Getting Granular: The DigitalGrit Blog

Blogosphere Matures, PubSub Prepares to Say Farewell (maybe)

The blogosphere is growing (with the volume of posts and blogs tripling  over the past year to over 1M news posts per day and over 125K new blogs per day, according to relevantNOISE) and if its integration into Yahoo!News results is any indicator, it's here to stay. (No big newsflash there, right kids? I'm quite the visionary, I know.) With CGM becoming more widely accepted every day, and Web 2.0 becoming the new "dot-com" to the VC community, the blogosphere is maturing as it grows.

And speaking of maturing, it seems dear old PubSub, a big contributor to the early growth of the 'sphere, is ready to retire. According to the RSS blog:

Michael Arrington is reporting layoffs at PubSub and an imminent shutdown. I guess they should'a polled instead of pinged :-) Jokes aside, PubSub was a great tool in the early stages of the blogosphere. It was sad to see her fall apart. We'll miss her :-(

We'll see. A post on the PubSub blog contradicts the prediction, stating that PubSub is partnering with BurellesLuce media monitoring service, which seems like a PR no-brainer. I mean, if you're monitoring PR across media channels, surely you'd want blogs, too...It's really another sign of the times, what with the billion partnership deals Technorati's been making with the likes of the AP and Edelman.

Stay tuned.

Blogosphere Matures, PubSub Prepares to Say Farewell (maybe)

The blogosphere is growing (with the volume of posts and blogs tripling  over the past year to over 1M news posts per day and over 125K new blogs per day, according to relevantNOISE) and if its integration into Yahoo!News results is any indicator, it's here to stay. (No big newsflash there, right kids? I'm quite the visionary, I know.) With CGM becoming more widely accepted every day, and Web 2.0 becoming the new "dot-com" to the VC community, the blogosphere is maturing as it grows.

And speaking of maturing, it seems dear old PubSub, a big contributor to the early growth of the 'sphere, is ready to retire. According to the RSS blog:

Michael Arrington is reporting layoffs at PubSub and an imminent shutdown. I guess they should'a polled instead of pinged :-) Jokes aside, PubSub was a great tool in the early stages of the blogosphere. It was sad to see her fall apart. We'll miss her :-(

We'll see. A post on the PubSub blog contradicts the prediction, stating that PubSub is partnering with BurellesLuce media monitoring service, which seems like a PR no-brainer. I mean, if you're monitoring PR across media channels, surely you'd want blogs, too...It's really another sign of the times, what with the billion partnership deals Technorati's been making with the likes of the AP and Edelman.

Stay tuned.

Google Gets Bulk of Traffic from MySpace

MediaPost expounds upon a Hitwise report that MySpace is Google's #1 traffic source:

GOOGLE, CURRENTLY REPORTED TO BE in talks with MySpace.com, receives the highest percentage of its traffic from the social networking site--accounting for 8.7 percent of the search giant's total traffic during the week ending May 6, according to data released Thursday by Hitwise.

The traffic numbers reveal the high stakes of the search partnership talks that Google and MySpace are engaged in, according to a report from the Financial Times. The same report also stated that competitor Microsoft was likewise engaged in talks, meaning that Microsoft's gain could be Google's loss.

According to Bill Tancer, Hitwise's general manager of research, the deal is a defensive one for Google. Similar to the AOL-Google deal last year, where the search giant bought a major stake in AOL amid rumors of a possible AOL-MSN deal, Google is engaged in an effort to protect one of its major traffic sources.

Don't cry for MSN, though. ComScore reports that they have the most popular blog service online. I think they'll be okay.

Google Gets Bulk of Traffic from MySpace

MediaPost expounds upon a Hitwise report that MySpace is Google's #1 traffic source:

GOOGLE, CURRENTLY REPORTED TO BE in talks with MySpace.com, receives the highest percentage of its traffic from the social networking site--accounting for 8.7 percent of the search giant's total traffic during the week ending May 6, according to data released Thursday by Hitwise.

The traffic numbers reveal the high stakes of the search partnership talks that Google and MySpace are engaged in, according to a report from the Financial Times. The same report also stated that competitor Microsoft was likewise engaged in talks, meaning that Microsoft's gain could be Google's loss.

According to Bill Tancer, Hitwise's general manager of research, the deal is a defensive one for Google. Similar to the AOL-Google deal last year, where the search giant bought a major stake in AOL amid rumors of a possible AOL-MSN deal, Google is engaged in an effort to protect one of its major traffic sources.

Don't cry for MSN, though. ComScore reports that they have the most popular blog service online. I think they'll be okay.

Want Better Visibility for Your Blog? Link to AP Stories! AP Announces Partnerships with Technorati and Topix

The Associated Press today announced to partnerships that will be of interest to SEO-minded bloggers:

Under the first, Technorati Inc., the leading search engine for blog postings, will provide links to blogs that cite AP stories.

The AP also will assist search engine Topix.net, controlled by three major newspaper companies, in sending readers directly to the sites of newspapers when stories in the AP report are based primarily on material from those members.

