2005: The Year That Blogging Evolved

Without a presidential campaign to fuel blog discussion in 2004, the blogosphere in 2005 took on a decidedly different feel and tone. The political wrangling didn't abate, but it was forced to share the stage with entertainment news, hurricane fallout and other natural disasters, technology discussion and blogs' own evolution as emerging media sources.

As it did last year, the BlogPulse team crunched a lot of data, counted links and tallied references to various topics and issues to develop a 2005 BlogPulse Year in Review. It includes lists of top media sources, media stories, audio and video downloads, movies and trend graphs. Among the findings:

Top Blogs: Boing Boing, Engadget, Michelle Malkin, Albino Blacksheep, Instapundit, PowerLine, Gizmodo, Think Progress, Political Animal, and Slashdot. The Huffington Post, which launched mid-year, ranked No. 24, just behind Jeff Jarvis' BuzzMachine.

Top Wikipedia References: Podcasting, Hurricane Katrina, Flying Spaghetti Monster, AJAX, Wiki/Wikipedia, London bombongs, Folksonomy, meme, Web 2.0 and United States.

Top Entertainers: Michael Jackson and Britney Spears were the most-discussed entertainers in 2005, joined by Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kelly Clarkson, Angelina Jolie and Jessica Simpson.

Top Personalities: As they have all year, ficitional Harry Potter slugged it out with George Bush for capturing buzz, and Harry won. Other blogged-out personalities included the late Pope John Paul II, the late Terri Schiavo and Karl Rove.

Top-Cited News Sources: Yahoo! News, BBC, New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, MSNBC, Guardian Unlimited, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today and Yahoo! Finance.

Top-Cited News Stories: In a newsy year marked by the war in Iraq, hurricanes, the death of a Pope and more, columnist Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle managed to generate more citations than any other news story with his April column titled "Unitarian Jihad," a call for a return to moderation in issues of politics and faith.Other top news stories touched on the London bombings, Zombie dogs, George Bush, and an assortment of political, religious and satirical stories.

Top Movies (based on IMDB.com citations): Sin City, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Serenity, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Batman Begins, Sideways, Napoleon Dynamite, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and War of the Worlds.

Multi-Media Blogging: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's post-Katrina interview with WWL-AM radio was the most-cited audio link among bloggers in 2005, and the VW Golf commercial that was a breakdancing takeoff of Gene Kelly's "Singin' in the Rain" dance was the most-cited video link.

And because no BlogPulse Newswire entry would be complete without a Trend Graph, here's one tha tracks "blogs: vs. "blogosphere":

Happy Holidays from BlogPulse

Everyone at BlogPulse extends holiday greetings and good things ahead in 2006 for all of BlogPulse's users and readers. Whatever your wishes for the holiday season and the coming year, we hope they're as good as those illustrated in a BlogPulse trend graph of good things....



Holiday schedules...
BlogPulse data will continue to update on a daily basis through the holidays, but blog entries at BlogPulse Newswire and BlogPulse Spotlight will be updated only occasionally between Christmas and New Year's. See you again in early January!

--The BlogPulse Team

Citizen Journalism Gets a Boost, Intelligent Design Gets Kicked, and the "I" Word Is Whispered...

It's apparent that blogging has matured quickly now that Dan Gillmor, former technology writer for the San Jose Mercury News, has now established the Center for Citizen Media (the content of today's No. 2 most-cited blog post). The center will have ties to both UC/Berkeley and Harvard and will promote the "emergent grassroots media" movement, says Gillmor.

Judicial smackdown on ID
In its first official legal test, the theory of Intelligent Design took a big hit from today's 25th burstiest person, U. S. District Court Judge John Jones, who ruled yesterday that teaching intelligent design in science classes violates the separation of church and state (today's No. 6 top news story)...and he did so with some harsh words for its proponents. "Breathtaking inanity," in fact, was his description of the former Dover, Pa., school board's decision to offer intelligent design as science. And it resonated:



The "I" Word
We're not making this up. In today's No. 12 top blog post from Think Progress, conservative scholars who appeared this week on Diane Rehm's NPR talk show hinted that President Bush is a candidate for impeachment (there it is...the "I" word) if he continues his presidential power-grabbing ways and wiretaps his own citizens. BlogsforBush uses the "but Democrats did it too!" excuse. But Think Progress is also today's top blog post, for pointing out that former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter kept judicial oversight in the mix and specifically ruled out domestic spying during their administrations.

