Blogging "superstar" Xu Jinglei
I read a news article on CNN.com today about the "most widely read blogger in the world", Chinese Xu Jinglei. The article (originally from Reuters) has of course got a lot of attention all over the world, since it is really controversial to point out someone as the #1 blogger in the world. As always, it depends on what measurements that are used and in this case the blog has had "100 million pageviews in 600 days", which really says nothing about the actual number of actual readers. But it is still a lot, that is for sure, and it was not only the amount of visitors that caught my interest. It was her Technorati rank.
From the article: "Leading blog search engine Technorati has said Xu's blog recorded last year the most incoming links of any on the Internet, according to the online edition of the China Daily". I remember the surprise when Technorati made the changes that suddenly placed a Chinese blog on the #1 spot. I was myself listed on the popular blogs list at that time (around #40). But since then the girl has lost the top position, and some other guy has taken over her position as the most linked blog in the world. I bet that you have seen his blog some time, don't you think? Not that incoming links (or "Authority" as Technorati calls it) is a better number for measurements, it is even worse than "pageviews"…
During the same 600 days, my blog has had 15 million pageviews. I would say it is a good number, but it is far from any top level. But according to the measurement used to point out the "most widely read blog in the world", that blog should has had only 8 times more pageviews my site. Once again, that doesn't say anything about the actual number of visitors, and it is also not real numbers. But it says enough to make be doubt that the Chinese blog is really the most read blog in the world.
I am pretty sure that any person who knows his or her way around blog statistics and visitor measurements should be able to prove this article to be incorrect - or atleast force media to use real numbers and confirmed external statistics as the source material when such a claim is made. I do hope that I am wrong, but I can't see how "100 million pageviews" over 600 days could even be close to enough to be the most widely read blog in the world. If you do some math, the average number of pageviews will be 166.666 per day. Translate that to actual unique visitors, and it can be anywhere from 8.000-80.000 actual visitors in an average day. Is that really enough to earn such a pretty title? Seriously?
Comments
Comment from Khushal
Time: July 20, 2007, 1:58 am
And thats why she is all over the Blogosphere, believe me i never heard of her before i read this article even and besides in the Blogospher there are always people like DArren Rowse, Shoemoney, TEchCrunch guys!!! still wondering how did she became the most read Blogger!!!
Comment from Kraig
Time: July 20, 2007, 9:39 am
I'm with Khushal! I read a lot of blogs every day, but I never heard of her blog :-)
Comment from sintra
Time: July 20, 2007, 10:54 am
I read an article about her in a local magazine……but that's it. Me and my friends spend enough time on the internet and blogs but none of us heard about Xu.
The statistics are defenitly wrong and this is not the first time i notice this.
Maybe her blog will become the most widley read, after the articles and publicity done lately.
Comment from Sher
Time: July 20, 2007, 9:27 pm
To Sintra, did you actually say "the statistics are definitely wrong"?
Are you Chinese? Do you speak and write Chinese fluently? How long have you been in China? How familiar are you with Chinese pop culture? Ask any internet user in China, I can guarantee you that 100% of them will tell you who Xu Jinglei is.
Just in case if you don't already know this, but she doesn't have to be internationally known, and have you and your friends know her to have the most visited blog in China (or in the world in this case). Math is not even required to understand this fact.
Comment from Andreas
Time: July 20, 2007, 10:22 pm
Sher is mostly right. I knew about her, but only from the Technorati list story. Bloggers that are well known in the english-speaking world may be completely unknown in China - and of course that works the other way too. I don't doubt that the numbers stated in the article is correct.
But with that said, when I write that Xu Jinglei is likely not the most widely read blogger in the world, I'm using the same stats that are provided in the article. If those statistics are correct, Xu is indeed a blogging superstar in China - but not even close to being the most widely read blogger in the world.
100 million pageviews over 600 days and an old #1 rank on Technorati is in no way a good measurement to point out the biggest blogger in the world, and it is a bit strange to see a serious news agency like Reuters claim something like that. The least I would have expected would be actual statistics and comparisations with other top blogs.
Comment from Dima Design
Time: July 21, 2007, 1:07 pm
The most important not attendance blog, important what people it read that more often, as it forms the certain circle of people after interests, instead of is simple visitors which send and send away.
Comment from Pradeep
Time: July 22, 2007, 12:06 am
Confused with your mathematics, I think "100 millions pageviews" over 600 days makes 166666.666 page views per day.
Don't be depressed if you are not No. 1 ?
Work hard you can No. 1 one day.
Comment from Andreas
Time: July 22, 2007, 12:40 am
Pradeep: I wrote 166.666 pageviews per day. There is no decimal in that number, only a delimiter for the thousands. It is the same number that you wrote, although you are using another number format. And no, I am not depressed at all. As a funny fact, I am actually #1 in the sense that I have the most linked blog in the world according to Technorati. That is exactly the same achievement that is mentioned in the Xu Jinglei article, although she did it "last year" and my blog is doing it right now.
Since I am in that position myself in this moment, it is easy to claim that it is a useless measurement in reality. Pageviews are also useless, and even if pageviews were accepted as a measurement for such a title, 166.666 pageviews per day can not possibly be enough to have the most widely read blog in the world. No confuses there, just common sense. The number is too small.
Comment from Insider
Time: July 23, 2007, 11:15 am
Well I don't think that that number should be taken seriously because I can't believe that so many people really visit this blog. Furthermore it's not only the number of people who visit a side that makes this side a good one. I think the quality of a side is much more important than just the number of visitors.
Comment from circus-sociale.de - Kredit & Finanzen
Time: July 23, 2007, 12:17 pm
I agree that pageviews doesn't say much about actual visitors. More than that everyone who has used an tried out different web statistsics will confirm that you get different results out of them. Are all robots and scripts identified and sperated from human visitors? Google Analytics for example is said to produce very "optimistic" statistics while AWStats is said to be a "hard" counter. If you run a well visisted site the differende can be about a houndred or a thousand visitors a day.
Comment from Mathew
Time: July 23, 2007, 10:49 pm
I wouldn't worry too much, CNN is far from the most accurate or credible news source. They probably had the office temp slap together that article.
Comment from pangloss
Time: July 25, 2007, 1:10 am
Andreas, I would not worry so much about stadistics managed by journalists.
Best,
pangloss
Comment from Lars Hessner
Time: July 25, 2007, 2:25 am
I agree, 170,000 page views per day is not really what I would expect for the world's most widely read blogger in the world. 170,000,000 would be more like something that would impress me.
Comment from Fred
Time: August 1, 2007, 6:23 am
I've never even heard of you until the day I decided to Google "free CSS templates." So what if CNN proclaims this woman to be the most read blogger in the world. It's a meaningless title. Whoop de do.
Comment from Fuser
Time: August 2, 2007, 10:13 am
Hi, great article… im 100% with you this time. Pageviews does not mean readers at all. If i got a front page link in Google for 24hs, i would get 100.000.000 page views for sure, but not readers. I have to say that this blog is one of the blogs i always read. Thanks for this interesting article,
fuser
Comment from Detektiv
Time: July 20, 2007, 1:43 am
15 million pageviews in 600 days? Wow, that´s a heavy number…
Congratulations!