The Inquisitr » mashable

Is auto re-tweeting a bad thing? Yes, says me

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:53:39 +0000

Mashable posted this morning about YoTwits (another way of automating your Twitter feed) and asking whether automated tweets are necessarily a bad thing.

Because if Twitter needs something desperately, it’s more automated bollocksology. Personally, I think automating your tweets is douchey. The post poses the question, what if you’re not a big link sharer or don’t have the time to share the things that interest you?

Answer: Then please stop putting information out onto the interwebs. Think about it- you don’t have the time to read it or the interest in reading it. Why the hell would your followers? While the obnoxiousness of automated info-spamming isn’t exclusive to Twitter, Twitter is one of the places the practice is glaringly unwanted and disruptive. Anyone who uses Twitter regularly probably already has excessive unwanted crap in their feed, so please don’t even think about using a service like YoTwits.

Mind, I’m not calling Mashable out here- for their part, this was part of the post that sparked mine:

The most innovative concept is the Retweet Anyone feature, but it too falls victim to the same problem: you aren’t reading anything you’re retweeting. People trust your judgement when they see links retweeted by you – if they realize you aren’t reading any of them, that trust may be gone.

There may be a legitimate, non-douchey use for something like this (as I’m sure I’ll hear in the comments) but I can’t get past the utter rudeness of expecting your follwers to read something you couldn’t be bothered to even glance at.

Not to mention the fact that malware can and does sneak into your tweets more easily if you’re not watching, and even the most prominent users aren’t immune.

White is the new black in blog design

Duncan Riley — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:09:59 +0000

Blog design has always evolved. Last year many sites embraced the “magazine” layout, a big shift from the traditional read ten posts down the page layout that was typical of blogs for a long time. In 2009 the new trend is visual, with white minimalism being the new black.

The new white look in blog designs jettisons content borders in favor of no borders at all. Content, advertising and background share the same uninterrupted white, or with some limited background changes/ lines. Visually the designs offer a clean look that reduces visual clutter and presumably helps speed load times by reducing the number of CSS elements required for each page.

Here’s some recent examples of tech blogs embracing white.

GigaOm

In GigaOm’s current template, all lines are removed between background, content and advertising. The header in maintained as a block, a common element in this type of design.

ReadWriteWeb

ReadWriteWeb goes for a full width block header, and a thin line between content and advertising, but blends the rest.

Mashable

Mashable is an interesting mix. The current template embraces horizontal lines, but ignores vertical lines. The sidebar ad elements get gray individual boxes.

VentureBeat

VentureBeat has taken minimalism differently to the others, embracing it with their header as well as the rest of the site. The sidebar gets a background, but there are no other dividers.

Is white right for your site?

Just because white is in at the moment doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s right for your site. There are advantages, including the potential of increased CTR if you’re not dividing your ads and content. The theory there goes that by not providing a visual barrier to ads, visitors are more likely to see them, therefore click on them.

The problem though with white is that if you do have a lot of sidebar items up that aren’t great to look at, white may actually highlight their nature more than a traditional side.

Also white can appear to be stark visually and may be a turn off. For example VentureBeat has combined white with a gray text color, so the white appears very, very white. It actually hurts my eyes, but that might be a thing with me only. Always keep in mind that you need to maximize readability on your site.

Conclusion

There are many more sites not mentioned embracing white at the moment, so there’s no doubt that it’s a trend that is well and truly in place. It’s this years take on Web 2.0, and it will probably spread a lot further until the next design trend is embraced.

Mashable poised to overtake TechCrunch as leading 2.0 blog by traffic

Duncan Riley — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:27:02 +0000

The pecking order in the web 2.0/ social media blogging space is about to have its biggest shake up in years, with Mashable set to overtake rival TechCrunch.

Web tracking stats show that Mashable is just behind, or in one case ahead of TechCrunch. Alexa, Compete and Quantcast show TechCrunch in the lead, but only by small margins; comScore, a long favorite tracking service for TechCrunch shows that Mashable has more unique visitors, and is ahead on pageviews by a very small margin.

Mashable has been on a roll over the last year, with a depth of writers and content bringing back readers. Their story is an unlikely one, but likewise representative of what the web can achieve. Founder Peter Cashmore started the blog in his native Scotland at a relatively young age, with little experience in the field vs Michael Arrington who was previously involved in startups.

Here’s the break down.

comScore

Compete

Alexa

Quantcast

Note on Quantcast: unlike Mashable, TechCrunch hides its stats from public view, except for the total people count.

Mashable Acquires Blippr

Duncan Riley — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:01:30 +0000

It’s all happening at Mashable at the moment. Fresh off a new site design and deal with Disqus, the popular social media blog has acquired micro-reviews site Blippr.

Blippr allows users to “discover, talk about, and organize great apps, books, games, movies, and music.” Users rank the service or product as I love it, I like it, I dislike it or I hate it, and leave a short text review. Users can export their preferences and reviews from Blippr to social services including FriendFeed and Facebook.

As well as maintaining Blippr as a standalone site, Mashable has integrated the review side into Mashable itself. Pete Cashmore writes:

Our first integration of blippr’s service is already live on Mashable, allowing you to submit a micro-review whenever we mention the name of a social media site. So words like Twitter, FriendFeed and MySpace now appear with a “face” icon next to them indicating the community’s rating of that site when you hover over it, and letting you submit your own rating. You can then syndicate your review to Twitter, FriendFeed and other social services. This is the easiest way to get started with blippr, and we’d love for you to create a micro-review today.

I’ve not used the service before, but I have regularly seen it pop up on FriendFeed. A smart buy, and it bides Mashable well going forward.

Mashable innovates with new Twitter ad format

Duncan Riley — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:24:48 +0000

Mashable has introduced a new “social ad format” that incorporates Twitter updates from sponsors.

