Subject: If You Build It, They Might Come (Was Re: "Permission to Point?") From: Gordy Thompson Date: Mon, 13 May 1996 14:24:47 -0400
How the Web Was Won
Subject: If You Build It, They Might Come (Was Re: "Permission to Point?") From: Gordy Thompson Date: Mon, 13 May 1996 14:24:47 -0400

At 01:04 PM 5/13/96 -0400, "David H. Rothman"  wrote:
>At 10:09 AM 5/13/96 -0400, Gordy Thompson wrote:
>>        -- Depending on how many people you're offering that link to and how
>>attractive the material is on the target site, your link may result in a
>>huge and possibly unexpected upsurge of HTTP connections. (I understand from
>>Rich Meislin, maintainer of the excellent New York Times Navigator
>>[http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/reference/cynavi.html], that this is
>>often a consequence of his adding a link to his page.)
>
>I'm delighted that the excellent NY Times site is popular enough to create
>such problems. Most Web sites, however, don't draw as much traffic.

        I jumped at the chance to plug Rich's efforts, and may have
misstated the situation. He's told me that some places have reported extra
traffic immediately after they've appeared in the Navigator, but not
necessarily that they were inconvenienced by it.

        A better example would have been being chosen for a link in the page
that Netscape has behind its browser's "What's New" or "What's Cool" toolbar
buttons. I recall hearing that some smaller sites chosen as "Cool Site of
the Day" (http://cool.infi.net) have been effectively knocked off the air by
the surge of new visitors.

==========================================================================
Gordon T. Thompson                                      gordy@nytimes.com
Manager, Internet Services                              212 556 1386
The New York Times                                      fax: 212 556 1636
  The Times and I have an arrangement: Neither of us speaks for the other.


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