Nick and I haven't talked about the Lafayette Project, mainly because we
didn't want to inflate expectations. But — we should have known — mystery excites even more than disclosure. So, here are the mundane answers to frequently asked questions. More information will follow as we get closer to launch.
What is the Lafayette Project?
It's the working title for a weblog media project involving Meg Hourihan and Nick Denton. It's called Lafayette because that's the street in Manhattan from which we're working. It's a project because it seems pompous to call a self-funded three-person team anything else.
What do you mean by weblog media?
Systems such as Blogger and Movable Type have made it easy to publish to the web, but the reader experience leaves much to be desired. The more weblogs there are, the harder it is to keep track of them all. That's the problem we're addressing: turning the weblog network into accessible media.
So you're working on weblog search?
No, companies such as Google already provide keyword search over weblog posts. We want to help readers browse weblogs when they *don't* know what they're looking for. A best-of-the-blogs show, if you like.
Isn't that what services such as Technorati and Blogdex already do?
Yes, and we've learned a lot from the experience of Cameron Marlow at
Blogdex and Dave Sifry at Technorati.
What's the connection between Lafayette, and niche weblog sites such
as Gawker and Gizmodo?
There isn't one, except that they've all sprung out of a belief in the future of weblogs as media.
When will Lafayette go live?
There will be something to see by the second half of the year.