You Won't See It First on Digg
After all of the discussion regarding the new Digg algorithm, I finally had an opportunity to get a closer look at the impact on promotion. While there has been much speculation about the algo requiring many more Diggs than before, and that having been explained by a strengthened “Diversity of Diggers” measurement, I thought it would be useful to see exactly how much this algo slowed down the promotion of stories compared to other popular Web 2.0 sites. The results, in my opinion, were staggering. Today the Associated Press became aware that John Edwards was making his exit from the Presidential Campaign. Within minutes, submissions were made to Digg, Reddit and Netscape regarding this event. Which of the three sites took the longest to promote the...
Why the Top Diggers are Right
I understand that there is a lot of animosity towards the so-called Digging elite. Clearly some of them are marketers bent on pushing their own materials. However, certain top-Diggers have no financial interest but, rather, are the uber-fans and social-cornerstones of the popular site. An argument could be made that the participation of even the marketers, whose own materials make up only a tiny fraction of what they Submit and Digg, is responsible in part for Digg’s success – however, we will save that argument for later. We first understand the new changes to the Digg algorithm to understand why the concerns are valid. While there is a certain black box aspect to the whole Digg promotional algorithm, Kevin Rose and others have indicated time and...
It Sucks to Have Friends in High Places
Meet Matt Cutts at WebmasterWorld. Draw attention to yourself with Matt Cutts posts. Forget to remove some of your “experiments” and “research” before the ensuing Googler traffic. See your Google traffic tank No tags for this post.
Social Media Slant: Comparing Polls to Web 2.0 Coverage
Editors Note: Before looking at the numbers, it is important to understand that the uniqueness of Obama’s and Kucinich’s last names, and commonality of Clinton’s and Edwards’s, could skew the results even more. In all likelihood, both Clinton’s and Edward’s coverage differentials are even lower, but appear more reasonable because other individuals with the name Edwards or Clinton make the social media sites. Digg Reddit Delicious Propeller Polling Verdict Obama +4.6% -3.2% +10.9% +6.1% 30.3% +4.6% Clinton -12.8% -3.6% +0.2% +14.9 36.6% -.3% Edwards -9.4% -6.9% -1.6% -8.3% 17.9% -6.5% Kucinich +30.9% +26.6% +7% — 2.6% +15.9% Analysis & Implications The clear loser is John Edwards. Despite the fact that he has polled...
The Problem with Personal Search
The hypothesis of personal search is that by looking at a users history, we can better predict, filter, and present search results. It is this thesis that has driven major search engines Google, Yahoo, and MSN to push the boundaries of privacy concerns to tailor their search results to each individual. I believe there are some inherent problems with Personal Search – not in it’s execution, but in the very premise upon which it is based, that people want personalized search results. Consistency Breeds Trust: The most obvious shortcoming of personal search is that it delivers different search results to different people. As a search engine marketer, I have dealt for years with clients who are befuddled that different Google datacenters could cause their...
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