Topix.net Weblog

January 18, 2004

Topix.net launch

by skrenta at 12:17 AM

We launched Topix.net into public beta this week. I've been amazed at how quickly bloggers found out about the site and picked it up, thanks to linking, trackback, and popularity-tracking services such as Popdex, Blogdex, Technorati and Daypop. We had more traffic in our first three days than newhoo.com had in its first three weeks. Special thanks to Mike Masnick of TechDirt for being first to break the news of our launch, which got the ball rolling.

Of course there are more people on the net now than in 1998 when we launched NewHoo. But it was harder back then to get the word out about a new site. There was no single place to post an announcement -- you had to cover Usenet, mailing lists, various websites, get on the old Netscape "What's Cool" page (remember that?)

But the "blogosphere" now serves as a global peer-reviewed What's New/What's Cool system. Collectively, the blogosphere sees just about everything that happens, and sufficiently interesting, controversial, or popular material gets voted up to a wider view.

Apart from the effect blogging may have on journalism, I think it will have an equally major impact on PR.