According to Mashable founder Pete Cashmore:

Twitter Brand Sponsors is a small step towards our sociable ads goal. Here’s how it works: a limited number of brands (and one charity!) looking to engage with the social media community can have their latest Tweets syndicated into the Mashable sidebar, and interested visitors can choose to connect with those brands on Twitter.

The ad unit serves a double purpose; it offers up-to-date data from sponsors via their Twitter accounts, delivering a more interesting ad, while also promoting those Twitter accounts within the unit. That people would pay to promote their Twitter accounts isn’t really surprising given the popularity of the service, although how well this format converts is to be seen.

A picture of the ad format above. Innovative is the word that comes to mind and kudos to Mashable for trying it.

Disqus lands Mashable, adds social tracking

Duncan Riley — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:33:18 +0000

Commenting 2.0 service Disqus has landed Mashable as a client, with a new offering that incorporates social media tracking for the first time.

Mashable adds exposure to 2.4 million readers on 5.2 million page views to the Disqus network (stats per Quantcast.) Disqus hasn’t been as aggressive as its competitors in acquiring site signups, so this is a much welcomed boost.

Mashable’s rollout of Disqus though isn’t a standard install. Disqus has teamed up with closed beta conversation tracker UberVU to deliver social media reactions into the comment area.

According to Disqus:

If Mashable’s posts are discussed on Twitter or Digg, those tweets and comments will appear in their Disqus powered comment system. Other supported services include Flickr, FriendFeed, YouTube, and many more.

Pete Cashmore writes on Mashable that the system isn’t perfect yet, and that ideally it will eventually include the ability to post back to these services.

Blogging Predictions for 2009

Duncan Riley — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:40:48 +0000

Where will blogging head in the next year? Using my crystal ball here’s my list for 2009.

1. The rise of the uberblogs

This prediction has its own post here. I’m convinced that at the top of the blogosphere this will be THE big trend this year, and we’ll finally see new media challenging old media head on because of it.

2. Increased uptake in Commenting 2.0 services

2008 was really the first year commenting 2.0 services really took off, but they are still have minor market share across the blogosphere. In 2009 people will be looking for better ways of enabling the conversation, and commenting services like Disqus, Sezwho, JS-Kit and IntenseDebate will thrive.

3. Consolidation in Commenting 2.0 services/ acquisitions

The increased interest in commenting 2.0 though will see consolidation in the sector as one or two services win most of the new business. This could mean consolidation as one or more services close, but more likely we’ll see IP buys in the field. Intense Debate has already been acquired by Automattic, so they’re off the list. SixApart will acquire one of these services given any of them would be a perfect fit alongside SixApart products and other SixApart acquisitions. My bet: SixApart will acquire Disqus. Don’t count out Technorati as a possible acquirer either for similar reasons.

4. Facebook to become major blog service player

We’re only now just starting to see the first stage of Facebook Connect services, including the ability to use Facebook accounts to comment on blogs. My prediction is that Facebook integration into blogs will explode in 2009 as more services seek to tap in to Facebook, and as Facebook wants to extend its presence onto blogs. We’ve already seen a Facebook written WordPress plugin (not sure if this has been released yet, but it was leaked at one stage), expect more from Facebook. The key here is that Facebook, facing a slow down in 2009 will want to be everywhere to maximize its exposure and use.

5. The traditional blog layout will decline

We’ve already seen the rise of the magazine layout for blogs; in 2009 the availability of alternate layouts to a traditional blog layout will thrive, and the ability of users to implement these will get easier (WordPress is making a lot of these tasks easier now). We’ll see a lot of variations on the theme, many not really being magazine in style, but we’ll still be calling them that because magazine theme has become a generic term for anything not traditional. For a couple of examples of interesting variations, see Gawker and Huffington Post.

6. Technorati will be acquired

It wouldn’t be a predictions list from me without an entry that suggests Technorati will be acquired. Every year I’ve predicted this I’ve been wrong, but I’m more confident in 2009. Having failed to complete a merger with b5media is 2008, my guess is Technorati’s investors are looking for an out. Having entered the blog advertising field with Technorati Media (disclosure they provide our ads…well some of them) and the acquisition of Ad Engage (now Technorati Engage), Technorati is building revenue streams and becomes more appealing for an exit. My guess: they’ll be acquired by an ad network or metrics company, more likely the first option though.

7. SixApart overhauls MovableType, becomes a player again

SixApart has done some great things this year, and despite my history with the company (and probably even to this day me not being overly popular there) I can say at the close of 2008 that they’re now one of my favorite companies in the space. The release of MovableType as open source opened the community door at SixApart, but the platform still lacks for user friendliness…particularly with templating.

My prediction is that seeing how successful WordPress continues to be, SixApart will release a new version of MovableType, or even a completely new, PHP based blogging platform that will take the good fight to WordPress. SixApart is already working hard in development, having recently released a lifestreaming platform, I’m betting even better is ahead.

8. Widget providers will fall

There has been far too many blog widget providers in the market for far too long, and with 2009 going to be tough for funding, many will fall. No names, because I don’t know the economics of each, but this space most consolidate.

9. Old Media will acquire a record number of blogs

Blogging as a business proposition becomes even more appealing in 2009 due to its low costs and high appeal. Old media is about to face its worst year on record, and those with cash to spare will acquire blogs in an attempt to broaden their business base online.

My guess in tech blogging is that we’ll see at least two A-list blogs/ blog networks acquired. Silicon Alley Insider is top of my list: lean operation, high yield readership even with the economic crisis, and a nice fit in with a newspaper group or TV station. NBC or News Corp for the buy. Mashable and VentureBeat possibles; I like Mashable on the acquisition front because of the broader appeal and higher traffic.

Below the top we’ll see lots of smaller acquisitions, strategic plays where blogs join the bigger entity in a complimentary fashion.

Also don’t rule out advertisers and advertising firms buying in the space either; what better way to place advertising than to own the place you want to advertise.

