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April 27, 2005
10 Million Blogs (Part III) and Announcing RSS Feeds for Search Results
Part three of BlogPulse's recognition of 10-million blog milestone continues today, but first -- the announcement of a new feature at BlogPulse.
Now, users of BlogPulse can take advantage of RSS (syndication) feeds for their search results. The BlogPulse search function, which appears at the top of most pages or on the advanced search page, allows users to search for specific keywords/key phrases in blog posts or across entire URLs. Now when your search results are presented, you can click on the link next to the search bar that says "subscribe to feed for this search." Then add it to your favorite feed reader, and BlogPulse will deliver to your reader new posts that match your search query.
The other fairly new search feature allows you, with a simple click, to create a trend graph of your search results (click on the "trend this search" link).
The 10-million blog milestone, visually presented
BlogPulse's march toward the identification of 10 million blogs took more than a year, but the growth was particularly pronounced in the past six months. Our engineering team has been tracking the progress from 5 milion blogs in November 2004 to more than 10 million today:
Top 10 blog posts
And for a bit of comparison, BlogPulse took at look at recent blog activity from March 1-April 18, a span in which the following 10 blog posts were the most cited (note: some are now dead/suspended):
• LJ | 10 last readers v.1.0 (suspended)
• The Llama Song
• Yahoo actually does acquire Flickr
• Numa Numa
• A Wooster Exclusive: Banksy Hits New York's Most Famous Museums (All of them)
• The Terri Schiavo Information Page
• Totally just invented the best format for music EVER
• The great 'Stop F---ing Him' post (warning: strong language)
• Wordpress Website's Search Engine Spam
• How to really confuse your party guests
(Note: BlogPulse Highlights might be dormant for a few days while I take some personal time to care for my father. If no one fills in, see you on Monday).
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Pope Benedict XVI has settled in, but the man who used to be Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is still a hot topic of discussion and scrutiny.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:14 AM | Permalink
April 26, 2005
BlogPulse's 10-Million Blog Milestone: Part II
Yesterday, BlogPulse announced it had identified more than 10 million blogs in the blogosphere, and today, a few more "Top 10" lists to mark the occasion.
Top news sources cited by bloggers
Bloggers tend to cite a fairly predictable stable of news sources in their posts, although a few changes have occured since the end of 2004. According to data from March 1-April 18, the San Francisco Chronicle and News.com have moved into the Top 10 list, which includes:
• Yahoo! News (40,145 citations)
• New York Times (37,825 citations)
• CNN (27,099 citations)
• Washington Post (22,729 citations)
• MSNBC (20,116 citations)
• BBC (10,993 citations)
• The Guardian (UK) (9,788 citations)
• San Francisco Chronicle (9,706 citations)
• News.com (9,129 citations)
• Los Angeles Times (8,579 citations)
The Chronicle was propelled, no doubt, by Jon Carrol's recent "Unitarian Jihad" column (see next list), the most-cited news story during the time frame.
Most-linked news stories
And which news stories received the most links during the six weeks beginning March 1?
• Jon Carroll's "Unitarian Jihad" (San Franciso Chronicle)
• New Scientist's "13 things that do not make sense"
• The New York Times' "The Message Machine: How the Government Makes News; Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged News"
• The Alligator's"Capitol bill aims to control 'leftist' profs"
• MSNBC's "Terri Schiavo dies, but battle continues"
• The Independent's "Decoded at last: the 'classical holy grail' that may rewrite the history of the world"
• CNN's "Has Cookie Monster given up sweets?"
• New York Times'"List of Schiavo Donors Will Be Sold by Direct-Marketing Firm"
• CNN's "Pet store owner: Satan's image on turtle's shell" (link no longer active)
• Washington Post's "And the Verdict on Justice Kennedy Is: Guilty"
Foreign-language blogs?
For those who've been asking, about 12% of the 10 million blogs identified by BlogPulse are foreign-language blogs.
Intelliseek also issued a press release today that summarizes some of these 2005 findings.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: As President Bush continues into his second term, emphasis seems to be moving away from Social Security reform and toward the Supreme Court and other issues.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 08:40 AM | Permalink
April 25, 2005
A BlogPulse Milestone: 10 Million Blogs!
