On April 26, 2008 we launched camelcamelcamel, the best darn Amazon product tracker / price watch tool on these here Innernettes, and today we celebrate its first birthday!  You can learn a little more about the launch by reading the blog post I wrote introducing C3 to the world.

In its first year, C3 has sent out almost 60,000 price drop alerts to about 2,200 registerered users (and many anonymous ones – registration is optional, you know) who have created nearly 30,000 price watches (we calls ‘em camels).  The site has also undergone a number of revisions since being launched: the Amazon API code was completely rewritten twice, making the current version 3.0 ish; the site’s layout has gone from chunkity to slightly-less-chunkity; and we added a support forum, blog, and even some Twitter things since people are FOLLOWERS.  We also have tried to continue adding useful features while remaining simple, uncluttered, and easy to use.

In March 2009, we founded the Yerba Buena Camel Research Institute.  The YBCRI is dedicated to expanding camel coverage, retailer-wise.  To date, its research has provided the means to create camelbuy (Best Buy), camelcamper (Backcountry.com), and camelstock (Overstock.com).

What does the future hold?  The latest telegram from the YBCRI hinted at blending camels with tigers, camels laying eggs, and perhaps some kind of camel building blocks.  Time will tell.

Thanks to Nithya, the Cosmic CTO, Shane, Brennan (customer #1), Justin, and everyone else who has contributed to making our humble camel farm a success.

Happy birthday camelcamelcamel!  Today the cake is not a lie.