icon and made it available on their site. Then GC said Ok, but we aren't making a new icon. It will just be an attribute someone can attach to their page or something like that. Sounds like there was a little bit of a feud going on and maybe this new Garmin game is the result.

I started geocaching well after it had been established and I see GC.com has started and stopped all types of cache types (virtual, web-cam, EarthCache, etc.). I'm a little surprised GC.com would try and block Garmin from developing a new aspect of the game. I can understand wanting to be consulted on the matter, but don't know any business that would give away the idea for a new product while in development. As I see it a little competition is always good for the consumer. If Garmin can develop an integrated website and product that adds a new dimension to geocaching and I can afford it then I'm onboard. I'd rather see GC.com continue to work with Garmin though.

It's going to take a long time to have any data there, since they can't just rip it from geocaching.com. I'm interested in alternatives to GC, but unless a lot of cache owners start listing their caches on opencaching.com, it's going to be of little use.

I've been caching since 2008. I tried terracaching.com, but mostly get my caches from GC. Recently, opencaching.us opened but there arent any in my area. Garmin's website (opencaching.com) may take a while to populate with new caches, but since there is some debate on whether they will have a review process or not.