Just a few weeks shy of its first anniversary, BlogPulse has reached a key milesteone. On Saturday, BlogPulse technology identified more than 10 million blogs in the Blogosphere. And in honor of the number 10, we pulled a few statistics for people who favor Top 10 lists.
"Even we've been surprised at the unprecedented growth of the blogging phenomenon," said Sundar Kadayam, chief technology officer for Intelliseek, which owns BlogPulse. "To pass 10 million in less than a year is testament to both the rapid adoption of blogs and our technology's ability to analyze blog content and activity." (BlogPulse launched May 7, 2004).
On Sunday, BlogPulse had identified a total of 10,032,827 blogs -- 26,668 of them in the last 24 hours. Other common questions about blog indexing include:
What percent of all blogs does 10 million represent?
Ten million is the number of blogs that BlogPulse has discovered to date, and it represents the majority of publicly accessible English-language blogs.
Of the 10 million total, how many are active and how many are inactive?
According to our statistics, 31% are active within the last 30 days, 44% are active within the last 60 days and slightly more than half (51%) are active within the last 90 days. "Active" means a new post has been added.
In honor of the number 10, the BlogPulse tech team pulled some top 10 lists from recent posts covering March 1-April 18.
Top 10 blogs (based on numbers of citations)
• Boing Boing (6,568 citations)
• EnGadget (4,624 citations)
• Daily Kos (4,341 citations)
• Slashdot (3,874 citations)
• Instapundit (3,117 citations)
• Albino Black Sheep (2,948 citations)
• Michelle Malkin (2,801 citations)
• Gizmodo (2,500 citations)
• Powerline Blog (2,314 citations)
• Captain's Quarter Blog (2,039 citations)
Top 10 People Cited
And during that same time period, which people/personalities/celebrities got the most bloggers' ink?
• Terri Schiavo (24,017 citations)
• Pope John Paul II (16,610 citations)
• President Bush (15,461 citations)
• Britney Spears (10,641 citations)
• Michael Jackson (10,634 citations)
• Tom Delay (6,399 citations)
• Johnny Depp (6,249 citations)
• Donnie Darko (3,878 citations)
• Ashlee Simpson (3,818 citations)
• Michael Schiavo (3,579 citations)
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Where do you worship? This graph comparing the names of various houses of worship shows definite weekly attendance patterns.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 08:45 AM | Permalink
April 22, 2005
Study Hard, Take Copious Notes, and DO NOT Steal the Professor's Laptop
Today's lesson from academia comes from UC Berkeley's Professor Jasper Rine (today's third-burstiest BlogPulse personality). When someone walked out of class with his laptop, he offered a lecture about consequences, which was picked up (and transcripted) at Flashman's Blast Radius web site (BlogPulse's No. 2 link for the day) and at BoingBoing.
Fallout from the Adobe-Macromedia marriage is hitting the blogosphere, and blogger John Gruber ranks as today's burstiest person because of the "translation" he offers of Adobe's press-release marketingspeak at his Daring Fireball blog (today's top link).
Another big-tech company taking heat is Microsoft and, at least according to media reports, its last-minute withdrawal of support for a gay rights bill in Washington because a conservative minister threated a boycott. Reaction ranges from an Ameriblog rant to opposite-coast news of Gov. M Jodi Rell's signature on a bill allowing civil unions for gays in Connecticut.
More stuff from Google and Apple
Google now offers the ability to do search histories (today's No. 2 top phrase) and a peek inside Google Labs, while other developers are specualting the future of Apple's OS X and Spotlight functionality. Also, early reviews are trickling in of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Battle lines are being drawn in Washington D.C. over the issue of "activism".
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:43 AM | Permalink
April 21, 2005
Ethical Behavior, Gay Parents...and Whose Ethics?
Seems we're all getting lectured by Texans a lot lately, as if the Lone Star State thinks it's the only place where ethics and morals can be decided? Bloggers beg to differ.
First, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, himself the subject of ethical scrutiny by his Congressional peers and the press, has taken on Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy for (gasp!) using the Internet to conduct judicial research and making decisions that DeLay apparently doesn't like.