10. The Inquisitr will become Australia’s largest independent blog by traffic

Actually, it might already be close, hard to tell. News Ltd newspapers will threaten to sue us again, we’ll continue to not link to them, and if I’m really lucky, Fairfax (Australia’s second largest newspaper group) might take a stake, presuming they don’t fold in the mean time. That will give us access to AFP/ AP and Reuters content, and allow us to grow to 10 million page views. About mid year we’ll run topless photos of a celebrity and get blocked by the Australian Government’s Great Firewall of Australia, resulting in a large VPN bill for me to run the site….or we’ll relocate to New Zealand

The business of Social Media and the new old boy’s network

Steven Hodson — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:11:44 +0000

Just to make sure we have the parameters of this discussion straightened out right from the beginning there are two aspect to this whole social media rigmarole. The first aspect is the actual online world that is social media. It is about interaction with others using a wide ranging set of tools and services. That is not what this post is about.

The second aspect is the business of social media. From the promotion of services and software through to the funding of social media type start-ups this is a multi-million dollar business. Hell it could be a multi-billion dollar business if you fall for the paper valuation of stuff like Facebook. At its core though this business of social media is a relatively small group of very rich and/or powerful people.

Part of this inner circle are a number of equally powerful bloggers who have done very nicely for themselves off of social media – the online environment. While their blog properties carry an immense amount of weight both in the environment; and the business side, it is the names of the people involved with those blogs that are the real cash.

The problem is that this real A-List of social media power brokers is really no different that the old boys network that surrounds old media; or even old business. Even though the idea of blogging is about openness, transparency and disclosure this new old boy’s network practices something much different.

A perfect case in point is the news surrounding Circle of Moms. On December 4th two post written by authors that weren’t really associated by the respective blogs wrote about the amazing numbers that Circle of Moms was getting. Now Circle of Moms originated as a Facebook application but in October launched a parenting website presumably built around the same concept as the Facebook app.

TechCrunch, one of the two sites referenced, brought Nick Gonzalez out of blogging semi-retirement to pitch the news about this wondrous event. The other blog to post about this was Mashable who had Jennifer Van Grove; a Social Media Strategist, write up their version of this ground breaking news.

And what was the news you might ask?

Well apparently since launching in October this mommy site had amazingly enough acquired 850,000+ members. The interesting thing is that this number is pretty close to the number of installed Circle of Moms widget on Facebook.

Now I am going through all this because what comes next is important and knowing some background will be helpful; I believe, in you being able to see what is happening.

Interesting enough on searching through Techmeme on the the day that these posts went live shows nothing as far as buzz happening. I looked through every hour after and it was until 3:50 AM EST that anything showed up. However it was enough to catch the eye of the blogger behind The Drama 2.0 Show who with some journalistic chops that old media would be proud of did some digging and fact checking on this news.

Now this is where this story starts to get really interesting so hang in there. In the case of TechCrunch and Nick Gonzalez there is some interesting undisclosed connections between Mr. Arrington, Gonzalez and the people behind Circle of Moms. It turns out that Nick Gonzalez works for a company called Social Media which bills itself as a social advertising network that sells ads for widget and application developers.

It also turns out that Social Media’s CEO one Seth Goldstein is friends with the founder of Circle of Moms – Ephram Luft. As well Naval Ravikant as investor in Social Media is an investor in Circle of Moms.

So what is the take away from this simple set of facts?

Nick Gonzalez is an employee of Social Media for which he is probably getting a nice paycheck. Social Media his employer pays him as a result of money invested in them by the same person with interests in Circle of Moms. Now tie this in with the fact that Ravikant, Goldstein and Luft are listed as friends of Michael Arrignton on Facebook which as The Dramma 2.0 Show blog shows Mr. Arrington has a personal connection with all the people involved.

Does any of this matter?

It wouldn’t matter one bit if Arrington through his ownership of TechCrunch and association with the involved parties has publicly declared his conflicts of interest in this. After all isn’t that the most basic tenet of this new media – disclosure and transparency. Well we didn’t see any of that here and this isn’t the first time that questions have been raised about this type of thing with TechCrunch.

Now what about the other shoe – how about dropping it now?

This one isn’t as complex a circle as with TechCrunch but as The Drama 2.0 Show blog found out Mashable isn’t without some ethical questions that need to be asked.

For example the writer of the wondrous news as it appeared on Mashable is one Jennifer Van Grove who as she says on her own site – a community and social media consultant (a cutsey phrase for marketer). So it is her business to write posts like this and wouldn’t you know it she’s listed as a friend of Luft on Facebook.

However one has to point out as well that Pete Cashmore; like Mr. Arrington, is listed as a friend of both Luft and Ravikant as well on Facebook.

As with TechCrunch this involvement by Mashable’s owner Pete Cashmore and new writer Jennifer Van Grove with people surrounding Circle of Moms is something that was never disclosed by anyone involved.

Perhaps this is all just a hinky coincidence?

Sure and I’ve got a bridge you might be interested in. While I’m not going to get my head sized for a tin foil hat by any means one has to really wonder what is being gained by two puff pieces about a website with some highly questionable numbers being bandied about. As many of the commenters on the TechCrunch post pointed out – the numbers don’t make sense.

For me though the more important point to possibly be made here is how the business of social media is potentially being manipulated. Sure Facebook is all about networking and increasing your number of friends. What it shouldn’t be is a meeting ground of the social media power set so that they can create possible false impressions of success or failure because behind all this some-one’s money is being screwed with.

Not to mention that the very people we want to believe in this new media – our readers – won’t appreciate being played like this. Which means we pay the price and the whole basis of what the social media environment is based on is screwed.

But hey – the rich get richer, the powerful get their ego’s fed and the new old boy’s network will continue to grow.