In a similar vein, U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson is today's burstiest person for resigning yesterday from the court that's supposed to oversee/approve domestic spying requests, and he did so in protest of the President's executive order that OKs domestic spying by the NSA (today's top news story).

From the Spotlight Blog...
Today's BlogPulse Spotlight examines the reasons why Johnny Damon is today's third most-cited personality in the blogosphere, now that he's jumped the Red Sox ship and joined the Yankees. Also jumping off, but this time for good: Firefly-Serenity.

Who's Spying on YOU? And New York Walks...

Big Brother? Are you there?

Recent revelations that President Bush used executive powers to approve domestic spying on U.S. citizens by the National Security Agency (NSA) dominates blog buzz. In fact, eight of today's top 10 blog posts discuss the issue -- with far-ranging reactions. And today's most-cited news story, from Newsweek, gives the entire affair a not-so-original name: "Snoopgate."

In today's top blog post, for example, Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly asks bluntly: "What kind of program is so intrusive that even Republicans, even with 9/11 still freshly in mind, wouldn't have supported it? At Defense Tech (No. 4 blog post), reactions from current/former intelligence workers range from "mildly creeped out" to "completely p'd off" (caution: offensive language). The Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal Online raves about the presidential powers (No. 5). Talking Points Memo (No. 6) provides evidence of Congressional concern in July 2003. Atrios/Eschaton (No. 7) quotes from a 2004 President Bush speech that contradicts (imagine that!) the President's current explanations. PowerLine bloggers (No. 8) trust the President. The Volokh Conspiracy (No. 9) provides legal background and tenatively thinks Bush's order "probably violated" federal law. Ameriblog (No. 10) wonders who's defining "terrorist" when gay/lesbian meetings are being monitored.

Put on the Big Apple walking shoes
Also in today's top blog posts is an entry from GOP and the City, which details some of the financial ramifications associated with the transit strike in New York City. The union behind the strike, TWU Local 100, has its own blog, and it's today's No. 7 most-cited blog.

Spying or striking?
A BlogPulse trend graph shows nearly equal concern for both issues:

Bill, Melinda and Bono...and Presidential Justifications

Microsoft founder Bill Gates (today's 11th most-discussed personality) and wife Melinda, along with rocker and activist Bono of U2, are capturing their share of blog buzz for being named Time Magazine's Persons of the Year for 2005 (today's most-cited news story). All three were singled out for their awareness-raising and philanthropic efforts to focus on foreign aid, foreign relations and Third World self-empowerment and recovery.

"Well, at least it wasn't Mother Nature..." observed PoliPundit. The blogger at FlynnFiles thinks Gates and Bono were singled out for the wrong reasons, and Fausta's Blog lists other "Person of the Year' recommendations from various bloggers.

President Justifications...or more of the same?
President Bush's weekend speech about progress in Iraq is also grabbing attention, with transcripts of the talk making it into today's list of top blog posts at least three times. Also among the top blog posts is this credibility-questioning attack by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory (11th top blog post). Quite simply, he claims that Bush's defenders are "resorting to outright distortions and deliberate falsehoods about the Foreign Intelligence Security Act (FISA) in order to argue that the Administration's warrantless eavesdropping on U.S. citizens complies with the mandates of that statute." And he claims that right-wing bloggers have been recruited into the campaign. Professor Bainbridge (18th top blog post) chimes in with some perspective on the history of media "leaks."

What's on your mind this week?
As the holiday season nears its peak, what's on your mind: shopping or Christmas church services? BlogPulse Trend graph knows (note the weekend spikes):




Dave's on his way back
Today's BlogPulse Spotlight examines the comeback of Comedy Central comedian Dave Chappelle.