Blogger Professor Bainbridge predicts that conservative Republicans' efforts to end the filibuster for judicial nominations (in order to stack the courts with conservative judges) will backfire; he's predicting at least seven Republicans will bolt from the party position and nix the proposal. The Swing State Project looks at the issues as well.
Whose ethics? Who decides? BlogPulse graphed buzz about DeLay, the Supreme Court and President Bush in conjunction with the phrase "ethics" and found this pattern:
The parent trap
Today's burstiest phrase (gay foster parents) and burstiest person (Rep. Robert Talton) also hail from Texas, where Talton has pushed legislation through the Texas House that bans gay/bisexuals from being foster parents. Bloggers at the Burnt Orange Report are already organizing a protest rally for Friday. Pitched as a way to protect Texas' "most vulnerable children," the bill will also remove current foster children from homes led by gay parents. (Who defines "vulnerable"? Talton himself?)
Target-ing a new pill bottle
Way at the bottom of today's list of top links is news of a new pill-bottle design being introduced by Target. From the "why didn't anyone think of this before?" department.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Are you sensing that it's a movie weekend? See what's hot.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:38 AM | Permalink
April 20, 2005
One Blogger Asks: Did Benedict XVI Have A Blog Strategy?
It's a papal kind of day now that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany has been elected pope and has taken the name Benedict XVI. Did BlogPulse know something ahead of time? (Or as the blogger at Personal Democracy Forum asked, "Did Ratzinger have a blog strategy for the election?"
Check out how "buzz" among bloggers over the past month has tracked the various leading candidates to head the Catholic Church. The top graph tracks buzz on Monday; the graph below it tracks buzz on Tuesday, the day of Ratzinger's election as pope:
News of the new pope encompassed 13 of today's top 40 links, boosted Ratzinger as the most talked-about person in the Blogosphere and captured 10 of today's top 16 key phrases.
Reactions to the pope's election ranged from an observation about the frequently mentioned "Nazi youth" connection at Daily Kos to a different perspective on the issue from The Republic of T. blog.
Elsewhere around the globe
Google has launched a UK version of Google Maps, Americans have a new food pyramid that advises eating a balanced diet and exercising (imagine!), and the nation took time this week to mark the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombings at the Murrah Federal Building in 1995.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: When you receive messages from the outside world, in which format are they delivered to you?
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:06 AM | Permalink
April 19, 2005
The Adobe-Macromedia Marriage, and the Un-Reported War on Terrorism
When two of the biggest software companies join forces, it's news. Adobe's purchase of Macromedia is all over BlogPulse today, grabbing three of the top five links and the day's burstiest phrase. Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen tops today's bursty people list, and the move is discussed at Mike Chambers' Macromedia Product Developers' blog.
In Rome, the world awaits for Catholic cardinals to elect John Paul II's successor. BlogPulse follows the excitement with a graph that tracks mentions of the phrases "white smoke" (the signal of the election of a new pope) and "black smoke" (the signal of no decision on a new pope):
Do YOU feel safer now?
The Bush Administration's continuing, all-out war on terror now includes this piece of news: after 19 years, the State Department will cease publishing an annual report that tracks global terrorist attacks. Why? The 2004 report shows more attacks (625 "significant" attacks) than any year since 1985, when the annual report was first published. In 2003, a total of 175 attacks were logged, according to Knight-Ridder. (The newest bumper sticker on my car reads: "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." And this is why).
Elsewhere, there's news of flying cars, some good ol' peace and love talk from rocker Ted Nugent (tongue FIRMLY in cheek), scuttlebutt about a possible deal between TiVo and either Google or Yahoo!, and a Wired News piece describing a Department of Defense "hacker crew." And poor Ann Coulter. She gets the cover of Time magazine, and it's still not good enough for her, according to the Drudge Report.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: What's the buzz on a new pope?
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:17 AM | Permalink
April 18, 2005
Ancient Writings, Current Events & "Can You Hear Me Now?"
Can't get enough of that old stuff, apparently, and in this case the old stuff is something called the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Oxford scientists are using high-tech technologies to translate ancient, tattered and highly fragile papyrus documents thought to contain long-lost Greek and Roman writings. The project's web site emerged as BlogPulse's 25th top-ranked link today, and subsequent news coverage ranked first, with plenty of bloggers mentioning the project.
