Investigating the Impact of the Blogosphere: Using PageRank to Determine the Distribution of Attention
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2007-10-17
Author(s)
Kirchhoff, Lars
;
Bruns, Axel
;
Nicolai, Thomas
Abstract
Much has been written in recent years about the blogosphere and its impact on political, educational and scientific debates. Lately the issue has received significant attention from the industry. As the blogosphere continues to grow, even doubling its size every six months, this paper investigates its apparent impact on the overall Web itself. We use the popular Google PageRank algorithm which employs a model of Web use to measure the distribution of user attention across sites in the blogosphere. The paper is based on an analysis of the PageRank distribution for 8.8 million blogs in 2005 and 2006.
This paper addresses the following key questions: How is PageRank distributed across the blogosphere? Does it indicate the existence of measurable, visible effects of blogs on the overall mediasphere? Can we compare the distribution of attention to blogs as characterised by the PageRank with the situation for other forms of web content? Has there been a growth in the impact of the blogosphere on the Web over the two years analysed here? Finally, it will also be necessary to examine the limitations of a PageRank-centred approach.
This paper addresses the following key questions: How is PageRank distributed across the blogosphere? Does it indicate the existence of measurable, visible effects of blogs on the overall mediasphere? Can we compare the distribution of attention to blogs as characterised by the PageRank with the situation for other forms of web content? Has there been a growth in the impact of the blogosphere on the Web over the two years analysed here? Finally, it will also be necessary to examine the limitations of a PageRank-centred approach.
Funding(s)
Language
English
Keywords
Blogs
Blogosphere
PageRank
Impact
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Event Title
Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Internet Research 8.0
Event Location
Vancouver
Event Date
17.-20.10.2007
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
37865
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2007_08_Investigating_The_Impact_Of_The_Blogosphere.pdf
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Format
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