it’s down to the numbers, really
There’s popular and then there’s popular.
If you have a peek at the Technorati top popular blogs super-100 ego-thon (here) you’ll find things like Seth Godin’s blog, the Huffington blog, even A List Apart, but you won’t find some other very famous bloggers who are nevertheless, uh, famous bloggers. For example, Wil Wheaton or John Scalzi (both of whom I read on a regular basis).
These two guys have high rankings in the Tehcnorati ego-thon, and they get lots of visitors and also a certain amount of fame for their blogs. And I suppose that the Technorati ego-thon is a widely-regarded way of identifying just how “popular” a blog really is.
But.
You want to know something which might not show up in Technorati’s rankings but is without question the most foolproof way in this quadrant to really prove a blog’s popularity? I’ll tell you.
I read a number of post-modern enlightened web design CSS/XHTML wizard blogs on a regular basis. I consider these my professional (as opposed to recreational) blogs. Of these professional blogs, far and away my most favorite — and by sheer usefulness the most instructive — is Roger Johansson’s 456 Berea Street blog. Roger is well-known among the CSS design community, and he’s a favorite destination for lots of web designers and programmers, because he’s just so damned good at what he does.
But exactly how famous?
Well. Sometime yesterday (Sweden time) he posted an innocuous little entry asking his readers to answer three simple questions: do they browse the internet with their browser windows maximized, at what screen resolution do they operate, and what operating system do they use. Simple, straightforward, and requiring one-word answers. He asked his readers to answer in the comments for the post, and after two weeks he intends to close comments and compile the results.
So about fifteen minutes ago I posted my own comment. And what number was my comment?
814.
Eight Hundred and Fucking Fourteen.
Now, you, my gentle reader, may have very different attitudes, philosophies, tastes, and opinions, than me. Many people who know me personally might actually say that’s a good thing if you have different attitudes, philosophies, tastes, and opinions, than me. But let’s be clear on one point: if you don’t think that receiving eight hundred and fourteen comments to a post at your blog in less than twenty-four hours isn’t an astonishing statement on the popularity of your blog, then I’d really like to know what you take that is slowly disintegrating your mind.
Technorati and its ego-thon ranking is all well and good. Me? I don’t care if Roger Johansson’s 456 Berea Street is in the top one hundred or not — anybody who pulls 814 comments in less than twenty four hours is one of the top bloggers in the world.
Technorati tags: Roger Johansson