Running, cruising, running?
For fresher news, runner Paula Radcliffe is today's No. 2 bursty person for her courageous weekend win of the London Marathon, despite getting sick halfway through.
Also getting sick -- seasick, apparently -- were passengers of a luxury cruise ship that was smacked by a "freak 70-foot wave" during a storm off the Florida coast.
Testing the 2008 political waters for another presidential run is a familiar name: retired Gen. Wesley Clark. His name popped up from blogger coverage of the California Democratic convention. And interest in the May 5 election in Great Britain continues to grab blogger attention.
Can you hear me now?
The name of Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg pops up at the No. 2 spot among bursty people for an interview in the San Francisco Chronicle in which he said: "Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?" (Maybe we all took a wild guess after the "Can you hear me now? Good!" commercials?)
Another San Francisco creation -- a column about the Unitarian Jihad by writer Jon Carroll -- continues to capture attention among bloggers since it first appeared last week, urging an American jihad ruled by common sense and civility rather than the extremist views that seem to dominate public and political discourse these days.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: In Iraq, the tribal Kurds are gaining momentum for their role in shaping the new democratic government there.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:26 AM | Permalink
April 15, 2005
Omnnipresent Technology Stuff: It's Everywhere, All the Time
Browse through today's BlogPulse traffic and you'll find that Internet technology has invaded every nook and corner of everyday life. And music. And art. And law. And research. And beer. And...
Music: Don't know who these entertainers are, but the members of the acapella chorus geeks (today's No. 14 top link) may be starting a fad of video-game musical performances, a la Nintendo. Elsewhere, there's buzz of a prototype iPod DJ music mixer (No. 30 link) for folks who want to mix their iPod tunes on a DJ-style turntable/console.
Art: Google continues to get hits for its new video uploading function (today's top link) , video search capabilities (No. 6) and Google maps, (No. 17) which now feature satellite images.
Law: Taking the No. 8 spot among today's top links is the The ESQlawtech Weekly blog for lawyers keen on " technology tips, tools, and tricks."
Research: Hand it to crafty students at MIT to come up with the SCIgen, (No. 12 link) a "program that generates random Computer Science research papers "for amusement, rather than coherence." One of the fake papers, "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy" was recently accepted at a national conference.
Beer: If you can't deal with human bartenders, how about a virtual one? (No. 24 link).
Politics: Liberal and conservative bloggers (No. 36 link) are teaming up to support a campaign finance amendment that exempts the Internet from regulation. And House Majority Leader Tom DeLay isn't the only politician with family members on the payroll. The San Francisco Chronicle provides a complete list.
Random observations: Today's top 40 key phrases are about as representative of a melting-pot society as it's possible to get. The list includes everything from Oregon's attempt to pass a civil unions bill now that the state supreme court has struck down gay marriages, the repeal of the federal estate tax, comic book covers, Social Security issues, TV's "American Idol," issues of faith, terrorists and summer camp.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: As details of the Michael Jackson abuse trial turn more and more tawdry, coverage and discussion seem to drop off.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:11 AM | Permalink
April 14, 2005
Another Fear-Laden Influenza Warning?
The same kind of "ohmygawd" tone that accompanied last fall's reports of a shortage of influenza vaccines for 2005 was echoed in Wednesday's news that a particularly nasty strain of the flu virus was sent to more than 4,000 labs worldwide for testing. The World Health Organziation's Klaus Stohr is today's No. 3 Bursty person, and two other doctors (Nos. 12 and 13) made it on the list as well.
But did anyone notice that 2005 -- a year when perhaps the fewest number of cooped-up, cold-weather Americans were vaccinated against influenza -- didn't produce widespread outbreaks of flu? Hmmmm...
Have you been bitten by spring fever yet? Today's pulse on spring-related discussion in blogs show these trends:
Welcome, Media Insider!
MediaInsider, the web site of PRNewswire, now features daily BlogPulse stats on its home page. The left column of the web site lists each day's top 10 links and a direct link to the key personalities, culled from daily analysis of blog posts.
Visually speaking
Google has launched yet another service, this one a video upload program, and the BBC has launched a Creative Licence Group to "release content that will fuel a truly creative nation."
