Edo van Royen

Spudu is a "multi-search engine" which enables you to access several search-engines on a customizable startpage. It attempts to combine Google's simplicity with the functionality of existing startpages.

Milestones

23-11-2007

Idea for a customizable startpage with the simplicity of Google generated and first sketches drawn.

25-03-2008

A listing placed on a Dutch forum called sitedeals where I was asking if there were any interested programmers to partner up with for this project:

04-04-2008

Pepijn van Gastel and Vincent de Jager officially joined the crew.

16-04-2008

Got the idea to name the startpage "Spudu", and claimed all domainnames.

22-05-2008

A temporary (not-so-serious) logo was put up, created by my brother Lo van Royen

07-06-2008

Started a logo design contest for Spudu on a Dutch forum called tbforum.

04-04-2008

Because the submitted designs were so hilariously bad, we decided to give it a shot ourselves. We had some fun, and yes I absolutely agree, they are not pretty to look at ;)

In response to the 'logo' above, which was meant to be a little in the style of the famous Loreal advertorials Pepijn commented that he was "Still missing that web2.0 feeling".

Pepijn retorted with a creation of his own (actual e-mail conversation): "Beautiful design, Edo, but it seems to lack the vibrancy we're looking for. In my design (see attachment), the brightly colored dots represent the infinity of our universe, in turn symbolizing the endless information that can be attained through the use of Spudu."

04-04-2008

After determining we royally sucked at making logo's, a promising design by Dirk Leys grasped our attention. He eventually won the contest with the final design which can be seen at the top of this page.

07-06-2008

The deadline for the launch of Spudu has been set; the 1st of August

27-07-2008

Extended the deadline to the 18th of August.

16-08-2008

Ride of the valkyries officially bombarded the Spudu theme-song

18-08-2008

Spudu Launched !

01-09-2008

After the initial peak of traffic, visitor levels dropped to a steady 50 unique per day according to Google Analytics. Not enough by a long shot.

01-11-2008

We appear in a local Amsterdam newspaper (Het Parool) with the following article:

01-12-2008

Traffic hasn't improved since launch, in spite of promotion efforts. All slowly starting to doubt whether or not Spudu is a flop ;)

01-01-2009

You win some, you lose some. Spudu, does not seem to be able to take off with us in charge. Users are too hesitant to give up good 'ol trusted Google and replace it with Spudu for a little extra functionality. After a good discussion with the crew, we decide to put her on the market and at the same time wait and see what happens with traffic.

15-01-2009

Tried finding the motivation to work on and market Spudu, to no avail. A long period of 'nothingness' follows. Revenues are at a steady 10-15 Euro's per month without promotion.

18-11-2009

Traffic in the last 6 months was pretty insignificant, stable nonetheless. Started talking about selling Spudu.

12-12-2009

Spudu officialy sold! Let's see if these guys can make Spudu into what it was supposed to become.