You won’t find me on Techmeme any time soon
I’ve been trying to deconstruct how Techmeme works. It appears that Gabe Rivera’s clustering algo basically works in the following manner:
1. Find an interesting story (only on a Techmeme Leaderboard site, I believe)
2. Ping the permalink against Technorati on a regular basis, looking for referrers
3. If the referrer meets a minimum authority rating, add it to the cluster
Given the limited number of sites that meet the authority criteria, it would appear that the leaderboard is highly resistant insular, as is Techmeme in general. No long tail here. Anyone got a better understanding?
(Length: 96 words)
Some interesting links:
- Wired News: What Makes Techmeme Tick? Inventor Gabe Rivera Explains
- Stowe Boyd: How does Techmeme work?
- Amit Agarwal: Time-Lapse Video - How Techmeme Change Over Time
- Danny Sullivan: Techmeme’s Front Pages: What’s Really A Big Story & How To Go Back In Time