Voting now open for the Open Web Awards

Duncan Riley — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:59:02 +0000

Nominations are now closed and voting open for the Second Annual Open Web Awards.

The only fair, transparent, and honest awards for the sector are decided by the readers of The Inquisitr, and the many fine awards partners joining us in backing Awards host Mashable for the event.

Over 43,000 verified nomination were received and the 10 most-nominated sites and services in each category (where 10th place was a draw, we allowed more than 10 nominees in that category) selected for the voting round.

The first of two voting rounds starts now, and you can vote for one company in each category per day until midnight on November 30th. There are 26 categories. Voting widget as follows (if you’re in the feed, you’ll have to visit the site to see it).

Last call for nominations for the Open Web Awards

Duncan Riley — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:25:19 +0000

The nominations period for the second annual Open Web Awards is nearly over. If you haven’t nominated your favorite site or service, this is your last chance, with nominations set to close Sunday, November 16th at 11:59 pm PST.

The only true fair, transparent, and honest awards for the sector are decided by the readers of The Inquisitr, and the many fine awards partners joining us in backing Awards host Mashable for the event.

Widget as follows, and a small reminder: you can nominate The Inquisitr is a number of categories

Open Web Awards nominatons open: Nominate your favorite site

Duncan Riley — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:27:32 +0000

The nominations for the second annual Open Web Awards are now open.

You can nominate your favorite startup or site now via the following widget. Awards are given for the top achievements in 26 categories, so there’s no excuse not to nominate your favorite site.

We’ll be covering the entire process as it continues, so tune in for more.

PS: you can nominate The Inquisitr in several categories

The Inquisitr supports the Open Web Awards

Duncan Riley — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:03:33 +0000

The Inquisitr has joined a range of other blogs in supporting this years Open Web Awards as an official “blog partner.”

The annual awards, run by leading social media blog Mashable, rewards major innovations in web technology in 26 categories via an online vote. The awards attracted over 250,000 votes in its first year in 2007, and now established should attract even more this year.

Competitions and web award style events are as old as the web itself. From the early days of Netscape awarding a site of the day award (Yahoo use to offer this as well) through to major media players offering annual best of awards, we’ve seen many of these come and go. Web 2.0 though lacked a decent annual event for many years, something seemingly forgotten as the second great web boom grew and grew.

Web 2.0 is suppose to be about openness, transparency, and about delivering something new. We believe that the Open Web Awards are the only major event focusing on this category that sticks to these ideals, being inclusive and yet more importantly offering true transparency as well. This is an event for the people, by the people, not beholden to personality or politics.

There are some great sites already backing the event, including Marketing Pilgrim (Andy Beal), /Message (Stowe Boyd), How to Split an Atom (Steve Spalding) to name a few. If you’ve got a blog and would like to join us in backing the event, it’s not too late: visit the applications page here.

We’ll be covering the nominations and voting here on the The Inquisitr, and we hope you’ll join us in nominating your favorite sites, and voting for those you feel deserve industry recognition.

Mashable has more details here.

The Techmeme Myth

Duncan Riley — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:02:50 +0000

Is Techmeme influential, a driver of traffic and a unbiased source of the best tech news online? The tech meme aggregator founded by Gabe Rivera in 2005 has long been held up as one of the best sites in the tech blogosphere. As a business, Rivera has done extremely well from it, charging a rumored $3000-$4000 per ad on the site, while remaining a one man setup.

But is it really that great based on evidence? BusinessWeek named Rivera in its list of The 25 Most Influential People on the Web in September with the headline The Traffic Driver: Gabe Rivera. As best we can on available information, we would suggest that the influence, traffic and impartial nature of Techmeme is a myth.

Foreword

The moment I so much as mention Techmeme in a post I will be accused of having an agenda, so lets start with the key points. I was a long term reader of Techmeme, and my first blog was indexed by the site. Over the years I spent a lot of time on Techmeme, and even had the pleasure of meeting Gabe in person last year for first time. Then something strange happened; I stopped getting headlines on Techmeme. More details can be found in Life after Techmeme, but what I missed in that post was noting (along with my falling out with Michael Arrington) that at the same time I stopped getting headlines on Techmeme, I wrote a post (which actually made Techmeme) titled Techmeme and the Noise Problem. I don’t believe in coincidences.

We’ve had a few stray headlines since that time, but at no where near the rate before. Rivera claimed publicly that nothing had changed, and that The Inquisitr had stopped writing posts that were worthy of inclusion, a claim backed by others (one Canadian writer with a long term agenda against me came in hard). As it turned out, our last full month with Techmeme headlines was our worst month on record. The Inquisitr has actually averaged 300-400% more traffic then we did that month (sometimes higher) and has had more links than it ever has. If anything, we are better off without the Techmeme links.

Rivera has continued to accuse me of being “a liar” both publicly and privately ever since, but has never once provided proof that the weight given to Inquisitr headlines wasn’t changed. Around 1-2 weeks ago (I can’t be sure of the timing as it was pointed out to me by more than one person) The Inquisitr was completely excluded from Techmeme, not even appearing as a link-in source on stories. Gabe may argue that this is untrue, and I only have my own observations from this week to go on; he may also reinclude The Inquisitr to prove this to be untrue, so it comes with that proviso.

My simple agenda is that I dislike Rivera’s statements that Techmeme is unbiased and is highly influential, when neither is true. My personal issues aside, this post will consider facts, with some commentary where required. I cannot stop some people saying that this is some sort of personal vendetta (I’d note that if it was, it was started by Rivera), but I can present facts and lets others draw conclusions from them.

Myth: Techmeme is Influential

The idea of Techmeme being influential comes from its use by some high end blogs and VCs. That some people of influence read Techmeme cannot be disputed, but extending that out to influential isn’t supported by numbers.

