Hunch launches!

If, as Erin McKean says, the internet is made of words and enthusiasm, let us put these words on the internet to express our enthusiasm for today’s launch of Hunch!

For those of you who are new, Hunch helps you make decisions, and gives you results it wouldn’t give other people, getting smarter over time as more people use it. We would like it very much if you would like it. We like it! So very much!

For those of you who are not new, you can now do things you couldn’t do before. You can use the site without logging in — though of course Hunch’s hunches are much better if you do. We give you code so you can post widgets on your blog (it’s on the result page). There’s a new Explore page, which has all kinds of neat-o stuff on it, and which we’ll keep updated with new topics, new users and those interesting correlations that are the byproduct of all our question-answering technology (and which we’ve been posting occasionally to our Twitter).

We’re changing the way we handle topics in the workshop. You’ll no longer feel the sharp sting of rejection after your topic has languished unloved for a period of time — your topic will stick around til you or another Hunch user gets around to tricking it out (though if it is a dupe, it may end up grafted to another user’s topic). Watch your user contribution page for its status.

Later today the API will be usable (though we haven’t worked out the Terms of Use yet — soon!). And it’s not just the fun data stuff which was available before. It will now include the even funner meatier stuff, and we are psyched to see what you build on top of it.

Welcome, friends and soon-to-be-friends. Welcome to Hunch!