Today's people in the news
Today's burstiest person is Jeffrey Ake, the Indiana contractor who's the latest hostage in Iraq, followed by Vermont's own Rep. Bernard Sanders, who joins House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on the list of politicians who keep family members well compensated. And then, there's Britney Spears, who has announced she's pregnant.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: The videotape of Mr. Ake, the hostage in Iraq, serves as a reminder that military and civilian casualties continue.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:45 AM | Permalink
April 13, 2005
Those Wacky Idaho Legislators, and Bizarre Animal News
Just when you thought most legislators were ego-centric, data-spinning, fast-talking opportunists, along comes the Idaho state legislature to restore your faith in their status as down-to-earth folks with senses of humor.
Among BlogPulse's top links today, No. 7 is a resolution passed 69-1 by the Idaho House of Representatives commending the makers of the "Napoleon Dynamite" movie for promoting good things about the great state of Idaho...everything from Tater Tots to Idaho beef, skateboards to llamas, tetherball to the city of Preston's public schools, and St. Anthony Sand Dunes to multi-ethnic friendships. Sweet.
On a political theme, the No. 2 link, Who Should You Vote For?, helps undecided UK voters figure out which party to support in that country's upcoming May 5 elections.
On the business side of Intelliseek, we frequently talk about the impact of "consumer-generated media" (CGM) on everything from a company's reputation to specific product success. Today, CGM plays a part in the rankings of the four names that top BlogPulse's Bursty People list. Seems Dennis Kyne is one of hundreds of people arrested during the Republican National Covnention last summer who's walked out of court a free man because testimony of the arresting Big Apple police officers conflicts greatly with on-the-scene videos shot by protest organizers. Speaking of videos, Joseph Jaffe's shares his self-created Tiger Woods commercial for Nike (you're forewarned: it takes forEVER to download).
Animal sightings
Animals definitely have a presence in today's BlogPulse discoveries. The April 29 release of Apple's updated OS X software, Tiger, is today's most-shared link. At No. 9 on the top link list is the "Save Toby" web site where someone promises to eat a cute little bunny unless people send money by June 30 to save its life. Elsewhere, pictures of snoozing felines provide fodder for the Silly Sleeping Pose Olympics (No. 25 link), while Wisconsin considers a different way to address cats.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Who will win the battle for the buyout of MCI?
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:39 AM | Permalink
April 12, 2005
Announcing A BlogPulse Makeover
In case you haven't noticed, BlogPulse Highlights (the official BlogPulse blog) underwent a makeover this week. The blog now has a permanent URL home (http://blog.blogpulse.com), with fuller blog features that include monthly archives and trackbacks. The most recent post will continue to be featured at the BlogPulse home page with one-click access to the full blog.
In addition, BlogPulse has turned on the comments function for all news posts, and as always, we welcome feedback from all BlogPulse visitors. The RSS feed for BlogPulse Highlights remains the same.
One of users' favorite features of BlogPulse is its ability to create trend graphs that chart buzz on specific topics, personalities or issues over time. Now that U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced May 5 elections in the U.K., here's a look at blog buzz about leading candidates:
BlogPulse also features a full page of trends on current topics. Click on any topic to get the full graph.
British bloggers have been playing with BlogPulse graphs, too. Several are featured at perfect.co.uk and at aquarionics.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: You'd think tax-related discussion would start spiking, but it's remaining fairly flat as the April 15 deadline nears for filing U.S. income tax returns. (And to my father...Happy 81st Birthday, Pop!)
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:54 AM | Permalink
April 11, 2005
A Curious Combo: Blue Monsters & Unitarian Jihad
BlogPulse weekend traffic was a curious combination of children's TV paradigm shifts and a newspaper columnist's catchy idea.
Bloggers, in fact, are asking: Has Cookie Monster sold out? Seems the Sesame Street character will be devouring fewer cookies and promoting more fruits and veggies next season, thanks for an emphasis on healthier eating for the children show's 35th season.
Another key phrase dominated BlogPulse over the weekend: "Greetings to the imprisoned citizens of the United States." It's the opening line of a piece by Jon Carroll in the San Francisco Chronicle, announcing a Unitarian Jihad, a mindful revolution whereby "nice people will run the government again," and "pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere!" You can find your own Unitarian Jihad name too. Many sample UJ names appeared in Sunday's bursty people results.
