Propeller Update - Up... Up... And Away!

When Propeller launched, everyone had questions about it's ability to survive. Propeller launched in mid-September (let's call it two months ago) and was a shift from the Netscape.com domain. It's safe to say, most (if not all) of the former Netscape.com social news traffic made the move just fine. Both Alexa and Compete show very nice increases for Propeller since launch. And what's even more interesting (though not part of this article) is that Netscape.com traffic only halved itself when Propeller split off. I assume this might drop some more as time moves on but it's still showing stronger than I expected.

Update: Mike believes that Mixx is taking some of Digg's loyals. I am not sold on that yet, but Jason loves it!

And even better for the Propeller crew, it's getting closer to passing Reddit. Wonder what the team over at Wired is thinking on the acquisition now? Now Propeller has to work on growth - I haven't seen any stories cross my desk after the launch - they certainly need to work on this.

First let's take a look at the stats via Compete - unique visitor count for October 2007:

• Digg - 17,417,569
• Reddit - 1,683,673
• Propeller - 1,454,912

And a yearly chart showing growth -- the Digg growth is just amazing:

Now the numbers from Alexa - this is their "traffic count" metric with a 3 month average (1 week average):

• Digg - 117 (156)
• Reddit - 912 (1,100)
• Propeller - 2,308 (1,695)

Does this mean that Propeller will grow to the Digg traffic level in a year? Nope, I certainly doubt it. But could Propeller become a strong #2, absolutely. And looks like Duncan Riley might just be eating these words, "It might be too early to Deadpool the Netscape Social news experiment yet, but without the type-in traffic and brand recognition of the Netscape name, the whole idea will struggle to survive. I give it 12 months max."

The real key to longevity for Propeller is whether it's bringing in revenue for AOL. If it is, then it remains, if it isn't, then it goes and Duncan is right. This isn't two developers in a basement creating Propeller.

Check out our previous Propeller coverage including an interview with the Director, Tom Drapeau.

Editor's note: Compete is a current CN Sponsor. They had no involvement in the creation of this story.