This list of the top 100 Techmeme sites of all time (the site itself only factors in the past 30 days) is interesting fodder for tech meme junkies. Labels: techmeme
What strikes me in particular about the list is the prevalence of people like you and me (that is, if you and me were prolific a-list bloggers). There is a professionalism to many of these writers, but that said, they don't directly represent enormous news organizations. They just cover the space independently because they set out to do so. That, ahead of anything else, should put a cork in the usual mischaracterizations of the blogosphere as just a bunch of hacks spreading rumors and not checking sources.
Among the notable independents, small fry, and chums:
On the all time leader board, check out Gabe's comments about how certain sites have been "whacked" based on his editorial decisions?
For example, he notes: "Engadget and other gadget blogs like Gizmodo and CrunchGear have been whacked recently on Techmeme by my decision to reduce the amount of gadget blog type coverage (i.e. primarily cause #3)." #3 is "more weighting of original reporting, biasing for/against certain topics."
So when you read the disingenuous "The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program." message at the bottom of Google News, recognize that all search engines today perform an editorial function while still trying to achieve massive scale. By editorial function, we mean humans are involved in weighting and inclusion decisions, not just computers. And the next gen will surely do the same.
Posted by Andrew Goodman
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Monday, October 01, 2007
This story is uncharacteristically popping up on a few blogs that don't even publish that often, so I think it must be significant. Labels: linking, pagerank, techmeme, technorati
Gabe Rivera's Techmeme is going to publish a new Top 100 Blogs leaderboard, and this is being interpreted as a direct shot at Technorati, which has tried to rank blogs by authority (links).
Looking at some of the top sites on the Technorati list does confirm that the ranking methodology is kind of stale. The point that you can easily buy, beg, borrow (maybe not steal) links means that there needs to be a more subtle way of ranking a blog's standing. I'm not sure if Techmeme's method is going to be a huge advance, but it's the man of the hour for now.
I'd read this changing of the guard back into the discussion of how useful link analysis (aka PageRank) is to an overall approach to ranking websites or content in general. Overall I think the PageRank concept has degraded with time, and the final phase of rampant link buying and Googlers scolding people for link buying (and link buyers scolding Google right back) is silly season. The fact that I overhear leading SEO firms saying privately and cynically that "80% of what we do is buy links, for huge sums," pretty much guarantees that SEO won't look like that in a year's time.
To anyone other than a short-term tactician, stuff like this "boost your Technorati rank bootcamp" article is just plumb irritating. Must monetize blog, must get d-listers to link to me, must come up with nouveau version of link farm... arggghhhh.... have fun!!!
But what happens when Gabe's the new sheriff in town and you can't splog your way to easy cash?
I'll keep going out there and building authority for the sites that matter to me, but "thin" link building tactics have seen better days. It's interesting that a site like Techmeme, and its attempt to gain market leadership over Technorati, does such a good job of hammering that point home.
Posted by Andrew Goodman
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