New Jib Jab, Endless Cuteness and Seismic Shifts

It hasn't even popped up in the blogosphere yet, but dontcha wanna bet that JibJab's Year-End Round-Up 205 mini-movie (and its companion (pardon our language, but the title really IS Farting Elves)), will soon be among the most popular pass-around videos on the Internet? Buzz is already starting...

All things cute...
Sure, there's plenty of discussion about what Iraq's parliamentary elections will mean to the future of everything (Iraq the Model is today's No. 3 top blog). And course, there's continued consternation about the U.S. government spying on its own citizens. But today's most-shared web link is about cuteness, from Cute Overload.com, where folks scour the 'net for "only the finest in cute imagery." Like little squirrels and puppies and kitties and baby deer. If you like stuff with fur and feathers, you'll love this. Your typical reaction can be an understated "cute!" or a more dramatic "someone pass me the sick bowl."

Seismic shifts
President Bush finally admitted that pre-war intelligence was less-than-solid (today's No. 4 top news story). Reactions? "It's about damn time," says Brian Mathes. Or as The All Spine Zone sees it, "accepting responsiblity means never having to say you're sorry."

Holiday buzz
If you're wondering who's winning when it comes to holiday buzz buildup...only BlogPulse knows....and the findings are pretty surprising.

Signs of the Times: Blast Wrap, Robots, Spied-Upon Quakers and Those Darned Activist Judges (But Not In the Way That You Assume)

Perhaps it's just a sign of the times when an odd collection of products and ideas converge in the blogosphere. To wit:

Protect it with...Blast Wrap!
If it's an explosion you're worried about, pack your precious cargo or treasured items in the subject of today's No. 30 most-shared news story: a Popular Science article about Blast Wrap, one of 2005's most innovative products from (honest) Blastgard International. The perlite-packed packets can diffuse the blast of a bomb in seconds, and they're being used to line public trash cans in D.C. (many cities, in case you haven't noticed, have removed trash cans from public streets because terrorists used to like to toss bombs into them). "No word if it also would also work on the movie Battlefield Earth," deadpans the SethJones blog.

Awesome-O
Eric Cartman would be more than proud at today's No. 6 top link. It's the Honda site for its Asimo robot, which now (for those with broadband connection) jogs with bizarre human-like movements. (Even in Japanese, the web site's pretty fascinating). What do you supppose Asimo carries in that backpack? A Mega-Bytes Lunchables?

Questioning(able) Quakers?
Did you ever get the sneaky feeling that someone's spying on you? Like your own government? (today's 4th most-shared news story). Evy Grachow, a member of a Quaker group in Florida, is today's burstiest person because her peace-loving group has been named a Dept. of Defense "threat" for a meeting in which Quaker activists discussed ways to curtail military recruiting at a local high school. Pam's House Blend isn't the only blogger to call such snooping an "outrage."

It's satire. Honest.
But lest you think the world is without a funny bone, think again. The folks at The Onion combine the vitriol of the debate over "activist judges"' with the vitriol over the attack on Christmas to come up with this: "Activist Judge Cancels Christmas." (It's today's No. 16 top news story). Says Daily Kos, tongue firmly in cheek: Uh-oh.

BlogPulse Spotlight today looks at reaction to the recently released trailer of The Da Vinci Code, movie version.

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays? Whatever...

So some segment of our society think there's an all-out attack on Christmas. They think that saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" somehow siphons the meaning out of this season because it dilutes the whole reason for Christmas in the first place.

Some prefer "happy holidays" because it recognizes the diversity of the season, honors all holiday celebrations that take place at this time of year and exhibits a respect for traditions based on beliefs other than Christianity.

So here at BlogPulse central, we turned loose a trend graph that shows both phrases surviving quite nicely, thank you.



Can't we all just get along and enjoy this time of year, whatever it means?

Capital Punishment, Presidential Bubbles, Wikipedia Authors and Iraqi Elections

The midnight Monday execution of former gang member and convicted murder Stanley "Tookie" Williams (today's second most-discussed blog personality) forced a focused but short-lived discussion about the death penalty (which was today's No. 28 key phrase). Law School Unconfidential agrees that clemency should not have been granted; the Christian Prophet blogger finds hope and forgiveness for Williams and others elsewhere.

