We have some very exciting news to share with the Telerik community. Telerik has just acquired Fiddler! Even more exciting is that Fiddler’s brilliant creator Eric Lawrence will come over from Microsoft to join the team fulltime. For those of you who don’t know, Fiddler is a web debugging proxy which logs all HTTP(S) traffic between your computer or device and the Internet. In other words, it is an essential tool for any web, desktop or mobile developer. The popularity and sophistication of Fiddler is hugely impressive considering this has been Eric's informal side project for more than 8 years. With Eric joining the team he will be able to deliver on his vision for Fiddler with the full financial and resource backing of Telerik.
It might be apparent why Eric would jump at an opportunity to turn his side passion project into a full time position, but what might not be readily obvious is why Telerik would need a product like Fiddler in our portfolio.
Our strategy has always been to acquire when it makes sense and to use the new technology to improve our core products for the benefit of our customers. In the case of Fiddler, this was a natural extension because Fiddler is already in use as the core technology behind Test Studio's load and performance features. Additionally, we gain a formidable competitive edge over other tools as both Eric and Fiddler join the Test Studio product family. The collaboration for enhancing Fiddler is already underway as well as discussions to further expand our portfolio and extend support for our customers.
The Fiddler community is very important to us. We have learned from the mistakes of others who have acquired free tools only to turn the tables on the community and monetize them at a later date. We admire what Fiddler has delivered to the community and want to expand that value by investing in things like expanded platform support, user interface improvements and a first class website with extensive community and support features.
That is why, as part of our commitment to keeping Fiddler free and making further investments into the tool, we have launched a poll on the Fiddler website asking the community to vote on the first improvements we will target. Whether you are an avid or occasional Fiddler user we would love to get your opinions on what you would like to see happen first.
To give you some insight into how popular Fiddler really is here are some stats, year to date. On average Fiddler receives over 9,000 installations EVERY DAY, and when I say average that is including weekends. That number jumps to over 10,000 for weekdays. The website has received more than 5 million unique visitors this year alone with over 80% of them being first time visits. Needless to say that the Fiddler community is not just big, it's HUGE.
So please help me in welcoming Eric and the Fiddler community into the Telerik family. Great things are ahead for Fiddler as we continue to invest in and build an even better tool and community. To see how Fiddler is already powering Test Studio’s load and performance features download a trial today.
Christopher Eyhorn
EVP Testing Tools
Twitter: @ChrisEyhorn
Read my follow up blog to hear about the communities reactions: Telerik Acquires Fiddler. A week in review.