HonoluluAdvertiser.com turned 10 yesterday and we had a low-key celebration last week, but the success of the site is a tremendous achievement.

We were a little bit behind other news organizations when we started back in 1999, but we have more than made up for it with a site that is rich with breaking news, video, blogs, photo galleries, polls and specialty sites.

In the past decade, we have built HonoluluAdver tiser.com into a powerhouse, with between 18 million and 20 million page views per month and about 1.5 million unique visitors. Within Gannett Co., we rank sixth out of 84 news properties for page views, unique visitors and mobile impressions on smart phones. We rank third in averaging about 20 minutes per visit on our site. Ours is the most-visited news Web site in Hawai'i.

As someone who lobbied for the creation of the site and has been the driving force behind it, Sandee Oshiro, our Digital Media Director/Content, has seen our Web presence grow substantially during the past 10 years.

"At the beginning, HonoluluAdvertiser.com reflected the newspaper with simple postings of stories and photos," she said. "Since then, the newsroom and the online team have developed content unique for the Web and digital devices: video, audio, livestreamed shows and news events, photo galleries and slideshows, online games, contests, live chats, RSS feeds, mobile sites, e-newsletters, searchable databases, Flash presentations, news alerts on cell phones, staff and public blogs, Twitter feeds and alerts, and the list grows monthly."

There have been many highlights over the past 10 years: award-winning projects such as the "Crossing the Line" series on domestic violence last year and "Wonderful World," a tribute to musician Israel Kamakawiwo'ole in 2007. When O'ahu suffered an islandwide blackout in 2006, HonoluluAdvertiser.com provided important updates and critical information for residents coping in the darkness. For any big breaking news event, readers expect us to have it fast and first.

Congratulations go to staffers Stella Bernardo, Scott Morifuji, Tyson Oshiro, Scott Nishi, Brian Takemura, John Miyakado, Mark Milligan, Karen Fassler, Derek Kalani and Christine Strobel as well as former staffers Chris Kanemura, Doug Masuda, Brien Ing, Eric Fong, Andreas Arvman, John Garcia and Dexter Suzuki. Diane Seo and Tracy Chan have made Metromix an amazing success with our younger audience since its launch last year, and Esme Infante Nii has turned HawaiiMomsLikeMe.com into a gathering place for thousands of Hawai'i mothers who need support and advice.

We still have online challenges as we try to lure more advertisers to the site and find a way to pay for all that free content. We are working on getting HonoluluAdver tiser.com to load faster and on a new design for easier navigation. In the meantime, it's time to toast a job well done.

Mark Platte is senior vice president and editor of The Advertiser. Reach him at 525-8080. Or follow his Twitter updates at http://twitter.com/markplatte.