[LINK] 'Blog' picked as word of the year

[Eric Scheid]

On 3/12/04 11:16 AM, "Antony Barry" <tony at tony-barry.emu.id.au> wrote:

> ...Merriam-Webster said "blog" was the word that people have asked to
> be defined or explained most often over the last 12 months.
> 
> ...A spokesman for the Oxford University Press said that the word was
> now being put into other dictionaries for children and learners,
> reflecting its mainstream use.

This is the third story I've seen recently on a related meme -- using web
feedback, particularly web search logs, to affect traditional publishing
content.

the other two stories I saw were:

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If a company name shows up with great frequency in the search logs but
hasn't been covered recently in Financial Times articles, it may indicate a
developing story about to hit daylight. [They] finds that this sort of
anomaly is often a useful predictor of what the FT should consider covering
in the coming days. Conversely, if a company name drops off the search logs,
interest in a related story line may be waning, and FT can choose to invest
its reporting resources elsewhere.

http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000316.html
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and...

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In Chile, instant Web feedback creates the next day's paper --
Three years ago, under Mr. Edwards's guidance, Las Ultimas Noticias (LUN)
installed a system whereby all clicks onto its website (http://www.lun.com/)
were recorded for all in the newsroom to see. Those clicks - and the
changing tastes and desires they represent - drive the entire print content
of LUN. If a certain story gets a lot of clicks, for example, that is a
signal to Edwards and his team that the story should be followed up, and
similar ones should be sought for the next day. If a story gets only a few
clicks, it is killed. The system offers a direct barometer of public
opinion, much like the TV rating system - but unique to print media.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1201/p01s04-woam.html
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The csmonitor story covers some of the unintended consequences. Worth a
read.

I know some australian news websites are counting clicks -- they have a
'most viewed article' feature on their front page. I wonder if that is fed
back to the editorial desks?

e.