Kevin, those are excellents points. If what you said is true, then a tactical assault organized by a small group of people could have huge influence...
we should try googlebombing someday,,,
Han
· 4 years ago
Maybe there's another factor. I think that these Singaporeans who are net-savvy and have access to non-msm sources of information probably are also quite skeptical of news in the msm.
So maybe we could say that this makes them lean more heavily towards using tools like Technorati to search and gather information?
Kevin
· 4 years ago
James: I'm glad you find this useful. :)
Han: That's something that I strongly think to be true and testable for our Singaporean web users. Media literacy should really include knowledge on using alternative media as news sources. This component sounds very promising as clear and present benefit for using Technorati as a gateway to news & opinion on personal blogs.
Merv
· 4 years ago
Could it be that :
It started off at a lower ranking in "Top searches in the hour".
People, esp, non-singaporeans, when they see "Daphne Teo" on main page of Technorati, are curious and click on it.
Thereby increasing/jacking up the ranking.
Kevin Marks
· 4 years ago
Well, it's an interesting theory, but personally I blame xiaxue.
Kevin
· 4 years ago
Merv: That's an interesting observation. It's like the Power Law... where the popular get even more popular. The way the search rank works does explain that part, but then why do some searches go down instead of go up the ranking? Could it be because the search terms sound "attractively clickable"? (e.g. girls' names)
Kevin Marks: Love her or hate her, if she has the ability to set the agenda (e.g. through controversy), then we has more online influence than we think. :)
Merv
· 4 years ago
I think its because the subject matter is new/foreign.
A look at the top topics search-ed are:
Ajax, Web 2.0, XBox 360, Harry Potter.
A lot of top topics in Technorati is very obvious from their title. If I'm not into these, I will never click on them. But no so for topics like "daphne teo".
But if I look at eg: "daphne teo", "Xiaxue", and I'm a foreigner, I would be more likely to be curious, and want to know who the heck is this Daphne Teo.
Hence, the ranking just snow-balls higher and higher. More buzz is created.
Hence, a high ranking in Technorati does not mean that people are truely interested in the topic.
Merv
· 4 years ago
addition:
"The way the search rank works does explain that part, but then why do some searches go down instead of go up the ranking?"
Could it be becuase of time-zones? Perhaps when the rest of America/Europe is asleep, and Singapore/Asia is surfing the net.
Hence, the high vary-iance in ranking
Kevin
· 4 years ago
Merv: In a way we are both saying the keywords themselves are interesting enough for everyone to click on. This is turning out to be more of a psychological study. Closest theory I can think of which matches what we talked about is "Uses & Gratification". I wonder if there are better models which emulate this phenomena.
Yeah, not entirely interesting, just not self-explanatory, thus creating curiosity amongst all visitors of Technorati. And curiosity leads to more searches.
Great entry here!
Ivan Chew
· 4 years ago
Kevin, Kevin, Kevin... why are you spending time analysing this when you should be writing your term paper? heh heh... kidding. Nice hypothesis you have there. I would suggest that it could be due to the consistent tagging that SG bloggers adopt for their posts. Was going to write a thesis on this but then reading yours, I creep away in shame... :)
Kevin
· 4 years ago
Eliar: It would be too presumptious to classify certain phenomenons as self-explanatory. If that were the case, my falsiability statement to you would be: Why does high ranking exclusively occur for searches related to Singapore, superceding that of other topics? (That's the ticket!)
Ivan: I'm merely doing what a good observant blogger does... Ask questions. Here's the killer question for you then: Do Singaporeans bloggers tag more than others? :)
Liberalcowboy
· 4 years ago
We believe that Singapore could be a great market for the blog networks. Hence, we brought Xiaxue onboard. You can follow the latest at http://jackofallblogs.com
I believe Gutentag is still a little obscure to the masses. Usually these new, emerging services are first dominated by tech-savvy individuals before it hits mainstream. Evidence of this as seen in the popular geek tags and search terms being web 2.0, ajax and such.
Grant
· 4 years ago
"Do you think this occurance is worth studying?"
I think you've defined the terms of the problem so it will give you the answer you want. You're seeking data to support a conclusion you've already reached rather than asking the question "Who has the greatest influence in Technorati?" Influence is based more on audience reaction and the way people cite other people's blogs than it is on the way people can manipulate the blogosphere to enhance their own image. So just filling Technorati with a lot of spam does not mean someone or some group is influencing a larger number of people.