A BlogPulse trend graph looks at blogger references in past months to two difficult social issues: "torture" and "capital punishment":




The Bush Bubble?
Politics takes some weird turns today, with Newsweek's look the boy-in-the-bubble phenomenon applied to President Bush (today's 13th most-shared link). The blogger at Studio Dave calls it "an excellent study of the president's insularity"; Professor Bainbridge offers insight into groupthink mentality and how it plays out in protective environments like the bunkered White House.

Wikipedia under scrutiny
And remember John Siegenthaler, a former USA Today editorialist who discovered a fake biography about himself on Wikipedia? The writer of that fictitious biography has been discovered...and fired (today's 16th most-shared link). He's Brian Chase, no longer an employee for a delivery company in Tennessee. In a letter to Siegenthaler, he said he thought Wikipedia was a "gag" site and that he'd written the fake biography as a joke. Guess who the joke's on?

And attention turns to Iraq
A blog called Iraq the Model shows up among today's blog posts (No. 4) as Iraqi voters again go to the polls to elect legislators. Today's second most-shared link discusses an ABC poll of Iraqi citizens which shows a desire for unity but deep divisions still within the war-torn country. And speaking of tensions, another hot story today involves Israel's intentions toward Iran.

Heaven: A Funnier, More Political Place Now

No doubt heaven is a funnier and more honest place, now that comedian Richard Pryor, a man who dismantled barriers of race and raised the bar for comedic performance, died Saturday of a heart attack after years of struggling with multiple sclerosis. He's today's second most-discussed personality in the blogosophere (as well as its fourth-burstiest), and three of the day's top news stories discuss Pryor's life and death as well. "Take Care," eulogizes A Mockingbird's Medley blogger. "Goodbye, Mudbone," says another.

Eulogy No. 2: "Clean Gene" McCarthy
Former Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy, a politician who definitely kept alive Minnesota's reputation as a state of free-thinkers not afraid to take on established policies, also died over the weekend at the age of 89. The blogger (and comment) at Coldheartedtruth laud McCarthy's contribution to public opinion about the Vietnam War in the early 1970s. NA Confidential has similar thoughts about McCarthy's contributions to the anti-war movement during that era. McCarthy's today's fourth most-discussed personality.

A different way of looking at Earth
Every school kid has to study a map of the earth, but how about a map based on population? BoingBoing this weekend featured a population-based map, which gives a sense of planetary perspective.

And a different Constitutional view...
The blogger at Capitol Hill Blue reports that President Bush, during a meeting about the renewal of the Patriot Act, had this to say about the nation's Constitution. (Unfortunately), that explains a lot....

The Lion, the Witch and the Box Office
The BlogPulse Spotlight has all the news from the weekend flick report.

The Gender Barrier Crashes at the Hundred Acre Wood

Sure, there's all sorts of Internet announcements today, including Yahoo! Answers (today's No. 10 top blog post and the Yahoo! version of Ask Jeeves), and Google's new Transit Planner (which is today's No. 3 top link), a Google Maps service applied to public transit (and currently limited to Portland, OR).

Major changes ahead
But major changes are in store for the Hundred Acre Wood, where Christopher Robin (today's burstiest person) will be replaced by a yet-to-be named female character in 2007 to make the whole Winnie the Pooh franchise more, you know, marketable to a broader audience. USA Today coverage of the gender shift is today's No. 2 most-cited link and the subject of today's top blog post. And lots of commentary, including a "dream on, Disney" lecture from DebbieSchlussel.com. she's joined by this invective from a LiveJournaler: "Clearly TPTB at Disney need to be smacked repeatedly with the smitey book. These people are clearly of very, very little brain." What's next...Hey God, It's Me, Michael? Arnold Bedilia Strikes Out? "The Ghost and Mrs. Chicken?"

