Big news hit over the last couple of days in the weblog world and I would be remiss if I didn't talk about it. The news is thatSix Apart Aquires Live Journal . You'll find a great rundown at Mena's Corner.
For those of you wondering- why is that news? Or what the hell is Six Apart, let me provide a little history in as few words as possible.
Ben and Mena Trott created created Movable Type (the product) as a hobby and it turned into one of the foundations of the weblog community over the last couple of years. Before they knew it, they had a company, Six Apart, funding, new products like TypePad, a CEO and 70 employees around the world.
Brad Fitzpatrick founded Danga(the company) in 1999 and Danga created LiveJournal (the product), which he calls his "accidental success". Like Movable Type, LiveJournal became a foundation of the weblog community over the last couple of years.
LiveJournal has a reputation of being community-centric and having a younger user base. Movable Type is known for being well designed and for the serious weblogger- at least that's what I say.
The news is that Six Apart has become the biggest player in the weblog world. With this acquisition they surpass Google's Blogger in users. While we're talking blog history, it's worth mentioning that Evan Williams founded Pyra Labs and created Blogger.com, which he then sold to Google in February of 2003.
If you're interested in more, Danah has a great analysis of the cultural differences and potential problems.
I think it's so fascinating and inspiring that all the folks that founded these companies did so as a hobby- they never set out to conquer a new market.