Within four hours of writing about the Catalog Choice piece on The Today Show, Google ranks my article #2 (as of 4:03pm PST) for the search term "Ann Curry and Catalogs", driving a truly disproportionate amount of traffic to my article.
The pace with which human beings, social media, traditional media, machines, and algorithms rapidly, uncontrollably and unpredictably interact with each other should cause all of us to take notice.
Some folks would have you believe that the customer is now in control. Analyzing my blog visitation statistics, I'd argue that Google is firmly in control.
It is extraordinary, Kevin. I had a similar experience this week. After writing about a NewScientist article on a system called "Smart Party," I checked Google later in the day. I was surprised that the rest of the blogosphere hadn't hit on the topic yet (they certainly have now!), but at that time my entry was #3 for "smart party."
ReplyDeleteRemember that British movie, "The Mouse That Roared?" That describes the power of user-generated content today, thank primarily to Google!