Updated 3:30 p.m. ET

Angie's List (ANGI) saw a quick 40% pop on its first day of trading, rising as high as $18.75 before settling back to $16.50 in the afternoon.

The consumer-reviews site didn't have the first-day buzz of many of its Internet peers, but its gains showed that the IPO environment for even smaller companies is becoming more friendly.

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"The market for entering IPOs appears to be cracking back open," a Robert W. Baird analyst told Bloomberg. "This is a good first day for a smaller-scale IPO, and that could give other companies confidence."

Angie's List opened at $18 a share after the company priced the offering at the top of its range at $13. The company sold 8.8 million shares, raising about $114 million.

That didn't come close to the heavyweight IPO from Groupon (GRPN), which raised $700 million this month in a highly anticipated offering. Groupon sold 35 million shares at $20 each, and shares have gained about 20% since then.

One of the most surprising IPOs this year was that of LinkedIn (LNKD), which completed a secondary offering Thursday. Shares were priced at $45 in the May IPO and more than doubled in the first day. The price had climbed to $110 by July but has since fallen to
the mid-$70s.

LinkedIn shares rose more than 6% Thursday on the secondary offering.

The IPO market has been so chilly in recent years that many companies have delayed or abandoned offering plans. But the first sign of a real thaw -- especially for Internet companies -- was the enthusiasm surrounding LinkedIn's debut.

Now we could see more companies seizing the opportunity to jump in, and investors seem to be OK with that.