Happy tenth birthday, Upbeat and Downstairs!

This site, in some form or another, was vaulted onto the World Wide Web ten years ago today. Originally started as a small site for links and musings, the site has gone through several iterations and ballooned many times larger in terms of size and content.

In 1996, I’d be lucky if I saw one hit per day that wasn’t me checking out my creation. Now, as of yesterday’s logs, this site receives about 7,000 hits daily and recorded roughly 2.4 million hits last year. Sure, it’s no Yahoo (106 million visitors) or Google (94 million visitors), but I’m pretty happy with it. (Yes, I know a “hit” is not a “visitor”, so it could just be me visiting my page 7,000 times a day. Ha!)

In trying to recall what the Web was like ten years ago, I came across a web site appropriately named “Internet ‘96″. On the site, the author takes a look at how the front pages for several popular companies used to look in 1996. Some of them are quite entertaining, and I love the old-school White Castle page. Most companies would quickly fire their marketing firms if they launched anything like that now. But, hey, 80s clothing has come back, so maybe old site designs will, too?

As a matter of fact, I came across an internet archive that has a version of this site from early 1999. It’s … eclectic, to say the least.

What’s next for this site, you ask?

I really don’t know. This site has become a larger hobby than I imagined, and I’m not sure in which direction I’d like to take it. Even though I haven’t updated it as much as I’d like to, I’m not ready to hang it all up yet. Ten years has been a fun ride, and I’m interested to see where the next ten lead. I’d like to hear your comments below.

Many corporations shun blogs for various reasons, so it’s great to see a B-school create and promote one. My alma mater announced its new communications blog yesterday, and I think it’s a welcome addition to the often boring methods of sharing news and information. Check out the press release below, or read what the blog is about.

Rochester, N.Y.—September 7, 2006—The Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester is entering the online “blogosphere� by becoming one of only a select few top-ranked national business schools to launch an online communications blog.

The Simon School Communications Blog, located on the Web at http://simonschool.typepad.com/communicationsblog/, is intended to be a communication forum for media as well as current and prospective business school students around the world to discuss business topics in the news and issues in M.B.A. education.

“The Simon School is known as the place “where thinkers become leadersâ„¢,” so it is fitting that we are among the first top-ranked business schools to start a conversation about business and business education on the Web,” says Simon School Dean Mark Zupan. “We invite and encourage dialogue about issues facing leaders in the global marketplace as well as trends in M.B.A. education.”

The blog is being written by Charla Stevens Kucko, director of marketing and communications at the Simon School, a former TV news reporter and anchor at the ABC affiliate in Rochester, N.Y.

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The Simon School prides itself as the place Where Thinkers Become Leaders and is currently ranked among the leading graduate business schools in the world in rankings published by the popular press, including Business Week, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Forbes. For example, in the most recent BusinessWeek poll, the Simon School was ranked among the top 30 business schools in the United States. The Financial Times recently rated the School 4th in the world for finance 6th in the world for both accounting and managerial economics. More information about the Simon School is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.simon.rochester.edu.