Blog metrics

Elise Bauer has composed some blog metrics, in an attempt to try and build a profile of the extent of blogging tools.

However, from looking at it, she’s basically just based her research on a search in Google for the software footprints. I run a few dozen blogs (some for SEO puproses, others as content management solutions) and in every instance I ensure I remove the copyright and backlink of the software. I’m certainly not the only one to do this - heck, Movable Type have it as a licence option.

She also seems to have based a lot of data on backlink checks - but she’s done it at a time when Google was in the middle of a major update, with indices carrying very different backlinks results across different datacenters. This is another potentially serious flaw in the results.

Overall, it’s interesting in terms of illustration, but despite the lovely graphics, best not to read too much meaning into them.

Is it a bad chart? Not in the slightest - it’s great to see that she’s spent time collecting data and presenting it.

It’s just as with any statistical presentation, there are always challengable assumptions underpinning the report, and it’s worth keeping these in mind.