I keep track on how our network sites are doing around the analytic realm. The reason for this is not to stroke my own ego, but to understand the trend and gather information on how our users reacts to content published on our sites. One of my favorite place to find these analytic information is a site call Wikio. To understand more on how the ranking are being calculated, I asked Wikio’s Community Executive Marjorie Montillon about the ranking’s placement. Here is what she has to said on this matter:

The position of a blog in the Wikio ranking depends on the number and weight of the incoming links from other blogs. These links are dynamic, which means that they are backlinks or links found within articles.

Only links found in the RSS feed are included. Blogrolls are not taken into account, and the weight of any given link increases according to how recently it was published. We thus hope to provide a classification that is more representative of the current influence levels of the blogs therein.

Moreover, the weight of a link depends on the linking blog’s position in the Wikio ranking. With our algorithm, the weight of a link from a blog that is more highly ranked is greater than that of a link from a blog that is less well ranked.

The rankings are updated on a monthly basis.

The Wikio rankings do not take into account either the Google PageRank or traffic of your blog. We use our own algorithm.

In another words, Wikio is an upstream analytics provider and gather their own data rather than aggregating it from other services. Below is the Feb 2010 Ranking that Marjorie sent to me for sneak preview before it goes up on Wikio this Friday. Wikio publishes ranking monthly on the 5th of each month. SlashGear seats at #16 this month.

Read on why I switched to Google’s Nexus One. Not saying I would not use the iPhone x.x version in the future, but for now, Nexus One fits me like a glove.

I’m honored that SlashGear was added to WordPress showcase for our unique implementation of WordPress & BBPress.

Quoted from WordPress Showcase

Why it’s in the Showcase: SlashGear is a major gadget and technology blog that receives millions of readers per month and uses WordPress to power its entire site, including main site, bbPress-powered forums, and video site. All three sites have integrated user tables and login session sharing.

For the past 6 months I’ve been working on a new project outside R3 Media LLC with my business partner Vincent Nguyen and a great developer Daniel Lim. The project is called eGether; a multi-dimensional social portal for consumers, reporters, analysts and PR practitioners. Curious? Then head over to eGether now!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Come together with eGether a collaborative multi-dimensional service combining the best functionality from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and LinkedIn.

Scottsdale, AZ, and Dallas, TX — December 8, 2009 — Addressing consumer demand to have one site that links to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and LinkedIn, eGether is launching today in public beta (http://egether.com/). A collaborative multi-dimensional social portal for consumers, reporters, analysts and PR practitioners, eGether is centered around an Activity Pitching Engine (APE) that combines 255 character status updates and 999 character pitches, using familiar @ status messaging for inter-user communication. Status updates can include one image, while pitches can include image and video content (including embedded YouTube), documents such as DOC, PDF and ZIP, and hyperlinks.

eGether was founded by Vincent Nguyen and Ewdison Then after they had grown frustrated using a combination of existing networking tools to collaborate. They developed eGether to bring the best of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and LinkedIn functionality and features into one easy-to-manage social networking service structured around Activities and Connections. Activities originate from user status updates and pitches, combined with user-defined contact information, online galleries that can be tagged with people and products. Connections include private and public circles — groups of other eGether users with whom they collaborate, or topics about which they are interested.

eGether also allows consumers to obtain product and service information direct from the source, rather than second-hand. Consumers can use global search for the latest company news and reviews, and PR firms can freely pitch their clients’ products and services, rather than sending out individual alerts.

eGether offers a single information point with a custom URL for users that can be shared via email, Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere. Visitors can then engage in discussions with everyone from consumers, to people in the media, to analysts, or even engineers involved in the company. eGether also empowers users to connect and share what’s on their mind, or even just to share their thoughts on the shiny new gadget they received over the holidays.

To start taking advantage of eGether’s powerful social networking tools, sign up at http://egether.com/signup.

eGether is supported by an advisory board including Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, Inc. (www.creativestrategies.com); Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis at Interpret, LLC (www.gartenblog.net); Seth Combs, interactive brand strategist(www.sethcombs.com); and Judie Lipsett, tech blogger and founder of GearDiary (www.geardiary.com).