Here’s Techmeme’s traffic stats from a range of site tracking tools:

Quantcast: 7,188 visits per month/ site rank of 91,617
Compete: 291,621 people
comScore: no record of traffic (to small to measure)
Alexa: rank 119,812 with 1.2 pages per visitor

Compete is the odd one out (high use of the Compete toolbar or plugin perhaps), but even if we take a middle line, the influence is small. Techmeme doesn’t do a lot of page views. Consider that 1.2 pages a visitor on Alexa would also indicate search engine traffic as opposed to regular engagement; if it were influential more people would be refreshing Techmeme regularly because they are on the site checking for the latest headlines.

Publicly available statistics aren’t always brilliant, but a site that is said to be so highly influential should on these measures be ranked far higher than it is, by most objective measures of a websites worth. The numbers don’t support the myth.

Myth: Techmeme drives traffic (and how YHacker News beats it)

BusinessWeek called Rivera “the traffic driver” based on the myth of influence, but the numbers don’t stack up. I’m yet to talk to a person who can claim to have gained huge amounts of traffic from Techmeme, but that’s anecdotal of course and not based on facts. So lets look at some facts from this site.

The biggest amount of traffic ever delivered to The Inquisitr from Techmeme before we were excluded was 1,112 page views on a single post. In that time we had a reasonable list of headlines, some of them top of the page, some of them further down. The total amount of traffic from Techmeme during that time into the leading 10 posts (by traffic from Techmeme) is 5122 page views, or 512 page views per post. The distribution of numbers varies. There was one post (mentioned) with more than 1000 page views, three posts between 736-766 page views, and the remaining posts ranged from 158-400 pages views.

Sound like a big traffic driver? Digg and Reddit have peaked in 5 figures for this site, although Reddit does smaller numbers on average (but regularly low to mid 4 figures), but that’s probably not a fair comparison. What is a better comparison is the very niche YHacker News site.

On every publicly available measurement, YHacker News is smaller in traffic than Techmeme, and yet you wouldn’t be able to tell from the numbers they deliver

Our top ten posts by traffic delivered from YHacker News totalled 7073 page views. The top post came in at 2639 page views, more than double the highest figure from Techmeme. The second and third posts fell just short of 1000 page views (998 and 995) and the remaining posts ranged from 242 to 469.

So is Techmeme really a traffic driver compared to YHacker News? On the evidence we would suggest no. YHacker News may have a smaller readership, but their influence is extended through the engagement its readers have with content on the site, something Techmeme doesn’t match.

Other sites may have different numbers from Techmeme, some higher, some lower, but even taking that into account, a niche site with significantly less traffic statistically delivers more traffic than the “traffic driver” that is Techmeme. On the evidence at hand, the numbers don’t support the myth.

Myth: Techmeme is not biased

Rivera has long claimed that Techmeme is an unbiased tracker of leading tech news. I’ve already mentioned our improved traffic and link spread post Techmeme earlier in this post, so I won’t revisit our situation, but we can look at other sites for evidence of bias.

The concept around Crunchmeme, or that TechCrunch gets unfavorable treatment in Techmeme isn’t new, and the number of headlines TechCrunch gets on Techmeme (backed by the Techmeme Leaderboard) anecdotally supports the idea. The real question is that do numbers support the notion that there a bias towards TechCrunch; and likewise is it harder for other sites to get a headline on Techmeme.

The obvious comparison is Mashable, TechCrunch’s largest competitor, and a site (and team) hated by the crew at TechCrunch, people Rivera has always been very close to (the two times I’ve met Rivera were in Michael Arrington’s house). As of today, Mashable does not feature in the Top 100 blogs on the Techmeme Leaderboard, but this wasn’t always the case. Historically, at least according to TechCrunch’s Blogger Board, Mashable ranks at 33. So what happened to Mashable?

According to public measures of traffic, Mashable is competitive with TechCrunch on traffic. Quantcast places Mashable ahead on traffic, but Alexa, Compete and comScore has TechCrunch in the lead, but only by a small margin.

Mashable has had 9 headlines on Techmeme over September and October (at the time of writing) vs TechCrunch’s 245 headlines.

In terms of incoming links, Mashable ranks 14th on Technorati to TechCrunch’s 3rd. Technorati’s authority score which counts incoming links over the last 6 months ranks TechCrunch at just over double of Mashable’s score. From this we can establish that TechCrunch gets more links, but at a ratio of around 2.3:1 vs Mashable. The headline split for Techmeme is 27.2:1.

But does TechCrunch have an easier path to Techmeme than Mashable, even allowing for the link profiles?

We checked 20 random TechCrunch headlines from September and October (random as we could be, but I didn’t close my eyes and click). Of 20 tested headlines, 2 had no visible incoming links shown on Techmeme, 15 had 1 incoming link, and 3 had more than one link showing.

Here’s an example of a story on Techmeme today with no visible links. Rivera likes to claim that other links are considered but not shown, and that makes some sense, given according to Technorati, the only site linking to this post that isn’t a spam blog (as the time of writing) is The Inquisitr through our best of the web section on the front page

But how many links do Mashable stories need to hit the front page when they do? Of the 9 posts Mashable had on Techmeme in September and October, the average number of links shown was 3. No posts had no shown links, 2 has 1 link (including one post where The Inquisitr was the only site linking in visible), 1 headline had 2, 2 headlines had 3, 3 headlines had 4, and one had 5.

For Mashable at least, getting a headline, if and when they are able to, involved more sites running the story as shown on Techmeme.

It should be noted that not all shown links link to the headline stories, Techmeme groups stories based on context as well, and doesn’t necessarily give the headline to the first person who posts, or the site with the most incoming links. So Techmeme has to pick who gets the headline when multiple sites are writing about the same story, but not necessarily linking to each other.

Here’s the split again: TechCrunch 245 posts vs 9 from Mashable. That doesn’t allow for topics that both would have covered, but there is sufficient overlap on big stories to suggest that the overlap would be around 50%, so lets try that again:

Where there is an estimated 50% overlap of coverage, the split goes TechCrunch 123 vs Mashable 5 (both rounded up).

