Team Mail and Guardian have gone public, somewhat earlier than i think they were hoping, with Amatomu. Aimed at being some sort of round up of the SA blogosphere, I think its a really exciting development.

I like the idea of being able to track mentions of keywords / phrases such as “BMW” within a South African context. Being a global brand, there’s a lot of mentions of BMW and sorting through the international versus local results is painful, especially when 99% are from overseas. Using more refined searches such as “BMW South Africa” is one way to get past that, but then who says “BMW South Africa” anyway?

Anyway, I really wanted to pose a few points for discussion surrounding the mechanics of the site as well as just general thoughts (in no particular order).

1. Blog stats - the embedded code: As far as I’m aware, the code is a 3rd party cookie. If this is the case, then I believe that the stats may not be so accurate. The log file versus javascript/cookie based tracking debate is not a new one, and each argument has its pros and cons. BUT, as far as “most popular” rankings go, I think its a fair system as long as all the blogs are using a standard system.
My only suggestion to embedding the code is that all blogs place it in the same area in their HTML. I reckon the average blog homepage is about 10 to 15 stories long which could take a while to load. It’s also pretty well known that the majority of web visits last less than 30 seconds. My thinking therefore, is that if the embedded code is just after the start body tag (i.e. at the top of the page) it will produce higher figures than if the code is placed just before the close body (i.e. right at the bottom of the page) tag as the info sent to Amatomu may never be triggered when it’s sitting at the bottom of the HTML.

2. Individual post v homepage access: I’d imagine the popular post ranking algorithm can only work if someone were to click into the story from the homepage (or from a permalink or RSS post). Most blogs show the whole story on the homepage already. It’s obviously impossible (i think?) to include homepage “reads” in the individual post ranking algorithm. That said, I guess most people would click on a story to make or view the comments. The more people doing this on a particular post is good enough for me as a measure of popularity. It would be nice if it could factor in some sort of muti score/weighting.

3. Blog stats - excluding the RSS readers: The heading really says it all. As the take up of RSS as a generally accepted information channel increases, the number of views on a post or site will likely decrease (again, unless there’s a click-through to comment). Vinny sums this up pretty well here.

4. The big guys vs the little guys: This one is not really a problem, possibly more of an opportunity. Looking at all the rankings, KEO.co.za completely dominates all the rankings - almost all popular posts (24hrs, 7 days, and 1 month), as well as the top blog rankings. With the sheer volume of views that KEO is getting, compared to any other blog, things are unlikely to change anytime soon. As i said, this is not a problem (or bug), but it may decrease the value that users get out of such a large piece of Amatomu homepage real estate. I think there may be an opportunity for Amatomu to apply some sort of long tail theory, possibly by incorporating an “up and coming” blogs/stories (ala digg) ranking.

All in all, I think that this is a fantastic development, and a few steps forward in the maturation of the South African blogosphere. The fact that the product is only in Alpha version makes me wonder in excitement as to how great it will be when its like. . . . . . in beta?

More about Amatomu:
Vincet Maher - Introducing the public Amatomu alpha: notes from the developer
Tyler Reed - Amatomu - South Africa’s Technorati
» “Amatomu” search results from Amatomu.com