Blurtit

Blurtit
Type of site
 Q&A website
Available in English
Owner Blurtit Limited
Revenue £2.4m
Slogan(s) Ask it, Answer it, Blurt it!
Website http://www.blurtit.com
Launched 2006
Current status Active

Blurtit is a Q&A website where people ask questions and a community of regular users provide answers based on their knowledge or opinions. Blurtit was founded in 2006, and is based in Norwich in Norfolk, UK.[1][2]

Blurtit resembles a social media site opposed to an information reference site.[3][4][5] Contributors are encouraged to enter multi–user discussions and to voice opinions about the questions placed. Questions are typically in the long tail of internet search in that they have a large number of keywords, produce limited results on a search engine, and as such require a live human to answer them. Blurtit covers a diverse range of subjects including social and spiritual matters.

History

Tim O’Shea and Chris Lee created and launched Blurtit[6] in 2006 as a new venture in their company, Mindcom Internet Limited. Originally it was intended as an experiment to gauge whether a social based Q & A model would be an effective internet traffic generator. Until then Mindcom's revenue was derived from arbitrage of pay per click advertising rates and affiliate marketing.

By 2008 Blurtit became the company's main source of income. The increase in online traffic mirrored that of peers JustAnswer, Answers.com, Answerbag and Yahoo! Answers. Blurtit's income source is generated solely by contextual advertising that corresponds to the topics being discussed on the site itself.[7][8]

In 2009 Blurtit started working on the development phase of Qhub, a tool for both experts and novice users with a passion for a particular subject to help them set up their own dedicated Q & A forum.[9] This development was part of the online movement where internet users are generating content. It is similar to other online services, such as Squidoo (articles), WordPress (blogs) and SocialGO (social networks). All of them help people set up their own websites without the necessity of having a high level of technical knowledge. Qhub was officially launched in January 2010, but subsequently ceased operations after a brief trial run in June 2011.

In September 2010, Blurtit averaged 12.5 million visitors a month and, as of May 2011, had in the region of 2 million questions. However, over the course of the next few months, the site merged, quality-controlled and retired some questions so that, as at July 2011, currently there are around 600,000 questions.[10][11] Also in September 2010, the company renamed itself Blurtit Limited and exited all non Q&A operations.

References

  1. ↑ Blurtit profile, Crunchbase
  2. ↑ “Norfolk firm answers web profit puzzle”, Eastern Daily Press, 13 January 2010
  3. ↑ Public profile, Blurtit
  4. ↑ Website review, FeedMyApp, 7 August 2009
  5. ↑ Website review, Design Critique, 17 December 2009
  6. ↑ http://www.Blurtit.com Blurtit
  7. ↑ "Blurtit benefits from Google AdSense", New Media Knowledge 10 February 2010
  8. ↑ “AdTaily Signs Up Q&A Community Blurtit”, TechCrunch, 17 June 2010
  9. ↑ “How to fail and succeed”, Eastern Daily Press, 16 August 2010
  10. ↑ Traffic analysis, Quantcast
  11. ↑ Press Room, Blurtit
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