Now lets take TechCrunch’s treatment on Techmeme out of the consideration, and compare Mashable with another site featured on Techmeme regularly: Silicon Alley Insider (SAI). I’m not suggesting that SAI doesn’t deserve to be there, Henry Blogdet and his team are doing some great work and should be up there. But we can use the site in comparison to Mashable because it’s currently in third spot on the Techmeme Leaderboard (CNet news is 2nd, but it’s not strictly a blog, so it’s not as well compared).

At the time of writing, SAI has had 118 headlines on Techmeme for September/ October 2008 compared to Mashable’s 9. On links, SAI has a Technorati authority score of 4556 (it’s ranked 41st overall) and in traffic, the various services place SAI at one third to one half of Mashable’s traffic; Quantcast has the split SAI 650,000 to Mashable 1.4 million, and both are direct measures from each site (although Quantcast does under-report numbers a little bit in my experience.)

Even if we exclude the idea that Techmeme is biased towards TechCrunch, the stats prove that Techmeme is biased against Mashable, even if we allow for a wide ranging margin of error in the stats shown here.

Rivera’s line that Techmeme is not biased doesn’t stack up. He weighs the importance of sites, punishing sites and people he doesn’t like, while favoring those sites and people he does like.

Conclusion

It saddens me that Techmeme has come to this point. I’ve spent more hours than I care to mention on the site over the last 4 years, and it will always hold a small amount of affection in my memories. But enough is enough. This idea that Techmeme is the great influencer, the bringer of traffic, and an unbiased source of leading tech news isn’t supported by facts. The great Techmeme myth is a fairytale of spin; you don’t have to take my word for it, look at the numbers.

The Inquisitr welcomes Steven Hodson to the writing team

Duncan Riley — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:14:13 +0000

I’m pleased to announce the first addition to our writing team since launching in May: Steven Hodson.

Steven has been in working in technology for 20 years, and had his first start in content creation in the BBS era. Along with a passion for computers, Steven has worked in a professional capacity as a programmer, and took that love to establish Winextra 7 years ago as a set of NNTP newsgroups for the rejects and cast-offs from the old Lockergnome newsgroups.

He’s best known today for his personal blogging at Winextra, and as a blogger for Mashable. He is also an active podcaster, doing his own shows, and is a regular member, along with Cyndy Aleo-Carreira and myself for the Things you can’t say about the Internet podcast.

Steven will be bringing his honest take on the web and technology to The Inquisitr. As well as covering important tech stories along with the rest of the team, Steven will be offering opinion pieces on the news of the day, and the broader web and blogging space. I expect 100% that I won’t always agree with every opinion he gives, which is what makes him such a great hire; Steven brings a unique voice that I know will add to The Inquisitr by broadening what we cover, and the angle we approach it. The net result I believe for readers will be richer reading experience.

The end of standard blog design [Mashable rocks]

Duncan Riley — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:19:53 +0000

Leading social media blog Mashable has received a large overhaul, complete with new look and new features.

Pete Cashmore has all the details here, but the notable part aside from aesthetics sees Mashable adopt what I’m calling the half-magazine format where full posts don’t appear on the front page, only teasers, a layout that is growing in popularity at the moment.

Blog layout has long been stuck in a format that sees recent posts listed in full on the front page. It’s a standard format many are comfortable with, and yet as blogs have become mainstream, to date the layout hasn’t changed with the times.

When I launched The Inquisitr, we started with a nearly full magazine layout on the front page, and as much as it had mixed reactions, and I’ve been careful to offer a traditional blog experience on sub pages (for example, if you browse by category, you get a traditional blog layout), it has worked well for us, both as a front page statement of who we are, and as a point of differentiation.

The shift though to a half-magazine layout, one that still sees blog posts listed down the page, but not in full, is an interesting move in terms of what it is trying to achieve. Unlike The Inquisitr, Mashable has more of a hook for their front page content, tempting people to click thru to read more. The cynical side of me says that it’s a strategy to increase page views, and I have no doubt that on some sites, that’s the sole motivation. And yet Mashable has another driving issue that this layout seeks to address: bloat. The front page of Mashable has always been huge, and often slow to load in full. The new version is still big (2mb by my count) but it’s quicker, more streamlined, and therefore offers more prompt page delivery.

Pete wants feedback on the new design. My thoughts: rocks, just. Very white, a little unstructured and messy (sidebar in particular) but given how much Mashable is offering, not surprising. Nice feel to it, easy to read. One observation: most ads are buried below the fold, which is an interesting move. I’d have put the 125px spots higher. Also, it would appear that the inline Kontera style ads are gone. If this is the case, kudos on dropping them.

On the overall space, I simply ask: are we seeing the end of standard blog design? The biggest blogs in the land no longer embrace a traditional format, and other sites are sure to follow. The traditionalist in me feels a little sad, but it’s a positive step forward in the maturity of the space.

Disclosure: I occasionally contribute posts on Australian startups at Mashable, although I have no financial arrangement with the company

Mashable

Pimp My News: Turning Blogs into Mobile Audio

JR — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:41:27 +0000

You can now catch up on your day’s Web reading with your eyes closed, thanks to a startup aptly named Pimp My News. The nine-month-old service converts thousands of blog and news sites’ content into audio files that can be played either via an online or mobile interface, or downloaded for use on an MP3 player.

A scan through the service’s available categories shows you the wide variety of content available. Almost any news/blog genre you can imagine is included somewhere. Within the technology tab, you’ll find everything from Apple news to gadget reviews, Internet blogs, social media discussions, and startup spotlights.

Most categories seem to have a fairly decent mix of material. Right now, for example, the “social media” tab leads off with Mashable’s morning story about the food service rumors within Google. Click onto the “top bloggers” tab and you’ll find audio of some recent Scoble posts at the top of the page.

