BlogeWe've been happily surprised by the response to our recent newspaper study.  The most exciting part has been the additional research that other bloggers have performed in their home countries.  So far, sister studies have been performed in Italy, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.  The response is an example of all that is great about the Internet.

Given the response, we'd like to formally ask bloggers to perform studies in their home countries.  Note we're working on Japan now.  If you perform a study, please post the results to your blog.  We'll write a post about the results in your country and then, once we reach critical mass, we'll put together a global study that seeks to identify global trends.  We'll also post a running list of the countries we have studies for on our blog.  Thanks in advance for your help and participation!

Details regarding what criteria we looked at are after the jump.

  • RSS Feed: Does the website offer an RSS Feed? If yes, is it a full or partial feed? Note that this does not consider RSS feeds for reporter blogs, only for the newspaper's content.
  • RSS Feed for Different Sections: If the website offers RSS, does it divide the feeds into different sections?
  • RSS Feed Includes Ads: If the website offers RSS, do the feeds include ads?
  • Most Popular: Does the website offer a "Most Popular" function? This can be any feature that keeps track of and displays the "most popular", "most read", or "most emailed" articles of the day.
  • Video: Does the website offer video content?
  • Podcast: Does the website offer podcasts?
  • Chats: Does the website offer live chats or chatrooms?
  • Reporter Blogs: Does the website offer reporter blogs?
  • Reporter Blog Comments: If the website has reporter blogs, can readers comment on the blogs?
  • Blogroll: If the website has reporter blogs, do the blogs contain links to external blogs?
  • Comments on Articles: Can users post comments on articles?
  • Registration Required: Is registration required to view articles?
  • Bookmarking: Does the website offer a bookmarking function? Is it internal or external?
  • Message Boards: Does the website offer message boards or forums?
About the Author
Todd Zeigler
Todd Zeigler serves as the Brick Factory’s chief strategist and oversees the operations of the firm. In his sixteen year career in digital, he has planned and implemented campaigns for clients including the Pickens Plan, International Youth Foundation, Panthera, Edison Electric Institute, and the American Chemistry Council. Todd develops ambitious online advocacy programs, manages crises, implements online marketing strategies, and develops custom applications and software. He is bad at golf though.