Topping the bursty people list is Arthur J. Finkelstein, a Republican operative, fund-raiser and supporter of conservative causes who conceded in Sunday's New York Times that he and his gay partner were wed in a Massachusetts civil ceremony in December. Quoth he: "I believe that visitation rights, health care benefits and other human relationship contracts that are taken for granted by all married people should be available to partners." Imagine that.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: The election of a Kurdish leader to head the new Iraqi government coalition is showing up in BlogPulse discussions.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:12 AM | Permalink
April 08, 2005
Blogger Backpedaling? A Jenna Video?
An odd collection of personalities are getting traction this week among BlogPulse's key people. Among them:
• Sen. Mel Martinez (up from No. 37 to No. 8 on today's key people list) and his recently resigned legal counsel, Brian Darling, (today's burstiest person). Darling resigned this week after admitting that he wrote a "talking points memo" outlining how Republicans could make hay from the Terri Schiavo case.
• Conservative and liberal bloggers are chiming in on the issue. Conservative bloggers who thought they would "out" the memo as a Democratic party fake are now eating their words, and liberal bloggers are making sure it's a tasty treat.
• First daughter Jenna Bush has jumped to No. 4 among Bursty people, too, mostly for New York Post gossip about a video of her, shall we say, "animated" dancing at a New York night club last weekend.
• Activist legislators are at it again, including Reps. Ed Markey and Fred Upton, who want to extend daylight savings from March to November to save on energy costs (those pesky energy-guzzling light bulbs!), and Florida lawmakers, who obviously like guns a whole lot more than anyone thought.
• And there's the tale of Everyconsumer Mike Bolesta, who got arrested by paying Best Buy in $2 bills. Honest.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Remember all those issues that voters were debating last November? The hunt for Osama? Gay marriage? WMDs? Post-election threats to move to Canada? Where are those issues now?
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 04:33 PM | Permalink
April 07, 2005
Star Wars Mania Starts Early
May 19 is the official release date for the sixth Star Wars movie, "Revenge of the Sith." But Star Wars fans are antsy NOW. Today's BlogPulse includes the following discoveries:
Fans are already lining up for the movie's debut at the Grauman Chinese Theater in Hollywood, although someone might want to tell them they're at the wrong theater. The updated Star Wars Triology DVD is also on people's purchase lists.
Today's No. 7 top link comes from Japan, where obvious fans have built a working "Mech", (the site is slow to load) one of the assault vehicles from earlier Star Wars movies. Meanwhile, a BlogPulse graph showing episode popularity produces this pattern:
Other passings
When famous people die, there's an old wives' tale that deaths always occur in groups of three. It seems the count is higher lately. Today, author and novelist Saul Bellow and Monaco's Prince Rainier III are being remembered (both died earlier this week), and Hunter S. Thompson's family announced that his ashes will be shot from a cannon later this summer. New on the media scene are an Internet tabloid called Sploid and for those intimidated by all that reading, the Anotated New York Times.
Political stirrings
House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay is in more hot water over recent allegations of oversees trips paid for by business lobbyists acting on behalf of the Russian government. And in Iraq, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani has finally been chosen as president of the country.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: I don't know about you, but I paid $2.21 for a gallon of regular gas this week. Others obviously are feeling the pain of rising gas/oil prices. Any bets on how high gasoline prices rise before they level off...$3 a gallon? Am I bid $4?
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:52 AM | Permalink
April 06, 2005
Would You Like a Satellite Photo With Your Map?
If you're not good at reading maps, how about following directions on a photo? Google Maps captures the No. 2 link among BlogPulse discoveries today for a new feature offering users the option of a road map or a satellite image to locate themselves on Planet Earth. Google's up-close satellite images are more readily available for big-city locations. And if you can't decide between Google or Yahoo!'s search, try the hybrid YaGooHoogle that someone has created.
Pope John Paul II's death continues to generate blog discussion, and even as funeral preparations near, discussion intensifies over his possible successor. BlogPulse's trend-graph tool provides this picture of papal succesor buzz so far:
Other blog highlights...
