The December 2011 standings may have been updated for December, though since there’s no North American presence or website, it’s hard to be sure. For those of you who still have a widget on your blog’s homepage, you may have noticed that the name has changed from Wikio to eBuzzing. As the so-called “consultant,” they told me that would coming back in September. My contact at Wikio also told me his employment contract was ending and he was unsure as to whether it would be renewed. In case it wasn’t, he also copied me on another person there who would be my contact in the event his contract wasn’t renewed. I’ve written e-mails to both of them since September and thus far have received no replies from anyone at eBuzzing.
If you have a widget and clicked on the link, you may also have noticed that it goes nowhere, to a “404 Error Not Found” page. Several people have written me, wondering what’s going on, and sadly, I’ve been unable to shed any light on the situation. They’re not exactly showing that the North American market is very important to them or their business. Gerard Walen, from RoadTrips4Beer, posted on their UK blog and got the following reply:
For the moment US rankings have not been incorporated into the site. We will notify you once the US rankings are once more included at the same high quality as our European rankings.
And to his follow-up, half-joking, question, they said:
For the moment we are focusing on European countries, but will be looking to include more filters for more countries in the future.
So apparently there are no North American rankings or website for now, and they thought it fairly unimportant to let anybody know, or even post that information on the new eBuzzing website. They don’t necessarily owe us an explanation, but it sure would have been nice if they’d let someone know or at least let that information be readily available for anyone who might have been interested in finding out what happened instead of just shutting down their North American operations.
Though curiously, the widgets that are still out there have changed, as if they’ve been updated for December. Every one of them except Jeff from Beervana has plummeted, dropping quite a bit, though a few that weren’t in the Top 20 last month now are. I only know this through the completely unscientific method of having visited every blog on the Top 20 list for the last six months to see if they have a widget and, if so, what their ranking is now, and comparing that to November.
UPDATE: Thanks to Bill Night from It’s Pub Night who figured out how to check any URL using the code from the widget. (Thanks Bill.) Based on that, I was able to sort out the Top 16, and several more using all the beer blogs that made the list over the last six months. Obviously, numbers 17-20 include some blogs that hadn’t made the list before. There are also others below 20 that haven’t been on the list lately, but I can’t really go through the complete list of beer blogs to fill in the missing ones. (Note: If you know your December ranking and it isn’t listed here, please drop me a note and I’ll add you.)
eBuzzing December 2011 Beer Blog Rankings (Maybe)
This, of course, may be the last month for these rankings. I always stressed that this was just a bit of fun and that we shouldn’t take it too seriously. But I have to say that the way they’ve handled the transition from Wikio to eBuzzing has left a bad taste in my mouth. I certainly understand that changes have to be made when companies merge, but keeping the people who might want to know in the dark is never the right way to go about it, at least in my opinion. Especially when you consider that the merger was first announced two years ago, in December 2009. C’est la vie. It was fun while it lasted.
Hey Jay – My widget has AppellationBeer.com/blog at No. 6 (down from No. 5 the month before). Very confusing. Of course, part of the blame is mine, for giving the blog a different url than the front page, on top of a blog name nobody can spell. Not that Hieronymus has ever been easy either ;>)
I’ll be removing the widget since when you click on it you get a bad address.
Thanks for the post, since I never pay attention to the widget. Which should probably tell us something.
Whoops, don’t know how I missed yours, probably because it was white and blended into the background.
Jay, thanks for this. I was wondering what the hell was going on, too. I appreciate the update and I will go further than you have: Ebuzzing does owe us an explanation, and this is terrible behavior.
For Wikio it was more than a bit of fun: it was their business. American bloggers might have said, “meh,” and moved on, relegating their work to an obscure ranking buried deep on their website. Instead, we got with the program, posted badges, and played along (even though, as we’ve noted often, there were substantial problems with their algorithms). The rules of business have shifted, but they haven’t been abandoned; if Ebuzzing wants to succeed, they’ll need partners willing to promote them for free. Now that we see how Ebuzzing treats these partners, we can act appropriately.
Since I’m still at the top, I’ll probably leave the damn thing up. Vanity, oh vanity! But Ebuzzing has burned its bridge with me and will have to do a great deal to get me back on board.
It opens up a great opportunity for another company to take Ebuzzing’s place–and here’s one person who hopes one emerges.
I took the badge off It’s Pub Night when I noticed the link was broken, but the old link puts me +1 at #7: http://external.labs.ebuzzing.com/blogs/top/getrank?url=http://www.its-pub-night.com/&cat=Beer&style=5.
If you want to check it for any particular blog, just sub in that blog’s address for my address above.
I always thought the rankings were ridiculous, case in point my blog landing in the top 10. And there were often blogs with few or no recent posts (e.g. Lost Abbey blog) that suddenly vaulted into the rankings, meaning something was awry. But it was a fun game to play while it lasted.
I’m with Jeff; as much as any algorithm that ranks blogs will be more fun than anything else, there’s obviously a niche for a company that does it. We’ll see who or what emerges.
Particularly strange that the algorithm still “works” and that they don’t do anything with it.
Well, my two months in the Top 20 were nice. Now RoadTripsForBeer.com has fallen to No. 39.
*mumblegrumble, stupid algorithm*
Though those of us in the know are aware that it is all in fun, but as a freelancer/job-seeker it served as a tool to make clients/potential employers think I know what I’m talking about. So in that sense, I’ll miss it.