My response to spam is to delete it without reading it or looking at it. Until I read this blog, I had never heard of those "top ten" bloggers. I guess I'm just not the kind of person who cares about what everyone is talking and giggling about.
Kevin
· 4 years ago
I've put in the context of Singapore for simplicity sake, so there's definitely no conclusions made even if my article suggests so. We're simply opening discussion examining a case of a disruptive use of technology and I'm only giving my perspective on the issue.
With every phenomenon, an investigator is first prompted by an observation. The pattern observed so far seems to indicate the case in point that Singaporean bloggers "seem" to have dominance over Technorati, and rest assured, this assumption which still requires clarification. Since multiple factors can come into play, give my points from the immediate perspective. My discussion argues the point that Singapore might account for these ranking due to certain factors, but it should not dissuade you or anyone to prove the case for bloggers of other nationalities or other classifications.
Right now the popularists view is that the rankings are manipulated very much like googlebombing and spamming. As mentioned before, the next question would be, why so in exclusively in Singapore's case? Interestingly, this question brings us back to the first point, which is: What are Singaporean bloggers doing that's so different from other bloggers?
Ultimately, even if we shurg it off as spam, it still doesn't answer why all this happens only towards Singaporean issues. I invite alternative theories on this.
sriram
· 2 years ago
hey nice analysis. i quoted your technorati picture during a presentation i made at podcamp europe about singapore media landscape. did you know tht the tammy sex video and another "tag" also made it to the top 10?
All Comments
we should try googlebombing someday,,,
So maybe we could say that this makes them lean more heavily towards using tools like Technorati to search and gather information?
Han: That's something that I strongly think to be true and testable for our Singaporean web users. Media literacy should really include knowledge on using alternative media as news sources. This component sounds very promising as clear and present benefit for using Technorati as a gateway to news & opinion on personal blogs.
It started off at a lower ranking in "Top searches in the hour".
People, esp, non-singaporeans, when they see "Daphne Teo" on main page of Technorati, are curious and click on it.
Thereby increasing/jacking up the ranking.
Kevin Marks: Love her or hate her, if she has the ability to set the agenda (e.g. through controversy), then we has more online influence than we think. :)
A look at the top topics search-ed are:
Ajax, Web 2.0, XBox 360, Harry Potter.
A lot of top topics in Technorati is very obvious from their title. If I'm not into these, I will never click on them. But no so for topics like "daphne teo".
But if I look at eg: "daphne teo", "Xiaxue", and I'm a foreigner, I would be more likely to be curious, and want to know who the heck is this Daphne Teo.
Hence, the ranking just snow-balls higher and higher. More buzz is created.
Hence, a high ranking in Technorati does not mean that people are truely interested in the topic.
"The way the search rank works does explain that part, but then why do some searches go down instead of go up the ranking?"
Could it be becuase of time-zones? Perhaps when the rest of America/Europe is asleep, and Singapore/Asia is surfing the net.
Hence, the high vary-iance in ranking
Great entry here!
Ivan: I'm merely doing what a good observant blogger does... Ask questions. Here's the killer question for you then: Do Singaporeans bloggers tag more than others? :)
I think you've defined the terms of the problem so it will give you the answer you want. You're seeking data to support a conclusion you've already reached rather than asking the question "Who has the greatest influence in Technorati?" Influence is based more on audience reaction and the way people cite other people's blogs than it is on the way people can manipulate the blogosphere to enhance their own image. So just filling Technorati with a lot of spam does not mean someone or some group is influencing a larger number of people.
My response to spam is to delete it without reading it or looking at it. Until I read this blog, I had never heard of those "top ten" bloggers. I guess I'm just not the kind of person who cares about what everyone is talking and giggling about.
With every phenomenon, an investigator is first prompted by an observation. The pattern observed so far seems to indicate the case in point that Singaporean bloggers "seem" to have dominance over Technorati, and rest assured, this assumption which still requires clarification. Since multiple factors can come into play, give my points from the immediate perspective. My discussion argues the point that Singapore might account for these ranking due to certain factors, but it should not dissuade you or anyone to prove the case for bloggers of other nationalities or other classifications.
Right now the popularists view is that the rankings are manipulated very much like googlebombing and spamming. As mentioned before, the next question would be, why so in exclusively in Singapore's case? Interestingly, this question brings us back to the first point, which is: What are Singaporean bloggers doing that's so different from other bloggers?
Ultimately, even if we shurg it off as spam, it still doesn't answer why all this happens only towards Singaporean issues. I invite alternative theories on this.