Weighing in on the Conversation Index

I have been meaning to write a post on Stowe Boyd’s Conversation Index for awhile, but for whatever reason didn’t get around to it. Then late last week I read that a media monitoring firm had started using it as a metric to track the amount of conversation a blog entry generates,...

The Limitations of Tracking Blog Buzz

I was vaguely interested in how much online buzz was being generated about Microsoft’s Origami Project, so I spent a few minutes on IceRocket.com using their blog trends tool. Here’s what the trend line for mentions of the word “origami” looks like over the last month:

The chart tells me what I already knew –...

Search Engine Monopoly

Sit down and think about the Internet for a moment. Name the top five sites that you visit most often. Now, make a new list, this time of your five favorite websites. For each item in each list describe the reason either why you visit this site so frequently or why it is your favorite....

Search Still Tops The List

It is no secret that Web search results, be they generated from a search engine’s index or be they paid placements, are remarkably effective at driving qualified traffic to a Web site. Since the first search engines appeared, marketers realized this fact and have sought ways to optimize their sites to appear at the top of certain search results pages or to buy their way there....

“Searching” for the Next Killer App

One of the criticisms of modern life that I find fascinating is information overload. We all tend to be searching for something, and yet despite the overabundance of options set forth on the heaping table of life, many cannot find what truly sates their appetites. Some of this difficulty derives from not knowing what we really need,...