Nazi Sympathizers Use Browser to Wiretap Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple
It seems that all I read about in the Blogosphere is centered on Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple. Curious if that was perception or reality, I decided to check out what stories really dominate the trade rags to see if there were any patterns. What does that have to do with Nazi sympathizers, you ask? Well, read on.
First I chose a few industry blogs: Techcrunch, ReadWriteWeb and GigaOm based on their Alexa rankings. As a wildcard, I threw in Techmeme, which is merely an algorithmic search engine meant to show what’s popular across the blogosphere vs an actual team of bloggers creating original content.
Then I went to AideRSS and simply entered in their URLs to check their “Top 20″ posts. According to AideRSS, the PostRank is based on level of dialogue (comments) and the volume of dog-earing on social bookmark sites/referring links. Not sure how accurate any of it is, as the results seem a little convenient to recent history. So, I’m taking this with a honking grain of salt. That said, I think there are some interesting patterns and unique coverage/dialogue across these properties.
Techcrunch readers love to talk about Facebook
- By far, the most activity on Techcrunch has been around Facebook.
- Top post ever involved Nazi sympathizers
- Less Google/Microsoft activity than I imagined
- Strong Government and Startup conversations between the lines
- No Apple conversations
ReadWriteWeb readers are topically diverse
- I knew there was a reason I love this blog. The heavy volume of discussion *not* around the top 4 companies, was refreshing.
- Top post is about Wizzard Media, a company I had never heard of.
- Most discussed Google topics, also diverse (techie, thought leadership, stock market)
- Single Facebook entry centers on a topic I wouldn’t have guessed
- No Apple conversations
GigaOM readers discuss the memes
- Most discussed entries seem to equally span the four meme-oriented companies
- Top post is on wiretapping. Huh.
- Meme-oriented posts seem to be less techie, more business-focused
- The most dialogue on Apple-centric posts
Techmeme hearts Google
- Want to know what we seem to care about? It’s Microsoft vs Google. Duh.
- Top meme is on the Firefox beta? Odd.
- Most of the top posts have speculative titles
- Results skew towards bookmarking vs dialogue
Bottomline
If you want to be covered by all the top pubs simply write a really good post titled “Nazi Sympathizers Use Browser to Wiretap Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple.” 
Things people have said about this post
Sam, another thing that I encourage people to do when they are searching online is to always do a search for “nude female vampires.” Because I once wrote a movie review about a serious documentary concerning an artist who specializes in painting nude female vampires, this is always one of the top searches that results in hits on by blog. But your blog post does suggest a new topic that I should be blogging about!
Thanks for the coffee spit-take on that last line! Funny and eerily clever.
There’s a lot to this. It’s a good thing you are on the right side of the law! Good food for thought.
Strangley, my first thought was “wonder if they prefer firefox over ie?”
I know I am weird!
Sam, I honestly think this is one of your best blog post so far. Really glad you got this thing up and running.
You absolutely have to follow up this post with any stats you generate.
Wow, this is really cool. But dude, when do you sleep?