Seven Years of Crossword Unclued

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.

 

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:

• Sixth Blog Birthday, and a Prize Hindi Puzzle
• 5 Years of Blogging, and 5 Life Lessons from Cryptic Crosswords
• Crossword Unclued turns Four

If you wish to keep track of further articles on Crossword Unclued, you can subscribe to it in a reader via RSS Feed. You can also subscribe by email and have articles delivered to your inbox, or follow me on twitter to get notified of new links.