For one, I read Hanford’s blog, and I don’t read Matt’s, so this would have been off my radar, and I would have missed an interesting debate.

Another point: even if I did read Matt’s blog, I’d probably miss the comments, or just skim them, and again -- would miss this interesting point of discussion.

Thirdly (and most importantly), Hanford’s blog is about UI design, not about Google & Yahoo’s playground squabbles. I care more about the interesting points about the evolution of UI design than I do about who’s mad at who this week. Your implication that the two posts are essentially the same has got me scratching my head. The post on Matt’s blog is merely a convenient example of Hanford’s base assertion, and Matt’s post makes no mention of this concept whatsoever. This point -- about the difference between learning from others’ good UI design and just stealing design -- is something worth some consideration, and is not at all the heart of the discussion over there.