Traffick began in 1998 as a humble "guide to web portals" called PortalHub. We knew that we were in store for great things, but no one knew exactly how it would unfold. These were the days when the stock prices of Yahoo and Excite would leap by $20 in a single day. Portals were creating useful tools that were allowing people to communicate, to learn and to conduct research in new and magical ways. In early 1999, Cory met Andrew Goodman, and the two decided to reinvent PortalHub with a snappier name, and Traffick.com was born. Why Traffick? Back then, as it is now, the most trafficked sites were the big players that we studied and thought would revolutionize the world of information. Web traffic, sometimes measured in the now-archaic term "eyeballs," were the currency of the New Economy, as was giddily chronicled by burgeoning print magazines like the Industry Standard.
When the dot com boom went bust in early 2000 after investors started to demand real, sustainable business models that would lead to profitability, we kept the faith and never wavered from our belief that portals and search engines would soon parlay their audiences into real companies. Now, we're charting the rise of search engines with a special eye toward the business side and how search engine marketing is changing how everything and anything is sold and marketed using the internet. We were there when pay-per-click advertising gained credibility and helped save free content online thanks to Yahoo's Overture unit (then called GoTo.com) and Google's AdWords program.
What began as a hobby has turned into gainful employment, and we feel fortunate to be part of this new world. What will the future hold? We don't know, but keep reading Traffick for our unique brand of commentary and prognostication!