Techmeme’s Leaderboard is Shifting: Nearly 1/3rd of Leaderboard is New
I’ve analyzed Techeme’s Leaderboard several times before (headlines vs. discussions, ‘presence’ vs. pageviews, etc) and thought it would be worthwhile to understand movement within the leaderboard.
I compared Techmeme’s Leaderboard on May 14 vs. today’s current Leaderboard (July 12). Techmeme ranks their top 100 blogs by “Presence”, the percentage of headline space a source occupies over the 30-day period. The results are fascinating.
First, Techmeme’s head has gotten less powerful. TechCrunch represented 8.05% of Techmeme’s headlines on May 14th and fell to 7.55% two months later… the 7th largest gain during that period. Techmeme’s top 10 sources represented 31% of all headlines two months ago and now account for 29%.
Only two of Techmeme’s top 10 sources grew during that period: Silicon Alley Insider and the New York Times. In fact, five of the top ten sources saw the largest total drops:
Techcrunch (#1 on May 14, #1 on July 12): -0.49% ; seventh largest fall
Wall Street Journal (#8 in May, #18 in July): -0.61%, fifth largest fall
ArsTechnica (#6 in May, #8 in July): -0.79%; third largest fall
Between the Lines (#9 in May, #23 in July): -0.82%; second largest fall
ReadWrite Web (#4 in May, #7 in July) - 1.03% ; largest fall
Techmeme’s Leaderboard ranked by biggest period-over-period change in ‘presence’:
Techmeme is often criticized for being too reliant on the major blogs… but their Leaderboard’s shifting content providers suggests that either:
- Techmeme’s algorithm is giving greater credibility to new / small sources, and/or
- great content is coming from new / small blogs
Over the last two months, nearly 1/3rd of Techmeme’s Leaderboard has turned over: there are 27 new blogs within Techmeme’s top 100. The flip side of the argument, however, is that the largest gainers during this two month period are prominent sources and big brands:
Source / Net Gain
NewTeeVee +43
Financial Times +43
San Francisco Chronicle +42
CenterNetworks +33
Tech Trader Daily +31
Download Squad +25
MacRumors +24
Infinite Loop +24
Valleywag +23
AppleInsider +22
Washington Post +22
A VC +15
Lifehacker +14
Mashable! +11
PC World +11
Apple 2.0 +10
Futuristic Play +10
Engadget +9
Techmeme’s Leaderboard compared from May 14 to July 12:
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July 12th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
The blogosphere is largely a meritocracy. Either you have interesting content, or you don’t. I’ve been focusing my energy on FriendFeed and my videos the past few months. So, I’m not shocked to see that I went down. FriendFeed has become much more important to me than Techmeme, and I’m seeing even more long-tail rewards over there. I think some of that is rubbing off on Techmeme, too, but really, it’s due to the lack of interesting stories. Honestly, tell me three stories that have come out in the past month that got you excited. iPhone? Yes. What else?
July 12th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Scoble, go to sleep. You think you’re much more important than others. Hopefully some day you’ll realize this and begin to be an important part of the community.
Until then, you’re just noise.
July 12th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Perhaps I’m the one that should go to sleep. LOL!
I wanted to tell Scoble that although he might feel more important than others he’s not that much more important. In this day and age anybody can be him.
Seriously, I like Robert. But he’s not that special. Acting like you’re on crack in Silicon Valley isn’t that unique after all. Fans want real people.
Real people are going to win the war. Even though the “big ones” are buying the “real people” doesn’t mean they’ll win. Viewers can tell the difference ya know.
July 12th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
scoble’s comment is ludicrous. par for the course. self centered as usual. his “content” is uninteresting and his videos are unwatchable. loren feldman’s totally right about this guy. he has no talent. but he is practiced at figuring out ways to gain attention. unfortunately, his posts are simply unreadable.
July 12th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Allen: it’s pretty clear you haven’t watched recent videos, especially the ones where we visited Congress at http://www.fastcompany.tv/scobleizer-tv — they are professionally done and are being watched by tens of thousands of people. That’s not content that you can get on a puppet show.
July 12th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
There’s a potential PR issue here. I want to believe Ryan’s data, yet it conflicts with my (and others’) *perception* that there’s some magical voodoo that powers Techmeme. Some sites consistently show up and yet, they are supposedly sliding.
I’d love to see Techmeme be a true tech aggregation powerhouse (and that means get off the tech=twitter crack, heh, include ALL tech), and break through the hardest barrier of all– the perception one.
Oh and Robert, meritocracy, sure, but seriously, size matters. Those that take up space, fill up space. Look at things popular in the mainstream. It’s follow the leader. We don’t have to like that, but it’s a reality. The good stuff is always buried. (Yahoo buzz shows a Hurricane, Athlete/Steroid, and Nascar as #1, 2, 3 top searches– what PEOPLE want).
We can blame ourselves for propagating.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:49 am
There was a lot of Apple news in the two-month period from May 14 to July 12 (both WWDC and the launch of iPhone 3G), which may explain increases at Infinite Loop (+24), AppleInsider (+22) and Apple 2.0 (+10).
July 13th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Ryan, great post, thanks! I’m still a techmeme fan, though I bemoan that 60% of it is device and product news that I can get elsewhere and don’t find as interesting as the more narrow world of structured and unstructured data, search, community, social media, and so on…Seeing people like Louis Gray hit the list is thrilling because my own interest is in going beyond breaking news to analysis and reflection and Louis does that so well.
The dynamic and disruptive nature of both the web and blogging is reflected in the flow of these lists–but I can also see how venture funding–and talent–can increase PV for sources like VentureBeat.
July 13th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Likely still a bit too much weight to multi-author sources….
July 13th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
[…] Techmeme’s Leaderboard is Shifting: Nearly 1/3rd of Leaderboard is New […]
July 13th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Susan, you are way too nice to me! I almost missed this one. The admiration is mutual.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Scoble has one talent: he just keeps trying. The results are generally mediocre. He claims thousands of viewers, suspect much of it is ‘bots and spiders.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
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August 27th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
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