Mother Nature's wrath
You'd think that "December = snow" would start to sink into the public consciousness after all these years, but the snowstorm that swept the U.S. midsection Thursday created this scenario: it took me longer to drive from the airport to my house (25 minutes TOPS on a normal bad-traffic day) than it took me to fly from Rochester NY to Cincinnati, all because of a rush-hour snowstorm. Still, hurricanes have it all over Mother's Nature's snow and floods in the blogosphere...

Strange Days Indeed

Enter The Air Marshalls
A grim sort of landmark was passed in Miami yesterday — U.S. air marshals shot and killed a man for the first time since they've been a fixture on American flights. CNN's take is our no. 2 top link, and the man, an American citizen named Rigoberto Alpizar, is our no. 3 burstiest person. By all appearances, the air marshals acted exactly as their procedures specify, and some bloggers seem to be saying Alpizar was asking for it: "If a man claims to have a bomb in his bag, ignores orders from federal officers to freeze, and then reaches into his bag, he deserves to be shot. More importantly, said officers have a duty to shoot to prevent the reasonable likelihood of harm to themselves and others. That there was no bomb is sad but irrelevant," wrote Outside the Beltway. Now that the initial confusion has passed, mASS BACKWARDS is looking forward to the backstory, which he suspects will follow a pattern: "Get ready now for the interviews from the family of the deceased describing what a nice, young man he was. Or how he had recently stopped taking his medication, or that he was acting out of desperation brought on by the racist economic policies of the Bush/Rove cabal, or ________ [insert sob story of your choosing here]." Ok, we're ready.

An Unexpected Soldier In The War On Christmas
Though they control the federal government and a majority of the states, Christians somehow also are a persecuted minority in the United States (who compose almost 80 percent of the population) and their winter holiday, Christmas (which also is a federal holiday) is under constant attack. Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Dennis Hastert and others have been railling aginst the expression "Happy Holidays," instead of "Merry Christmas," because when you include people who celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa in your generic seasonal greeting, that somehow hurts Jesus. But guess who the latest ultra-leftist East Coast secular elite Christmas-hater is? Why, President Bush. In today's top link, The WaPo details how the White House sent out greeting cards this month that with people a happy "holiday season." Listen to this response, placed high up in the story: "Bush "claims to be a born-again, evangelical Christian. But he sure doesn't act like one," said Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com. "I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it." Bloggers are certainly reacting to this, too. "Granted, he's spearheaded a war that's killed untold thousands, which is as Christian a thing as you can do, but that "holiday" thing is nearly unforgiveable. He'll have to start an Inquistion or something to make up for it," is the bitter rejoinder from Pandagon. Now, now! That sort of rhetoric clearly goes against the holiday spirit.

And Then There's The New Variety of Coke...
Other picks from today's BlogPulse report include a story about Coke's new product, a coffee-infused cola, which, it seems, you should've patented after you invented it during that all-nighter before your sophomore chemistry final... Vitriolic patriot Michelle Malkin has a roundup of encomiums to our fighting men in the Pearl Harbor attack, which was 64 years ago yesterday... And the word of the year for 2005 was "podcast," which we approve of — at least they didn't pick "holla."

Perfect Gifts For The Bloggers In Your Life
This year you probably have more than a few bloggers on your Christmas — er, Holiday — List; short of more readers, more bandwidth, or a whole new computer system, what should you get them? Permit us to suggest a visit to The BlogPulse Gear Depot, where you'll find ideal presents for lefties, righties, geekoids and... ah... are there other kinds of bloggers?

Show-Downs on the Battlefield, Football Field

Democrat Howard Dean is today's third most-blogged-about personality and retired Gen. Wesley Clark's op-ed piece in the New York Times is today's No. 21 most-shared link...and both are getting attention for offering their own ideas and strategies for winding down the invasion of Iraq intelligently and with as little life lost as possible. Conservative bloggers, including Captain's Quarters and Michelle Malkin (among today's top blog posts) don't like Howard; Malkin resorts to "Howard the Coward" name-calling in her defense of endless "stay the course" lectures from the White House. This, of course, in the week when the government received failing grades from the 9/11 Commission on instituting recommendations to keep the country safe (today's 15th most-cited news story).

