Fun with Googlefight
That link leads to a fight between Facebook and Myspace, but you can type in any keywords and watch them "fight". The winner is the one with the most results on Google. I thought this was relevant (a little) since what I decided to research was what we like most on the internet. What are we drawn to? Why? (a note about that: "websites" was the second most popular ending for "top 10 most popular" in google's suggestion box, just behind "sports")
http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/US
http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/US
Alexa.com is a site provided by Amazon.com devoted solely to monitoring the popularity of other websites, and cited by many as one of the most accurate. I found it pretty surprising how few of the top US sites are entertainment related. Youtube is the only one really acknowledged as being purely for entertainment value, the others (facebook, myspace, blogger, twitter, and Flickr) fall more under the category of social networking that sheer look-at-something-funny-until-you-realize-you-haven't-blinked-in-four-hours entertainment. Otherwise, most are search engines. That probably explains the lack of diversity; people are using the search engines to get to less popular sites that aren't showing up.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Users-Spend-Three-Times-More-on-Social-Networks-than-a-Year-Ago-122705.shtml
This contains a pretty interesting article on the increase in growth among social networking sites. One thing in particular that caught my attention was the stark contrast between the sites' growth and the growth of their advertising income. While the sites themselves have only become about 11% more popular, their advertising sales have gone up by 119%. To me this ties into the phenomenon of Hype, the fact that the more something is talked about the bigger of a deal it seems to be. Like swine flu-- contagious, maybe, but the symptoms are actually slightly less than a seasonal flu. Yet, thanks to all the hype, it seems like a deadly epidemic that could claim anyone as its next victim. It's not at all uncommon for hype like this to make things seem like a bigger deal than they really are; who hasn't heard someone on a comedy show proclaim that their ridiculous group is "serious business"? All the press that the internet gets (especially being the internet itself, self-perpetuating and all) has swelled its reputation, but even knowing this it's still incredible to see how disproportionate our understanding really is.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb270/is_2_28/ai_n31488501/
A fairly straightforward list of the top 10 blog topics of 2008. I'm not quite sure what the percentages refer to, seeing as how the first three alone add up to 142%. I find it interesting that these topics seem to be a bit more in-depth than the topics one would typically see on other sets. Usually, since blogging involves a lot more writing than most other forms of online posting, a blogger has to be more devoted to their topic and have more material. Therefore, blogs are more likely to be based on complex social issues (like an editorial) or personal experiences (like a journal or a log).
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Users-Spend-Three-Times-More-on-Social-Networks-than-a-Year-Ago-122705.shtml
This contains a pretty interesting article on the increase in growth among social networking sites. One thing in particular that caught my attention was the stark contrast between the sites' growth and the growth of their advertising income. While the sites themselves have only become about 11% more popular, their advertising sales have gone up by 119%. To me this ties into the phenomenon of Hype, the fact that the more something is talked about the bigger of a deal it seems to be. Like swine flu-- contagious, maybe, but the symptoms are actually slightly less than a seasonal flu. Yet, thanks to all the hype, it seems like a deadly epidemic that could claim anyone as its next victim. It's not at all uncommon for hype like this to make things seem like a bigger deal than they really are; who hasn't heard someone on a comedy show proclaim that their ridiculous group is "serious business"? All the press that the internet gets (especially being the internet itself, self-perpetuating and all) has swelled its reputation, but even knowing this it's still incredible to see how disproportionate our understanding really is.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb270/is_2_28/ai_n31488501/
A fairly straightforward list of the top 10 blog topics of 2008. I'm not quite sure what the percentages refer to, seeing as how the first three alone add up to 142%. I find it interesting that these topics seem to be a bit more in-depth than the topics one would typically see on other sets. Usually, since blogging involves a lot more writing than most other forms of online posting, a blogger has to be more devoted to their topic and have more material. Therefore, blogs are more likely to be based on complex social issues (like an editorial) or personal experiences (like a journal or a log).
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