It's spreading across the country and the world at such a rapid speed nobody can control it! If you haven't already been infected you soon will be! No, I'm not talking about bird flu. I'm talking about Xinha Here... my first (and so far only) Firefox extension. When I release something like this into the wild I like to watch it spread by consulting Google periodically and seeing which sites have been "infected". The buzz around Xinha Here started small enough with three sites discussing it. Then a couple of days later I noticed it on 7 more sites. Well now I can't count. If I Google for "Xinha Here" I get many hits. Most surprisingly Xinha Here is listed on many spanish sites. Maybe I should have a slogan:

Yo Qued� Xinha Aqui!

This isn't my first experience with a "web hit". When Neverwinter Nights came out in 2002 I was the first to create a custom tile set within a few days of it's release. I saw Labtek's custom tileset spread across the Internet so fast it made my head spin. I was even recognized by Bioware for being incredibly active in the Neverwinter Nights community:

Labtek (Custom Content Builder) - Creator of the Winter Tileset and recognized for his work in cracking the Tileset mysteries, Labtek has made it possible for the community to make for significant changes to existing and new tilesets. There will always be a need for a new and different terrain and through Labtek's pioneering work those new terrains will soon be in created and used by technical artists, modelers and module designers.

My second "web hit" was in 2003 when I developed Coordinate Exchange for MapPoint. This was a MapPoint plugin that allows users to exchange GPS data between MapPoint and many different file formats and GPS units.  I still plan on releasing a new version but now that Visual Basic 6.0 is so Pass� I've been delaying.

These previous "web hits" were fairly popular but had a limited audience. There were only so many MapPoint users and NWN players out there. This Firefox extension may prove to be more popular then either of these. Maybe I'll finally reach status of web celebrity and unbelievable riches! Ok, maybe not. Giving out free software has never been successful for me. What do I expect? Well, really nothing. Does a stamp collector expect to make millions of their hobby? Well, I'm sure some do. How about model train enthusiasts or rocketry buffs? No I don't expect to become a web celebrity (webrity?) or make anywhere near enough money to compensate for my time. Programming and blogging is a hobby and nothing more. I'll be keeping my day job.