Techmeme Launches Leaderboard

This morning there was a ton of buzz about Techmeme launching the Techmeme Leaderboard. The leaderboard is now live at https://www.techmeme.com/lb, and Gabe Rivera posted some insight on how it works. I am proud, as I would think Danny is, that Search Engine Land is currently number 19 on the list, with a “presence” of […]

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This morning there was a ton of buzz about Techmeme launching the Techmeme Leaderboard. The leaderboard is now live at https://www.techmeme.com/lb, and Gabe Rivera posted some insight on how it works.


I am proud, as I would think Danny is, that Search Engine Land is currently number 19 on the list, with a “presence” of 1.02%. What does the presence score mean? Gabe explains:

A source’s presence is the probability that a random Techmeme headline at a random time over the past month was published by that source.

You can see the leaderboard by day by changing the date in the “History” box on the right side of the page. It goes as far back as yesterday, as you can see at https://www.techmeme.com/070930/lb.

Gabe also explains there is an inherit bias with any automated solution:

I wish it were obvious, but there’s no such thing as an unbiased automated news site (or search engine for that matter). Automation doesn’t remove bias, it merely obscures it. The configurations that make Techmeme a tech news site embody some of that bias. Beyond that, headlines are also skewed by Techmeme’s emphasis of business news over areas like video game reviews, developer news, gadget arcana, and green tech. Finally, influencers that communicate mainly in links don’t figure prominently on Techmeme. Slashdot is widely read, yet absent from the top 100.

Time to say goodbye to the Technorarti Top Blogs chart? I don’t know, each has their own bias.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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