The two downsides to the system are both time-related. First, turnaround time: Many of the top entries are several hours old and more recent postings have yet to appear. Still, the content that is present is easy to access and generally tolerable enough for listening. A male computer voice acts as the narrator and seems to be pretty accurate as far as pronunciations. Second, loading time: The service is a bit on the pokey side and a little slow to load, at least during the times at which we’ve accessed it.

The Inquisitr, incidentally, is not yet featured on Pimp My News. We’ve officially requested it, though — and the service makes it clear that it’s happy to make additions for anyone missing their favorite sites in the mix…so stay tuned. (Update: The Inquisitr is now featured.)

Pimp My News is free to use and ad-supported. The only real limitation is in building a personalized podcast or playlist: You are limited to 10 sources and a 10 minute daily program. In general use of the site, though — whether through the Web interface or the iPhone-optimized mobile interface — you are unrestricted in your activity.

Our vote: Great idea, great service. Being able to load up your MP3 player with reading — rather, listening — for the morning drive is a cool convenience. And the mobile accessibility makes any on-the-go catching up easy to do, particularly if you’re not stationary and are thus unable to sit down and read. We’ll be curious to see if Pimp My News looks into some type of “premium” pay service in the future or if the ad model will prove sufficient to support it. We also hope the turnaround time and site speed will improve as the service grows and develops. All combined, though, Pimp My News is an offering well-worth giving a whirl. We suspect you just may love it.

Balancing First and Fair

Duncan Riley — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 04:55:41 +0000

Mark Rizzn Hopkins posted a story to Mashable today covering the resignation of the blogging staff at Profy.com. All three paid writers, Cyndy Aleo-Carriera, Leslie Poston and Triston McIntyre have resigned from Profy following from what I can gather, a decrease in pay and increased writing expectations.

A standard news piece perhaps, but what followed was more interesting. On FriendFeed and on her personal blog, Cyndy Aleo-Carriera accused Mashable of resorting to Valleywag style posts, and noted that she had not even been asked to comment prior to the publication of the post. The short story is Cyndy is upset, and angry that Mashable covered the news both without asking her for comment, and prior to her publicly having made a statement about it.

Opinion on whether Mark, and by extension Mashable did the right thing is divided, but it does raise an interesting point: how do you balance being first and being fair.

Being First

Top blogs thrive on breaking stories, and indeed rely on breaking stories to maintain their dominance over other blogs. Although it may cause quality concerns, it’s understandable as a marketing tactic: do you want your readers to come to you first for big stories or other blogs.

Being Fair

Most stories have a human element that is often forgotten in the cut and thrust of blogging. For every bad review or negative story there is always a person behind that story who will feel they have been done wrong by, even if the negatives aren’t always personal. By no means does being fair mean not being negative, but where possible, particularly when talking about people as opposed to product, it’s not an unreasonable expectation that the person or people involved be contacted for comment. It’s a standard practice in mainstream journalism, but one that isn’t followed nearly enough in blogging.

On Profy

First let me say that I’m not seeking to judge Mark on this post, I don’t know all the factors that caused him to print the news, and I also understand that working for a major blog means breaking news, and sometimes that means cutting corners. I also do a podcast with Cyndy, so I have a minor conflict of interest. I also knew over a day before Mark published the news that Cyndy had indeed left Profy, and that at least one other person had left as well. I didn’t have all the details, but I gathered that pay was a major factor.

This is how I would have approached it differently.

Firstly: was three writers leaving a non top-tier blog really a major story for a blog the size of Mashable, or really any blog for that matter. Even though I knew it had occurred, I never once even thought about writing about it. If I was writing for Mashable, I wouldn’t have written the post, because I don’t believe that in the bigger scheme of things that the news was important enough for the attention of a leading blog.

I’d note though that if I was still writing for The Blog Herald, I would have covered the story without giving it a second thought, because the story is a perfect fit for the site in terms of content. I’m not though, so that’s academic.

Second: without fail, I would have asked Cyndy for comment, and Svetlana Gladkova as well. Given this isn’t a we must print this now because others will soon type post, there was ample opportunity in asking for comment. Even if that meant only waiting an hour or two for a reply then printing it anyway. It’s not as if Cyndy isn’t approachable; she is well known in blogging circles and is a regular on services such as FriendFeed. I’d bet money that Mark and Cyndy will have commented on each others content before, and wouldn’t be surprised if they’d even corresponded directly. “We don’t have the exact details at the moment on the nature of the disagreement” when they were never asked for is an interesting way of describing a self inflicted knowledge vacuum. Besides, there’s nothing more juicier as a writer as writing the words “refused to comment.” You’re always better baiting the hook if you want to go negative.

The right to know

In considering the post at Mashable, its important to look at the other side, as Cyndy made one error leading up to this post: she didn’t lead with the news herself.

Ultimately the only way you can try to control the message is to lead with it first, and publicly. By the time the news hit Mashable it was 1-2 days old, and I know that others knew of the news as I did prior to the post. I didn’t run around telling people that Cyndy had left Profy, but bloggers are natural gossipers and I have no doubt that Mark had heard the story, Chinese whispers style, from multiple sources. The absence of key writers from any publication with more than a handful of readers is going to be noticed. The longer Cyndy and the others said nothing, the more the likelihood that somebody would publish the news, even if it was based only on speculation.

Conclusion

The lines between first and fairness are sometimes unclear. Balancing them is harder still. The best way as bloggers we can try to find the right balance is to remember that for every news story, there are people involved. We can’t always seek comment, nor should we necessarily offer balance in the story, but in an age where asking a question is an email or Tweet away, if possible we should always strive to get comment, even if that comment isn’t returned in time for publication. If we seek comment, and we have reported inaccurately, the marvels of blogs allows us to post corrections or add to the story. It won’t stop people getting upset with what you have written, but at least an effort was made to be fair.

