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Bscopes: Mining, Mapping and Visualizing the Blogosphere

Bscopes: Mining, Mapping and Visualizing the Blogosphere

list of URL shorteners It seems like everyone and their mother now has their own URL shortening service, or at least their own short domain. Short URLs have almost become a branding thing. But as the use of short links keeps going up, the market share among different URL shortening services is fragmenting. So what accounts for bit.ly’s 24-point drop? I should also mention that these stats represent only a 24-hour snapshot and they are only for Twitter (but Twitter is where the lion’s share of these short links are being passed around). Getting back to the TweetMeme stats, if you look at bit.ly’s biggest competitor, it is not TinyURL (7.88%), ow.ly (3.92%), is.gd (3.05%), or tumblr.com (2.79%), it is “Other” (26.58%). Update: The mystery of bit.ly’s seemingly shrinking market share may have been solved.

GoogleSearch Evolves - But Has Google Finally Lost its Core Foc Yesterday at Google's Searchology event, which we live-blogged, the search market leader announced two significant features to its search product: Search Options and Rich Snippets. It also previewed a new fact-finding search product called Google Squared. The first two features are already live on google.com and they've notably extended Google's core search product. As we sit back and reflect on the meaning of this, one thing is starkly clear: the core Google search experience is now much more than a simple search box on a plain white background, which it was for so long. Just how far has Google evolved its search experience over recent years? And has it become too much of a shift from its core focus? The Evolution of Google Search (in a Nutshell) The features announced today, and in particular 'Search Options', build on Google's Universal Search announcements of two years ago at the same event. Rich Snippets and Google Squared: Google Getting Clever With Data Image from Matt Cutts

5 Reasons Why RSS Readers Still Rock Recently I wrote about the decline of RSS Readers as a way for people to keep up with news. I noted that while many people still use RSS Readers, usage has decreased due to the emergence of real-time and social flows of information via Twitter, Facebook and other such services. The post sparked a fascinating discussion, with over 160 comments. What I learned from that discussion is that while the RSS Reader market is indeed in decline, there are still a number of compelling use cases for RSS Readers. My conclusions in the previous post still stand: 1) Google now dominates what's left of the RSS Reader market; and 2) RSS reading is a very fragmented experience circa 2009/2010 due to Twitter, Facebook, start pages like Netvibes, Firefox bookmarks, and more. 1. RSS Readers allow users to control their flow of information, whereas it's impossible to keep up with the Twitter firehose of real-time information. "I tend to check Google Reader multiple times a day. 2. 3. 4. 5. Conclusion

Structured Data This week ReadWriteWeb will run a series of posts detailing what we think are the 5 biggest, most cutting edge Web trends to come out of 2009. We'll be posting one trend analysis per day. Then at the end of the week we'll publish a major update to our standard presentation about web technology trends. The first major Web trend we're looking at is Structured Data. In prior presentations, this has sometimes been referred to under the umbrella term of 'Semantic Web'. Web of Data, Not Documents Tim Berners-Lee said in February this year that we're now in a Web of Data, rather than a Web of Documents. However over the past few years, we've seen that there are many other ways to structure data and enable others to build off it. The basic principle of the Web of Data is still the same as what Alex Iskold articulated on ReadWriteWeb back in March 2007: "unstructured information will give way to structured information - paving the road to more intelligent computing." Example 1: OpenCalais

google Reader Digg Beyond Digg With New Chrome And Firefox Extensions One common complaint about Digg is that you have to visit the site to actually digg anything. Well, unless you use the Digg toolbar, which caused a bit of controversy when it launched last year. But last month, Digg announced a new API that made it so developers could finally create apps that would allow for the digging of items outside of Digg.com. Both extensions now not only show you a Digg count when you’re browsing a story that has been submitted to the service, but, when authorized, they allow you to digg that story right from the overlay drop-down the extension creates when clicked on in the toolbar. And you can also easily share the content you are browsing on Twitter or Facebook with a click in this drop-down. The Firefox extension continues to offer a bit more functionality, including the ability to see what your friends on the service are digging. Find the Firefox extension here and the Chrome one here.

10Stages of SocialMedia Business Integration Brian Solis is a principal at new media agency FutureWorks. You can connect with him on Twitter or Facebook. An overnight success ten years in the making, social media is as transformative as it is evolutionary. At last, 2010 is expected to be the year that social media goes mainstream for business. In speaking with many executives and entrepreneurs, I've noticed that the path towards new media enlightenment often hinges on corporate culture and specific marketplace conditions. Here are the ten most common stages that businesses experience as they travel the road to full social media integration. Stage 1: Observe and Report This is the entry point for businesses to better understand the behavior of an interactive marketplace. Listening: Employ listening devices such as Google Alerts, Twitter Search, Radian6, and PR Newswire’s Social Media Metrics to track conversations and instances associated with key words. Reporting: Distill existing social media conversations into an executive report.

LessigCreative Commons August 27, 2004 · Richard Posner In an article in WIRED called Insanely Destructive Devices, Larry Lessig discusses one of the greatest of possible techno-disasters, a terrorist-engendered smallpox epidemic. What gives it a technological dimension is that experiments have shown that genetic alteration of the smallpox virus, utilizing biotechnological techniques and equipment that are inexpensive and widely available, including in Third World countries, could make the “juiced up” virus not only more lethal than “ordinary smallpox” (which kills a “mere” 30 percent of its victims) but also, and more important, impervious to smallpox vaccines (and there is no cure for smallpox). Lessig despairs of being able to come up with a technological or regulatory solution to this threat. Lessig’s is a counsel of despair, and is premature. Although it is extremely difficult to prevent bioterrorism, it should not be impossible to reduce the risk of it substantially.

For All the Gloom Around RSS, Readers Continue to Climb Skimming many of the leading technology outlets, you would think RSS had given up its ghost, making way for new services, like Twitter. Just this week, ReadWriteWeb claimed the RSS reader market was in "disarray" and continued a "decline". This came after a summer in which TechCrunch IT's Steve Gillmor declared RSS dead and suggested that it "rest in peace" and others ditched RSS for microblogging lists. With the world watching Twitter's top names and their Suggested User List-boosted following counts cross well into seven digits, data from FeedBurner and other sources shows RSS counts climbing - in some cases dramatically - for nearly all blogs, and a number of them also sport reader counts in the millions. Prior to ReadWriteWeb's alarmist article, back in August, I arrived at similar conclusions, when I said "stand-alone feed readers are collapsing", highlighting the fact that Google Reader, and followers on FriendFeed, dominated my personal statistics. So what is the point?

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