ABC newsman Peter Jennings is in the news with Tuesday's disclosure of his lung cancer diagnosis, and Republican Sen. John Cornyn appealed to the base Monday in a speech in which he blamed recent courthouse violence on...of all people..."activist judges"...instead of the law-breaking citizens who bring weapons into courthouses or attack judges, courthouse employees and others.Bloggers discuss the brou-ha-ha.
Politics again
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has set May 5 as the date of the next British elections, and for U.S. elections, San Francisco is considering a propsal that would require political bloggers to register with the city's ethics commission and file the equivalent of blog-related campaign expense reports (today's No. 13 top link).
Blogging white paper
This week, Intelliseek (which owns BlogPulse) and Edelman released a white paper on blogging. Download it here (quick registration). Trust MEdia: Why Real People Are Finally Being Heard describes the blogging phenomenon and helps non-bloggers and veteran bloggers alike maneuver the Blogosphere intelligently.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Who's activist now?
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:09 AM | Permalink
April 04, 2005
Papal Tributes, Time Changes and Where's the President?
The weekend death of Pope John Paul II dominates much of BlogPulse discussion today, as variations of his name capture the three of the top 5 slots among Key People and 10 of the 24 Bursty People rankings. In fact, for the first time since Feb. 3, President George Bush has dropped out of the top 10 rankings of key people because of heightened disucssion about the deaths of the Pope, Terri Schiavo, comedian Mitch Hedberg and other celebrity news.
Did you spring forward over the weekend? Some bloggers obviously think less of Daylight Savings than those of us here in the Midwest, who've been subjected to so much gray, rainy, gray, snowy, gray, blustery, gray and dismal (did I mention gray?) weather this winter that we'll take anything for a few extra hours of sunshine...or its potential.
In the world of sports, March Madness is sharing the spotlight with the opening of the 2005 baseball season (the Yankees beat the Red Sox, by the way).
Belated April Fool's
Did you happen to catch Google's April Fool's joke last week? A one-day promotion for a new "smart drink" to maximize surfing called "Google Gulp." Clever.
Entertainment of various sorts
Blogger Darren Barefoot doesn't think podcasting will catch on the way most eveyrone's predicting it will, while blog fans of "Sin City" have pushed its web site to No. 4 among today's top links.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: The two teams to square off in the NCAA finals have been chosen: University of North Carolina vs. the University of Illinois. And what are baseball fans buzzing about during a week of Opening Day games?
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:34 AM | Permalink
April 01, 2005
Comings and Goings of Various Degrees
If there's one theme just about everyone's been discussing lately, it's dying or moving on.
The Thursday death of Terri Schiavo was mentioned in seven of Thursday's' top 40 key phrases and seven of the day's top links. The references ranged from news stories to blogger Michelle Malkin's poetry corner to, believe it or not, references to this week's "South Park" episode, which managed to tackle the good vs. evil themes of "Lord of the Rings" and the moral/ethical issues of feeding tubes in a single 30-minute episode.
Bloggers also reacted to the death of 37-year-old comedian Mitch Hedberg, who was found dead of an apparent heart attack in a New Jersey hotel.
Meanwhile, the world literally waits on word of the deteriorating health of Pope John Paul II.
More passages
After 40-plus years, ABC newsman Ted Koppel will leave his job when his contract ends later this year, and those pesky weapons of mass destruction (remember WMD?) were apparently passed over in a federal sea of incompetent and poorly coordinated intelligence, according to a report delivered to President George Bush yesterday by bipartisan commission. (Maybe he needs to focus on a "culture of integrity" for a change?) .
And bloggers are passing judgment on WordPress for the content tactics it's been using to improve its search-engine rankings (today's top link).
BBC fans have moved actor David Tennant into the No. 3 position among Bursty People because he's being mentioned as a possible replacement on the popular BBC series "Doctor Who."
Shhh.....(secrets!)
Is there something you'd like to get off your chest? Go ahead and join other bloggers who are sharing their deepest (sometimes darkest) secrets at the PostSecret blog. (OK, some are sick...you've been warned).
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: "Culture of life" entered the national lexicon in the last two weeks, so let's take a look at some pressing "culture of life" issues.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:56 AM | Permalink
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