Movements afoot
Tidbits from here and there: more TV shows are now available as iPod downloads, reports Engadget (today's No. 6 top blog post), and an University of Kansas religion professor is stirring the pot by proposing to teach Intelligent Design as part of a religion class on "mythologies." And guess what the 2005 word of the year is? Podcast. (Last year's was "blog.")

On the gridiron
The National Football Season is getting to the stage of being interesting, so we plotted a BlogPulse trend graph comparing blog buzz about the division-leading AFC teams....

...and buzz about their division-leading NFC counterparts...



We admit it; we're biased...go Bengals!

Annual Blog Awards, and Dumping on New Orleans

It's the time of year for retrospective roundups, and bloggers have already started with annual "best of" blog awards programs.

What the righties read
For a sense of what the conservative wing of the blogosophere reads, check out today's top blog post, which features the winners of The Fourth Annual Warblogger Awards for 2005. Best overall blog winners are, in order, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit and Captain's Quarters.

Weblog Awards...start voting!
An awards program with less of a political agenda (sponsored by Wizbang) is the Best Weblogs Awards program, today's ninth-most-cited link. Voting stretches through next Thursday. Among the 38 categories are several new ones for 2005, including best podcasting, video blog and best blogs in the fields of parenting, religion, law and business. Let the voting begin! announces the Causes of Interest blog. And speaking of podcasting, Odeo (today's 13th-most-cited blog post) is making it even easier.

Poor New Orleans
All of that "Let's Rebuild New Orleans" fervor seems to have died quite rapidly in the past few weeks, evidenced by today's top news story: BellSouth's withdrawal of an offer to donate a building for the New Orleans Police Department headquarters after the city announced it would install free WiFi citywide to spur development. WiFiNetNews covers the issue; the blogger at Saschameinrath calls it "BellSouth's shame." References to New Orleans are chronicled in this telling BlogPulse Trend Graph:

Strange Legal Twists, and Finger-Pointing Ads

Some the law works in your favor, sometimes it doesn't. Two cases from the legal annals make BlogPulse news today.

At least three of today's top 10 blog posts (American Street, Shakespeare's Sister, and Pandagon) describe their outrage at the case of a 17-year-old Oregon teen who claimed three men gang-raped her but was found guilty herself (of filing a false claim) when the three were found innocent because she didn't act "traumatized enough" in the days after the alleged assault. In fact, traffic to American Street is so heavy that the site won't load easily; Shakespeare's Sister has a rundown. Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly questions the prosecution's decisions; "this goes way beyond blaming the victim," says Bamapachyderm.

More bad-guy intrigue
Today's most-cited news story tells another tale of legal woe: what happens when the CIA thinks it put the wrong guy in a foreign prison. "Oops, our bad," says Obsidian Wings.

The XBox ad you WON'T see
Maybe it's a guy cops-and-robbers thing, but today's 15th top blog post features is XBox TV "air confrontation" ad (for lack of a better term) that never made it to the airwaves. A Xanga blogger calls it the "best commercial ever."

Saturday Night Live Rebound?
Didn't think it could happen, but comedian Dane Cook is today's second most discussed personality (outpacing President George Bush), no doubt because of his appearance as host on Saturday Night Light last weekend. Or as one LiveJournaler intones, "not even Dane Cook can save SNL...sad state of affairs."

BlogPulse Update on Trend Graphs

As a leader in the blog-search space, BlogPulse is continually striving to ensure that we have the most comprehensive index of blog posts possible. To that end we regularly update our crawlers with information about new (and newly discovered) blogs.

Recently, we have been busy ensuring that we capture not just English-language blogs, but many non-English blogs as well. The plan is to extend our services to include searches for blogs in a number of different languages.

As a result of these efforts, you may notice some changes in our trend searches. Trend searching reports a normalized graph of the number of hits for a query. As our index now includes more foreign blogs, some trend searches will reflect unusual or dropping patterns due to the lower percentage of English blogs in the mix. This generally happens on trends for terms with a large number of hits. For example, see the slowly dipping trend for buzz about the "seven deadly sins" or similar drops when comparing "mother vs. father." A similar drop takes place in a graph comparing buzz about the seven continents.