The deals highlight efforts by AP, a not-for-profit cooperative owned by U.S. news organizations, to help member newspapers and broadcasters in a world where many people get their news from the free-wheeling and chaotic Web. ("The free-wheeling and chaotic web."  I love it! We're all a bunch of party animals out here in Cyberspace, aren't we, kids?)

Technorati will search blogs for postings that include links to AP stories. Links to those postings will be available along with the original AP stories on 440 member Web sites served by AP Hosted News, a service that uses AP servers to display AP content on member sites. There also will be a box featuring the "Top Five Most Blogged About" AP stories.

Clicking on the links takes the reader to a Technorati page listing the relevant blogs. Revenue from ads on the page will be shared by Technorati and the AP, but the revenue is not expected to cover more than the cost of the project, said Kristie Bouryal, AP's deputy director of online for U.S. newspapers.

Well, this is certainly another big step for Web 2.0. AP buy-in certainly legitimizes blogs even more, and also further muddies the line between press and blogger:

"The truth is there are not that many of us who are breaking news anymore, that have people on the ground ... the whole notion here is to spotlight those who are real content creators and not make news such a generic commodity on the Web," [Jane] Seagrave [AP's vice president of new media] said.

The move is also beneficial for Topix, which is not among the more popular news sites, currently.

Want Better Visibility for Your Blog? Link to AP Stories! AP Announces Partnerships with Technorati and Topix

The Associated Press today announced to partnerships that will be of interest to SEO-minded bloggers:

Under the first, Technorati Inc., the leading search engine for blog postings, will provide links to blogs that cite AP stories.

The AP also will assist search engine Topix.net, controlled by three major newspaper companies, in sending readers directly to the sites of newspapers when stories in the AP report are based primarily on material from those members.

The deals highlight efforts by AP, a not-for-profit cooperative owned by U.S. news organizations, to help member newspapers and broadcasters in a world where many people get their news from the free-wheeling and chaotic Web. ("The free-wheeling and chaotic web."  I love it! We're all a bunch of party animals out here in Cyberspace, aren't we, kids?)

Technorati will search blogs for postings that include links to AP stories. Links to those postings will be available along with the original AP stories on 440 member Web sites served by AP Hosted News, a service that uses AP servers to display AP content on member sites. There also will be a box featuring the "Top Five Most Blogged About" AP stories.

Clicking on the links takes the reader to a Technorati page listing the relevant blogs. Revenue from ads on the page will be shared by Technorati and the AP, but the revenue is not expected to cover more than the cost of the project, said Kristie Bouryal, AP's deputy director of online for U.S. newspapers.

Well, this is certainly another big step for Web 2.0. AP buy-in certainly legitimizes blogs even more, and also further muddies the line between press and blogger:

"The truth is there are not that many of us who are breaking news anymore, that have people on the ground ... the whole notion here is to spotlight those who are real content creators and not make news such a generic commodity on the Web," [Jane] Seagrave [AP's vice president of new media] said.

The move is also beneficial for Topix, which is not among the more popular news sites, currently.

Trackback Spam Update

Just a funny update: My comment a few weeks ago on TypePad trackback spam...is getting tons of trackback spam. It's the only post on this blog attracting it.

I'll disable trackbacks and comments on that one in a few days, but I think it'll be an interesting experiment -- and a good laugh -- to see how far it goes!

Trackback Spam Update

Just a funny update: My comment a few weeks ago on TypePad trackback spam...is getting tons of trackback spam. It's the only post on this blog attracting it.

I'll disable trackbacks and comments on that one in a few days, but I think it'll be an interesting experiment -- and a good laugh -- to see how far it goes!

Has Yahoo! Bought Technorati?

Dave Berlind at ZDnet Blogs got this funny error message while trying to access Technorati:

If you zoom in, you'll see a Yahoo! 404 message. Berlind admits, it could be a browser bug...or the cat's gotten out of the bag a little early!

It would be a smart move on Yahoo!'s part. By integrating both del.icio.us and Technorati in their "My Web" Web 2.0 offering, they'd be getting the heart and soul of the social web under one roof, so to speak. Both sites are considered best-of-breed and both have ridiculously loyal followings. By acquiring these established sites, rather than reinventing the wheel, Yahoo! would be building a strong following for My Web.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Berlind was not able to repeat the above error, and fully admits that it may be a bizarre browser error. But what if it's not?

[Cheers to Ben Barren and The Blog Herald for the tip.)

Has Yahoo! Bought Technorati?

Dave Berlind at ZDnet Blogs got this funny error message while trying to access Technorati:

If you zoom in, you'll see a Yahoo! 404 message. Berlind admits, it could be a browser bug...or the cat's gotten out of the bag a little early!

It would be a smart move on Yahoo!'s part. By integrating both del.icio.us and Technorati in their "My Web" Web 2.0 offering, they'd be getting the heart and soul of the social web under one roof, so to speak. Both sites are considered best-of-breed and both have ridiculously loyal followings. By acquiring these established sites, rather than reinventing the wheel, Yahoo! would be building a strong following for My Web.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Berlind was not able to repeat the above error, and fully admits that it may be a bizarre browser error. But what if it's not?

[Cheers to Ben Barren and The Blog Herald for the tip.)