Techmeme’s new popular list product Leaderboard launched today, and the reaction has been interesting. Some are suggesting that it’s not a representative list, others (well Scoble) are suggesting that it is the death of blogs.
First the big news: more Meme Leaderboard products are on the way, with Leaderboards to be launched for Gabe Rivera’s other sites Memeorandum, WeSmirch and Ballbug. Like the Techmeme Leaderboard these lists will focus on the popular blogs in each respective area; politics, celebrities and baseball in that order. There are no plans as yet to launch a combined list, although Gabe liked the idea when I suggested it to him. The new Leaderboard sites will be launched over the next week.
In noting the new Leaderboard sites, it highlights the very nature of the product: these are popular lists based on verticals, not an all-up list such as the Technorati Top 100. In one respect they are not direct competitors, yet the continued decline of Technorati has left an opening for competing popular lists, and in this regard the Leaderboard products have their place.
As vertical lists they are by their very nature unrepresentative of the entire blogosphere because they only track a particular vertical, and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. The cliques in blogging have been long established, and at the end of the day many will find personal interest in reading a list of the top 100 blogs in their own favorite vertical. Where as I might prefer a tech lists, others might prefer politics or celebrities; choice in this example is a good thing.
The argument that the list (by Scoble) is representative of the death of blogging couldn’t be any further from the truth. As the graph shows, 64% of the list is held by blogs. When we look at the non-blogs, it gets greyer, because many of the online publications (13%) and mainstream media sites (17%) either have blogs or are using blog like features such as comments.
Scoble’s argument that most of the 64% that are blogs aren’t real blogs as they are written by more than one person is perhaps one of the weirdest propositions I’ve heard this year. I’ll accept that a blog is only a blog if it has comments (which they should) but since when did a blog stop becoming a blog because there are multiple bloggers? If anything, the strength of multiple author blogs demonstrates the growing maturity of the blogosphere, in that to be at the top, leading blogs have adopted to the 24/7 news cycle by bringing in additional bloggers to cover breaking events, and to provider a richer, and perhaps more comprehensive coverage of news events.
This is not to take away from single-author blogs at all; I was at a conference last week where a Professor told the audience that group blogs are the future of blogging and I publicly disagreed: single-author blogs are and will always remain the bread and butter of the blogosphere, however expecting that single author blogs will dominate links and traffic is akin to running a Mini into a B-Triple Truck: the truck will nearly always win.
Note: The Techmeme Leaderboard Distribution graph is based on Dave Winers list here. Given the updating nature of the product the distribution will constantly change over time.
I don’t think a group of bloggers consolidating their posts is what Scoble was talking about. It’s more that a “group of editors” and “copy writers” do not a blog make. The “Blog as Business” isn’t really a valid Blog, because by necessity you are limited your expression. Either it’s to your editor or to your advertisers. You can have a “website with comments” and that’s fine, but in my mind (and I think in Scoble’s) that’s not a true “blog”. A blog is a labor of love, not cash.
Ah, yet another reason to have the “define blog” conversation…
A blog is a wish your heart makes.
sounds interesting
http://vidsonly.blogspot.com
MichaelDotNet
As someone writing for a “blog as a business” I don’t think I’ve ever limited my expression, often to my own detriment mind you
Even if there was some blogs with more creeping editorial control, it still doesn’t make them not blogs, or not a valid blog. Strip away the commenting, trackbacks etc sure it would stop being a blog, but if it barks like a dog in every other way it still usually is one
That’s more like it! It was weighted to you guys before!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
Duncan,
it’s a wide gray line between blog and “news/business/web site with comments” to be sure. I just don’t know if having comments is enough to justify being called a “blog” in my mind. Once the suits and such get involved and a bit of that soul dies… It’s like, are you just reporting facts or are you trying to inspire your readers?
I dunno, it’s more of an emotional discussion then a logical one for sure, something I don’t usually care to argue.
I would love to see the aggregate hours of the last two days Techmeme has sat as the first story on the page, it always seems to be at the end of a flurry of stories as opposed to mixed in the middle.
Probably coincidence but there are a lot better looking logos to have as the first thing to show up than Techmeme, so it stands out. And that many stories (3? 4?) on a single new feature of Techmeme is a bit much for my taste.
“New Verticals On The Way” is a tad confusing. It sounds like Gabe is launching entire new sites, not just leaderboards for his existing verticals. Maybe “New Vertical Leaderboards On The Way”?
Interesting concept. Seems the only time my site has been featured on TechMeme is when I broke a major story that major bloggers blogged about. Rather than being the “top story”, I was a “sub story”. Go figure.
The problem with a ranking of aggregators is its anticlimactic. You could pick 20 of the 100 and still see 99% of the interesting stories. To really dig down and see something breaking and interesting, you need the 101-200 blogs, not the top 100. If you want to see new worlds, you have to sail off the edge of the known world. The aggregators are useful, but their content has been pasteurized and homgenized to an extent that they don’t really satisfy. They’re the vitamin you take to make sure you’re not missing out.
Where’s the service that finds me those blogs off the radar screen where the action really is?
http://smoothspan.wordpress.co.....uilibrium/
Good Mini vs. B-Triple Truck analogy Duncan. I agree with you.
I just think the Leaderboard overall is just a bit pointless. It is a nice tool to have but i dont see why this is so much in the Tech Blogosphere!
I always thought the difference between blog and website+comments was intimacy.
In a blog the reader and writer are in close proximity. This proximity is effected either by the writer’s style allowing the reader to know the writer personally or the direct interaction between reader and writer.
Chris, Yeh i totally agree with you. A blog has to have a lot of activity between writer and readers.
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