Are Blogs Losing Their Authority To The Statusphere?
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/10/are-blogs-losing-their-authority-to-the-statusphere/

Wonderful account of the role of blogs today and a possible foretelling of their decline as "microblogging" becomes the norm.

Depending on which numbers you source or believe, all reports agree that the blogosphere continues to expand globally.

It goes back to the definition of authority. Links from blogs are no longer the only measurable game in town. Potentially valuable linkbacks are increasingly shared in micro communities and social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed and they are detouring attention and time away from formal blog responses.

Brian Solis on the dispersion of blogging's impact through micromedia and communities, and the need for broader measures of "authority"

However, a disruptive trend is already at play. While blogs are increasing in quantity, their authority–as currently measured by Technorati–is collectively losing influence.

Depending on which numbers you source or believe, all reports agree that the blogosphere continues to expand globally. As the leading blog directory and ... ( 10 maart 2009)

If you look over the above list you will see the main things your site needs to convey is: Natural, organic growth based on sound promotion behavior Valuable and unique content tailored towards people rather than search A solid foundation and human-centered design

What matters to Google.

Good for google info

copyblogger eBook with links to dig deeper on developing online authority.

When it comes to online marketing… Authority is what works.

one of the things up for grabs in the current news environment is the nature of authority. In particular, I noted that people trust new classes of aggregators and filters, whether Google or Twitter or Wikipedia (in its ‘breaking news’ mode.). Algorithmic authority is the decision to regard as authoritative an unmanaged process of extracting value from diverse, untrustworthy sources, without any human standing beside the result saying “Trust this because you trust me.”

Algorithmic authority is the decision to regard as authoritative an unmanaged process of extracting value from diverse, untrustworthy sources, without any human standing beside the result saying “Trust this because you trust me.” This model of authority differs from personal or institutional authority, and has, I think, three critical characteristics.

We were talking about authority and trust the other day in class after Angela's presentation on medical diagnoses - here's a new post from Clay Shirky on the topic - worth reading.

Invité à réagir à l'évolution des médias, Clay Shirky explique que la transformation majeure dans l'environnement de l'information repose sur la nature de l'autorité. En quelques années, par l'intermédiaire de nouveaux outils de filtrage et d'agrégation, nos autorités ont changé. Et de définir l'autorité algorithmique nouvelle par trois caractéristiques : il utilise des sources multiples et les combine pour les classer ; ces résultats étant suffisamment bons, les gens lui font confiance ; enfin, les gens se rendent compte que nombreux sont ceux qui font confiance à ces résultats ce qui les aide à adopter ces nouvelles autorités (comme Wikipédia).

Proposes to give additional relevance weight to twitter accounts based on how many times their messages get re-tweeted (90%+ messages do not get RT)

It's not the # of followers you have on Twitter, it's how deep your influence and engagement goes