42244 2 3 econsultancy_xml <p>Essentially, Muhammed's argument is that the story appeared on social media sites such as <a href="http://digg.com/">Digg,</a> <a href="http://www.netscape.com/">Netscape </a>and <a href="http://reddit.com/">Reddit</a><em> before </em>Google News picked it up (about 20 minutes later). Therefore he claims that social news is better, or at least faster. </p> <p> <strong>But the article / methodology is wrong on a few points:</strong> </p> <ul> <li>The screenshot for ‘Google News’ on MU Life is not in fact Google News! It shows the news results at the top of Google.com. Two things - 1) these links can't be sorted by 'Most Recent', and 2) news results shown on Google.com are most likely determined by popularity, which is never going to happen within 20 minutes. <br /><br /></li> <li>Digg and Netscape didn’t 'break' the Rumsfeld news — they were simply the first to link to the Associated Press story.<br /><br /></li> <li>Also, Google’s news crawler - ‘newsbot’ - doesn’t visit news pages every second, so how so how can it possibly be as fast as humans? Newsbot typically visits several times an hour to look for new stories. </li> </ul> <p>Heather Hopkins at Hitwise has looked at the behaviour of users on these sites - check out her <a href="http://weblogs.hitwise.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/370">comparison of Digg and Google News</a>. </p> <p>Her analysis of clickstream data from the two sites suggests that Digg is more about video and games site than news. For instance, Heather’s stats show that <a href="http://www.onemorelevel.com/">One More Level</a>, a games site, accounted for 16.83% of upstream visits to Digg.com last week, and that Digg accounts for a smaller share of visits to news websites than <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/">The Register</a>.</p> <p>Meanwhile, <a href="http://daggle.com/061110-002040.html">Danny Sullivan</a> has an interesting case study which compares traffic sent to SearchEngineWatch’s blog from Digg and Google News. In this case, Google News won. <br /><br /><strong>Further Reading:</strong><br /><a href="/blog/175-how-much-traffic-can-digg-or-google-news-drive-to-your-site">How much traffic can Digg or Google News drive to your site?</a></p> <FormattedContent xmlns="http://www.e-consultancy.com/schema/formattedContent/"> <Paragraph>Essentially, Muhammed's argument is that the story appeared on social media sites such as <Link URL="http://digg.com/" Window="New">Digg,</Link> <Link URL="http://www.netscape.com/" Window="New">Netscape </Link>and <Link URL="http://reddit.com/" Window="New">Reddit</Link><Quote> before </Quote>Google News picked it up (about 20 minutes later). Therefore he claims that social news is better, or at least faster. </Paragraph> <Paragraph> <Emphasis>But the article / methodology is wrong on a few points:</Emphasis> </Paragraph> <List Type="Disc"> <ListItem>The screenshot for ‘Google News’ on MU Life is not in fact Google News! It shows the news results at the top of Google.com. Two things - 1) these links can't be sorted by 'Most Recent', and 2) news results shown on Google.com are most likely determined by popularity, which is never going to happen within 20 minutes. <LineBreak /><LineBreak /></ListItem> <ListItem>Digg and Netscape didn’t 'break' the Rumsfeld news — they were simply the first to link to the Associated Press story.<LineBreak /><LineBreak /></ListItem> <ListItem>Also, Google’s news crawler - ‘newsbot’ - doesn’t visit news pages every second, so how so how can it possibly be as fast as humans? Newsbot typically visits several times an hour to look for new stories. </ListItem> </List> <Paragraph>Heather Hopkins at Hitwise has looked at the behaviour of users on these sites - check out her <Link URL="http://weblogs.hitwise.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/370" Window="New">comparison of Digg and Google News</Link>. </Paragraph> <Paragraph>Her analysis of clickstream data from the two sites suggests that Digg is more about video and games site than news. For instance, Heather’s stats show that <Link URL="http://www.onemorelevel.com/" Window="New">One More Level</Link>, a games site, accounted for 16.83% of upstream visits to Digg.com last week, and that Digg accounts for a smaller share of visits to news websites than <Link URL="http://www.theregister.co.uk/" Window="New">The Register</Link>.</Paragraph> <Paragraph>Meanwhile, <Link URL="http://daggle.com/061110-002040.html" Window="New">Danny Sullivan</Link> has an interesting case study which compares traffic sent to SearchEngineWatch’s blog from Digg and Google News. In this case, Google News won. <LineBreak /><LineBreak /><Emphasis>Further Reading:</Emphasis><LineBreak /><Link URL="/blog/175-how-much-traffic-can-digg-or-google-news-drive-to-your-site" Window="New">How much traffic can Digg or Google News drive to your site?</Link></Paragraph> </FormattedContent> 2006-11-15T16:35:00+00:00 2 1 econsultancy_xml <p> <strong> <img alt="Digg logo" height="45" src="http://e-consultancy.lemonfoundation.com/logos/digg-logo.gif" width="80" /> Muhammad Saleem at The Mu Life wrote an article last week claiming that social media is more effective at disseminating news than Google News.</strong> </p> <p>Muhammad’s article, <a href="http://themulife.com/?p=270">‘Why Socially Driven News is Better’</a> used the news of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation as an example of social media beating Google News to a major story. </p> <p>Interesting argument, but it doesn't stand up...</p> <FormattedContent xmlns="http://www.e-consultancy.com/schema/formattedContent/"> <Paragraph> <Emphasis> <Image Align="Right" AlternateText="Digg logo" Source="http://e-consultancy.lemonfoundation.com/logos/digg-logo.gif" Width="80" Height="45"> </Image> Muhammad Saleem at The Mu Life wrote an article last week claiming that social media is more effective at disseminating news than Google News.</Emphasis> </Paragraph> <Paragraph>Muhammad’s article, <Link URL="http://themulife.com/?p=270" Window="New">‘Why Socially Driven News is Better’</Link> used the news of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation as an example of social media beating Google News to a major story. </Paragraph> <Paragraph>Interesting argument, but it doesn't stand up...</Paragraph> </FormattedContent> false 521 362143 Are social news sites like Digg 'better' than Google News? false 2006-11-16T11:22:00+00:00 are-social-news-sites-like-digg-better-than-google-news 2009-04-28T22:38:06+01:00 2009-04-28T22:38:06+01:00 354