###
For more information, contact

Vincent Nguyen
vincent [at] r3media.com
+1 (917) 477-7911

http://eGether.com/Vincent

Ewdison Then
ethen [at] r3media.com
+1 (917) 720-8281

http://eGether.com/Ewdi

All marks are the property of their respective owners.

I know I’m a little late on this, but late announcement is better than no announcement at all; SlashGear has added its editorial agenda with columns written by industry experts. While our focus is still up to date tech and gadget news, we wanted to diversify our content with opinions and analysis on digital lifestyle. I would like to welcome Michael Gartenberg, Avi Greengart, and Joanna Stern to SlashGear family.

An analyst working with Credit Suisse is claiming that YouTube is costing itself nearly $500 million a year. YouTube, which is owned by Google, only places banner advertisements on approximately 3% of the pages that make up the website. If they were to increase the number of pages that include web advertisements, they just might see their online advertising revenues increase dramatically.

The analyst, Spencer Wang, suggested that YouTube needs to create a standard web advertisement for their site. Once they can accommodate the additional advertisements, it will be important for YouTube to convince marketers that their site has the capability to boost sales for the products that they advertise.

Not too long ago the forecasted revenues for Google were dropped a bit and YouTube is supposedly to blame. Analysts suggest that the video website is a real weakness for Google. Wang noted that “Despite the growth of YouTube’s user base, there is little evidence to suggest Google has been able to materially monetize this usage. In light of the current ad recession, experimental budgets are being trimmed.”

Google stock has already taken a hit over the last several months. The economy is declining and revenue generated by online advertisements simply is not growing as fast as it used to. Even though the forecast for YouTube was less than optimistic, the value of Google stock grew slightly. At the moment, Google also seems to be generating a great deal of gossip over whether reports of a Twitter takeover are true or not.

Phorm has created a new type of technology that will essentially allow ISPs to track their users’ activity online. ISPs will then be able to take the information that has been generated by users and sell it to online advertisers. This will allow them to use advertisements that fit more appropriately with a user’s interests.

Many people have expressed outrage at the technology which could easily be seen as a gross invasion of privacy. Not too long ago, the Open Rights Group sent several large internet companies a letter that asked them to avoid Phorm’s technology. Those who received the letter included Bebo, Google, Facebook, and Yahoo.

Several companies are beginning to respond to the letter and it looks like Phorm might have a problem on their hands. A Bebo spokesperson said “We have received the letter and are giving it careful consideration from privacy and business perspectives.” Chris Kelly with Facebook added that “If [web browsers] are deeply unhappy with it we hope they express that as clearly as possible to the ISPs.”

It is also easy to assume that companies like Google will want nothing to do with Phorm. This is mainly because the technology that Phorm developed will be competing with their own. Although the technologies used by both companies may be different, the end result is more or less the same. Both will enable behavioral advertising to take place. The Open Rights Group is expecting a response from Google shortly.

It is no secret that the newspaper industry is suffering but several journalists who work with online newspapers believe that the future of the industry will be saved with the help of web advertisements. The Online News Association conducted a survey of approximately 300 journalists and the vast majority of them said that the news industry will find a way to stay profitable.

The survey questioned the journalists as to how online news sites would be able to turn a profit in the future. Around 60 per cent of respondents said that web advertisements would be the most likely way to generate revenue in the next few years.

Print publications have slowly begun to realize that their readership base is shrinking. In most cases, the good news is that these same readers are heading online to read the information. A great example of this is a major newspaper like the New York Times. Every month this site receives millions and millions of unique clicks.

While their subscriber bases might have receded, the customers are still reading the news. The only thing that print publications need to do now is figure out how to generate the revenues from their online readers to make up for what they might have lost through the print side. With web advertising continually growing, it seems like the perfect opportunity for a number of these publications to cash in on.

Perhaps this strategy is oversimplified and it could prove to be ineffective. Rupert Murdoch recently noted that web advertising rates were simply too low.