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Weighting the Influence of Traditional Media vs. Blogs

There has been a lot of buzz the last few days about a patent that Google filed outlining their new ranking algorithms for their search engine that would favor traditional media sources. Search Engine Watch states that this patent was actually filed about 18 months ago so some of the new techniques could already be in use.  

While Google may have a unique approach to weighting news sources based on their credibility, the idea and practice of weighting publications has been around for a long time. PR people and market researchers have been using weighting techniques for decades to indicate the potential influence of a story. This patent may favor mainstream media (MSM) if traditional pubs are automatically given stronger weights. This could be a boon for MSM which has been seeing steadily decreasing readership and eroding ad revenues. But companies should not fall back to the singular view that they can focus their communications strategies purely on MSM.

There is significant analytical value in determining what the exposure of your brand and spokespeople is within this elite media list. However, companies should have multiple views of online influencers who rely on many different sources for product and company information. Even Bill Gates realizes the importance of online media, trade media and blogging. He recently gave an interview to Engadget, one of the most popular blogs.

If you need any more incentive to keep an eye open to the growing importance of blogs, read the updated research from Pew Internet & American Life project showing the increased influence on blogs in the U.S. especially within the 18-29 age group:

·        7% of the 120 million U.S. adults who use the Internet say they have created a blog or web-based diary. That represents more than 8 million people.

·        27% of Internet users say they read blogs, this number goes up to 36% for younger adults

·        19% of online Americans ages 18-29 have created blogs.

Posted by Julie Woods on May 3, 2005 at 08:46 AM | Email this post Permalink

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