Blogging Can Make You Number One
If you Google Zbigniew Brzezinski, chances are you'll find the one you're looking for. But finding a particular John Miller or Mary Jones can be problematic. But journalist Clive Thompson says that, because of the ranking system that Google uses, blogging is a good way for the generically named to rise to the top of any searches. Steve Mirsky reports from the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships Future of Science Journalism Symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
SUBSCRIBE TO Science Quickly
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
“When you google yourself, who do you find?” That question was raised by Clive Thompson, speaking Tuesday at a science journalism symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Thompson is a science and technology writer and columnist at Wired. Back in 2002, if Thompson googled himself, the most popular sites that came up were for a British Lord Clive Thompson. The journalist Clive Thompson wanted his writings to come up first. So he started to blog. “I essentially wanted to hack Google. Google looks for, ya know, if you type in Clive Thompson, it finds every page that has Clive Thompson on it, but then it ranks them based on which pages have the most links pointing to them. Under that logic, the best way to dominate the top spot for you online is to have a site with zillions of things pointing to it. And the sites that tend to have zillions of thing pointing to them are blogs.” Useful info for any John Smiths hoping to be found with a Google search. “After about like two months of blogging, my blog was already on the front page for Clive Thompson. And about six or seven months later it was the number one slot. And now, I mean, I’ve just liquidated this guy.”
—Steve Mirsky, from the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships Future of Science Journalism Symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts
60-Second Science is a daily podcast. Subscribe to this Podcast: RSS | iTunes
It’s Time to Stand Up for Science
If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.
I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.
If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.
In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.
There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.
