Why isn't APOD on Wikio?

[RJN]

Perhaps readers of this board can do APOD a favor. APOD's funding, in my opinion, is greatly bolstered by its popularity. APOD needs to demonstrate this popularity, in my opinion, in order to stay funded. Yet some web ranking schemes seem to ignore APOD's popularity. Now normally I don't really care, but, as I said, being recognized as a popular science page gives APOD funding stability.

Recently, I became aware that one such page is wikio.com . Wikio ranks blogs according to popularity. When I saw several science web sites listing their wikio popularity, I went to wikio to check them out. They did not list APOD anywhere. So I filled in their form. Past an acknowledgement that they received my request, still, they did not list APOD. This was some time ago, more than a month. Then I sent them email. Now, not even an acknowledgement. I do not know why. Perhaps they do not consider APOD a blog? If so, that is understandable, but they should tell me that. If so, it seems to me, many other sites they list should also not be considered a blog.

How can you help? Please, if someone can get a live human at wikio.com to explain why APOD is not listed, I would be grateful. If they have a good reason, fine. If not, then it seems to me that APOD should be listed. And APOD being listed, as I said, might bolster future funding requests. I thank anyone who can be of help in this matter. Please, of course, remain polite with the wikio team at all times.

- RJN

[soupphysics]

I don't see what importance wikio has.

It looks like digg, but less popular, but with more advertisement, and entries created by staff, instead of by users.

I don't see much value of the site.

[Indigo_Sunrise]

It may have something to do with an RSS feed, (which, according to my browser - IE - is "not detected" from the APOD web page:

An RSS feed (acronym for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication), provides a summary of the content generated on a website.

It takes the title of an article, followed by an image if there is one, the date and time, name of the author and principle keywords or a summary of the text, and presents this to users. This system allows news sites and blogs to diffuse a summary of their content in real time.

Using an RSS reader (available with Firefox, Safari, Opera, RssReader, etc.), an Internet user can consult the various titles of the latest articles on a given site or blog, and then should they find a news story or blog post particularly interesting, they can go directly to the site itself to read it in its entirety.

Your new articles will be automatically included if you have an RSS feed for your site. Unfortunately we cannot index sites that do not have this.

If you want to publish a scoop or breaking story on Wikio, you can do so by using our publication tool: http://www.wikio.com/publish.

You will find more info on RSS feeds here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss

Quoted from wikio.com's FAQ's, here


Of course, I don't know anything about RSS feeds, so no overly-harsh critisms required. The above info is just what I found poking around on their site....

[orin stepanek]

When I ran a search scan for APOD on their site; their reply was that APOD had not been submitted.
Orin

[RJN]

What is a "scan search"? Surely APOD is no where to be found on wikio, but I have submitted it several times.
- RJN

[orin stepanek]

I used wikio's search engine and typed APOD into it!
http://www.wikio.com/blogs/top/sciences

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Blog ranking - November 2009 WikioBlog rankingGeneral

Top Blogs - GeneralGeneral

Choose a category:GeneralArchitecture and DesignBusinessCelebrityClassical MusicFashionFilmFood and WineHealthLiteratureMusicPoliticsSciencesSportsTechnologyDescriptionHow are these rankings compiled?Find a blogFind a blog You will find here the monthly rankings for the most widely referenced blogs


How are these rankings compiled?The position of a blog in the Wikio ranking depends on the number and weight of the incoming links from other blogs. These links are dynamic, which means that they are backlinks or links found within articles.
Only links found in the RSS feed are included. Blogrolls are not taken into account, and the weight of any given link increases according to how recently it was published. We thus hope to provide a classification that is more representative of the current influence levels of the blogs therein.
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Our rankings are updated on a monthly basis and also include Top Blogs for several categories: Technology, Politics, etc. New categories will be added on a regular basis.

Sorry, but we were unable to find a blog that matches your search.
It seems "APOD" has not yet been submitted to Wikio. If you would like to suggest this site to our editorial team,

Orin

[SittingDownMan]

What is a "scan search"? Surely APOD is no where to be found on wikio, but I have submitted it several times.
- RJN

I suspect "search scan" is stuffing "APOD" into the keyword search box and pressing the "go" button.
I did that with the slightly longer "astronomy picture of the day" and Wikio rewarded me with several
hits. Most of them seemed to be about green flashes.
Perhaps you should use both titles in the title filed of the page?
"Astronomy Picture Of the Day ( APOD )" ?
......................................................SDM :>