MyBlogLog and Hot Topics

So MyBlogLog, a Yahoo blogging community, has now added a Hot Topics page. It’s in beta now, so it appears a little uneventful compared to some of the other hot topic pages I have bookmarked. Here was the top five for December 14th.

Top Five Hot Topics

1. Survivor Gabon
2. Shoe
3. Miss World 2008
4. Reporter
5. Alexandra Burke

Looking at their top five my first reaction was “Really?” Most of them seemed a little uneventful to me. Hot topic #1, Survivor Gabon, would not even make the top 100 in my book, but I can’t stand reality shows. The topic Shoe, came 2nd a day after shoes went flying toward President Bush. That was really the only one that made sense to me.

Comparing to Other Hot Topic Pages

So I decided to compare their hot topics with some of the other hot topic pages I have bookmarked to see how relevant they are to each other. Technorati had a Google story as #1, AOL top search was for NFL, Ask had MySpace as the #1 search with Hillary Clinton climbing, and the top buzz on Yahoo was about how Caroline Kennedy wants a senate seat. Even Google’s Trend had no mention of Survivor Gabon.

It seemed like all my Hot Topic sites had their own favorites, and I can only guess this has to do with the types of persons that use these services. I’m pretty positive the type that like to visit Technorati are not the same group that use the search engine Ask.

My List of Hot Topic Pages:

• AOL Hot Searches
• Ask.com Top Searches
• Digg.com
• Google Trends
• Lycos 50
• Technorati
• Yahoo Buzz

The MyBlogLog did have a cool little graph so you could see the spikes, and a few numbers to go with it so you could get an idea how things are moving. It also included links to a few of the feeds and blogs that mentioned their hot topics. Now how you get on that list, I would like to know that one. Clicking on the topic phrase you get taken to a list of all the blog members of MyBlogLog that had recently mentioned the topic.

Comparing Search Terms and Blog Topics

Comparing the popular search terms against bloggers hot topics should be interesting.  Are bloggers staying ahead of the trends, or are they just following the lead? Bloggers have many times played a very similar role as a reporter, in the way that their story can be what makes the topic popular. Comparing Yahoo’s MyBlogLog vs. Googles Trend right now Survivor and shoes flying at the President do seem like pretty big topics to write about, and according to MyBlogLog that is what is happening. According to Google Trend though, the topic is not that hot yet. Mabye it’s already over.