Stack Overflow, the software developers’ Q&A site created by rock star programmers Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood, saw 3 million unique visitors last month – just the 4th month the site has been live, according to Spolsky in the latest episode of the Stack Overflow podcast. Now the team plans to create a spin-off site serving what they believe is an even bigger audience, IT professionals.
Traffic wise, the well constructed site appears to be an early and unqualified success. It’s also a lot of fun to read. The people behind the long established but widely reviled paid Q&A site Experts Exchange must be struggling to control bodily functions.
Spolsky says, not entirely in jest, that the traffic numbers are likely inflated by a disproportionate number of programmers with their browsers set to reject cookies – but the numbers are awesome for such a young website none the less.
What’s Next?
The IT spin-off site is as yet unnamed and conversations are still ongoing about what level of technical sophistication the target audience will have. The core product of Stack Overflow is incredibly well thought out and a pleasure to use, as we detailed in our original review of the site when it launched. The prospect of this same approach applied to a non-programming technical help site is appealing.
Usability, clear market need, search engine friendly content and famous founders all combined to bring the site traffic that anyone would be envious of right out of the gate. Earlier this month the tiny new company made its first hire and we can’t help but think with this kind of traffic there’s money on the table that could be used to expand further at any time.
Stack Overflow may or may not grow into a major technical publishing endeavor, but its founders already have reason to be very proud of its success so far. We wish them continued success and we look forward to seeing what they do next.