As we move forward with our plans for multi-lingual services, we will be modifying the underlying system to remove these kinks. Thanks for understanding...

--The BlogPulse team

Blogger Power: Accuracy and Activism Afoot

Bloggers are increasing feeling their oats, but not everyone's happy with the cash-crop yield. Cases in point:

The Wikipedia discussion: good or bad?
On the same day that PR blogger Steve Rubel says Wikipedia will be the next Google (today's third most-cited blog post), USA Today's former editorial page editor John Siegenthaler details his so-far-unsuccessful attempts to find out who posted a scurrilous biography about him on Wikipedia (it remained there for months; it's today's fourth most-cited news story) . Says Rubel: "Like its predecessors, Wikipedia is powerful because it provides access to largely accurate information that can be hard to find." His post produces 12 search results. Counters Siegenthaler: "And, I am interested in letting many people know that Wikipedia is a flawed and irresponsible research tool." His rant generates 49 search results.

Activists at large
Yesterday's BlogPulse Newswire discussion of Thomas Hawk's problems with priceritephoto.com continues, with Hawk's post (written under a pseudonym) emerging as today's most-cited blog post. The exchange is being covered by news media and other bloggers as well.

And Activism, Part II
When no one else launched a Sony-directed anti-shopping campaign, BoingBoing jumped in (today's sixth most-cited blog post). In reaction to anti-piracy rootkits recently discovered in Sony BMG compact discs, some bloggers are launching a boycott of Sony CD's this holiday season. The ThinkLemon blogger agrees and joins the campaign...and then requests an XBox, please?

One day's difference: the Iraq strategy
Couldn't help but notice the one-day difference in "buzz" about President Bush's "plan for victory" in Iraq. Today's buzz (with complete reaction to his speech at the U.S. Naval Academy)....

vs. buzz from a day earlier, without the post-speech analysis:

A One-Man Consumerist Crusade: Thomas Hawk

Today's No. 5 most-shared link looks like any other typical consumer rant, except Thomas Hawk is obviously a blogger with power (it's a pseudonym, by the way). Titlted "PriceRitePhoto: Abusive Bait and Switch Camera Store," it recounts Hawk's efforts to buy a $3,000 digital camera, only to be (allegedly) berated and his order canceled when he refused to buy accessories. Writes he: "I have never been so utterly offended by a retailer in my life."

Posted on Tuesday, Hawak's rant has already generated 38 search results on BlogPulse for "priceritephoto" and 585 hits for "Thomas Hawk." The conversation that emanates from his original post is equally emotion-filled.

Hawk's experience is a classic example of "consumer-generated media," and ought to serve as a warning to any company that bait-switch tactics, bad customer service and less-than-stellar customer experiences can be amplified louder than ever before if they hit...and run...and spread rapidly..on the Internet.

"Exit Strategy" or "Stay the Course" In Iraq?

On the same day that President Bush delivered yet another major speech about "staying the course" in Iraq, four hostages from a group called Christian Peacemaker (including Norman Kember and James Loney, among the week's burstiest personalities) were held by insurgents. So which phrases resonate most with bloggers: "exit strategy" or "withdraw troops," vs "stay the course" or "support the mission" in Iraq? The November "exit strategy" bubble is no doubt influenced by Rep. John Murtha's comments calling for a timetable for withdrawal.



Canadian Liberals get hosed
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is on the outs, based on this week's no-confidence vote in his scandal-torn Liberal Party. Dust My Broom sees possible trade/U.S. influence in the goings-on, and a LiveJournaler notes that Americans could learn a thing or two from the Canadian 36-day election cycle.

A kiss is...more than a kiss
Speaking of Canada, that's where a teenage girl died this week from a deadly reaction to peanuts...after her boyfriend (who'd eaten a PBJ hours before) kissed her. Christian Desforges is among the week's burstiest people and has triggered plenty of media coverage about peanut allergies.