Saturday 8 August 2015

Seven Years of Crossword Unclued

Seventh Birthday I hit 'Publish' on the first post on Crossword Unclued seven years ago this day. Time does fly when you're having fun! 413 posts and counting…

Much has changed in the online world in these seven years. Back in 2008, tablets/mobile devices were rare. Most readers used IE to view the blog on their desktops. Orkut communities were popular among Indian crossworders; hardly anyone was on Facebook.

Fast forward to 2015. Orkut is no more. Many readers come to the blog via twitter. Crossword communities on Facebook are thriving. Some of us have stopped blogging, other interesting new crossword sites have come up. People have moved on to browsers smarter than IE. Each month shows an increase in the percentage of users reading via tablets/mobile devices.

CU Visit Distribution by Device 

CU Visit Distribution by Browser 3

The interface of Crossword Unclued went through many internal tweaks this year to adapt to the evolving ecosystem, especially Google's landmark algorithm update in April 2015.

The Last Twelve Months: A Brief Look

I spent the longest time (really good time!) writing about patterns in puzzles by The Hindu Crossword setters Arden and Buzzer.

The "For Beginners" section on the sidebar got a new link: Crossword Bloggers' Jargon – Decoded! 

Two movies that I watched in 2015 - The Imitation Game and The Prestige - nudged me to dig deeper into cryptography. I was fascinated with the subject, as you can guess from the recent set of posts on intersections between cryptography and crosswords: the Playfair cipher, for example.

Many apparently share my enthusiasm for the topic - the post on parallels between cryptanalysis and crossword solving was the most tweeted and stumbled post in the last twelve months.

Sowmya Ramkumar's interview was the most popular on Facebook in that period.

Holi this year brought with it a special Holi ki Paheli, a Hindi crossword with clues set by a team of 18 contributors. This was very enjoyable to put together.

[Want to see the full list of articles on the blog? It is on a single self-updating page here: Site Archive]

Thank You!

A big thank you to everyone who reads, shares, and engages with Crossword Unclued. Your participation means a lot.

Up next: I'm excited to announce a prize puzzle in Hindi coming up this month. Kishore and I have been building it for over five months and can hardly wait to unleash it upon you. Hindi crossword solvers – be ready!

Related Posts:

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13 comments

Deepak Gopinath said...

Happy Birthday CU. Great going Shuchi.

kishoremrao said...

May you, SU and CU carry on forever! All the very best!

Lakshmi Vaidyanathan said...

Happy b'day CUc :D thanks for this wonderful blog :)

Shachii said...

Happy Birthday!
Keep it going :)

Richard said...

Congrats Shuchi. All the best for the future. Keep up the good work.

maddy said...

Congrats Shuchi. Am sure CU will go from strength to strength in the coming years

SandhyaP said...

Happy Birthday CU!Thanks for a great blog Shuchi! :)

C.G. BHARGAV said...

Happy Birthday! CU we wish to see you quite often!!

michael said...

Happy anniversary of Crossword Unclued!

Vasant said...

Happy birthday CU! Wish u many many more! Have been reading & rereading all posts & wait eagerly fot the new ones.
Thanks Shuchi..

Shuchi said...

Thanks a lot everyone for your good wishes and support.

Vinayak said...

Best Wishes on the seventh anniversary of CU ! Thanks for the blog Shuchi and keeep it going.

Sowmya said...

Many happy returns Shuchi. This blog remains a treasure trove of valuable information. Thanks for keeping it going tirelessly and making it enjoyable for all your readers.