Update: since writing this post I’ve been led to believe conclusively that a party involved briefed Mark on the story. That he knew puts a somewhat different spin on some of my conclusions. Mark has publicly defended his right to defend sources, and I respect that, however you don’t need to let people believe that you are working on conjecture alone to defend your sources. I also still believe that it would have been good form to at least attempt to ask Cyndy for comment, despite Mark’s obvious pre-knowledge of the matter. I still believe that balancing first and fair is never easy, and the lessons in this post still stand true, even if some of the facts leading to those conclusions have changed somewhat.

What was hot on QBase last week

Duncan Riley — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:57:58 +0000

Collaborative open company databases are hot right now, and QBase continues to thrive. Joining The Inquisitr and Mashable in offering a Tradevibes‘ branded service is ReadWriteWeb, who announced their service today, so you get the combined wisdom of three great sites, all from the one place.

If you’ve not jumped in to QBase yet, it’s a great place to discuss the latest startups, contribute links and information, and even get some traffic back.

New to QBase

Where the Locals Eat – At Where The Locals Eat, we’ve assembled a hardy band of certified foodies — passionate gourmands to near-omnivores – who eat out a lot and know the difference between a restaurant special and a special restaurant.
MyGallons – Save money by pre-purchasing gas at today’s prices, then fill up with your MyGallons Card when prices rise.
Identi.ca – Identi.ca is a micro-blogging service based on the Free Software Laconica tool. If you register for an account, you can post small (140 chars or less) text notices about yourself, where you are,…
51.com – 51.com is the largest social network service provider in China. 51.com is committed to offer its users stable services to store their personal data such as photo and blogs
fring – fring is a mobile Voice over Internet Protocol (mVoIP) application that allows users to make free calls and live chat over cellular data networks or a Wi-Fi connection.

Top discussions

Quant Doerr Scoring
A reader of my venture scoring blog wanted me to start a thread about Quant Doerr.

Well, its a proprietary stat regression analysis of past venture successes, and essentially I am trying to predict and score early stage venture funded companies. I have setup a virtual fund which has invested in over 10 deals since last October.

Where Locals Eat – Is it different enough?
There seems to be lots of sites for selecting a place to eat, yelp, chow hound, etc. Where Locals Eat adds the new feature of combining GPS and the new iphone to literally direct people to a restaurant in real time. Do you think this app and the tons of content on their site will keep users coming back for seconds?

Remember, if you’re a startup, and you’re not on QBase/ Tradevibes yet, you are missing out on eyeballs from The Inquisitr, Mashable and ReadWriteWeb, so get moving, and click here to sign up.

What was hot on QBase last week

Duncan Riley — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:10:27 +0000

It has been a a little over a week since QBase was launched, and aside from a bad case of unintended consequences, the service, powered by Tradevibes is thriving. Regular readers will have seen the QBase widgets at the bottom of posts, not every post, but where we think the information adds to the over all story.

Every now and then we’ll be updating what’s hot and new on QBase. If you haven’t checked it out yet or registered, click here. All data is user contributed and shared across the Tradevibes network, including Mashable’s MashCoInfo. You can also add relevant stories from other sites or your own site, and the service also includes startup discussions and even social voting on the biggest stories of the day. If you’re a startup and you’re not listed yet, what are you waiting for?

New to QBase

Buybak – BuyBak offers retailers and online sellers websites with the ability to purchase online directly from consumers their no longer wanted consumer media (Books, CDs, DVDs, and Games) and Consumer…

Bookswim – Bookswim is a netflix style rental service for books targeting students. BookSwim launched in May, 2007, is America’s only nationwide hardcover/ paperback online book rental library club with free…

Playfish – Playfish is a social games company that develops and publishes video games on social networks like Facebook. Founded in October 2007 by casual and mobile games veterans and backed by Accel Ventures…

Frengo – Frengo is the global leader in creating and powering social media and entertainment services on top of popular social networks and across mobile devices. Frengo builds upon the “social graph” of…

RateItAll – RateItAll is an online community built upon one of the most extensive and diverse online databases of opinions, ratings, and reviews in the world. Participating members of RateItAll can earn cash for…

Top Discussions

How do you like Kosmix’s new general search engine?
Kosmix just revamped their site to be more of a general search engine instead of a bunch of topic specific vertical search engines (health, cars, travel). The search results is a mashup of their own results plus searches from YouTube (videos), social networks, and other sites. It feels very crowded to me. I’m curious on what others think…
Interesting View of Current Events
If you haven’t checked out Soda Head it’s a fun site that let’s you read public comments and share your opinion about current events. I think it’s a great time waster but lacks in the real information.
Can a site survive/thrive as simply entertainment?

Outbrain Offers Blog Ratings And Recommendations

Duncan Riley — Mon, 26 May 2008 01:18:36 +0000

New York/ Israeli startup Outbrain is a ratings and recommendation platform for blogs and news feeds.

The service works by users installing a plugin for their blog that adds a ratings button either at the top or bottom of each post (see the bottom of this post). At a base level it simply allows readers to rate a post, but Outbrain taps into these widgets to deliver a cross-blog/news recommendation system using collaborative filtering techniques. For example reading a post here about Blogging 2.0 might result (not yet, but in theory) recommendations of posts on Mashable, Centernetworks or Venturebeat, three large sites that are already using the Outbrain service.

It may seem like a small idea, but the company took $5 million Series A in a round led by Gemini Israeli Funds and Lightspeed Venture Partners back in February. If you like this is a Technorati 2.0 style service and all the data Outbrain is gathering has a tangible value outside of the front end service.

We’re going to give it a shot here at The Inquisitr and see what happens, certainly it wouldn’t seem to be doing much harm having it here, and if it shares some traffic out of the site, and even back in again all the better.