The value of aggregators

The Drudge Report apparently drives more traffic to news websites than Facebook or Twitter combined. The Society for Scholarly Publishing says there's lessons to be learned here about the value of aggregation, and how science could use aggregation to drive better communication about new research and big ideas.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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Unmutual

Facebook OR Twitter combined with what?

Or did you mean Facebook AND Twitter combined?
cory

So, how much does Boingboing drive?
Anonymous

Drudge curator?
Anonymous

Too bad Drudge is such a skewed sack of shit. Blatant errors and misrepresentation in just about every headline.

Example from today: “New, federally-mandated light bulbs will cost $50 — each…”

Bullshit. Read the article and it talks about a brand new LED based lamp that can replace 100 watt light bulbs, specifically states that it is expensive now, and explicitly mentions that CFLs are quite cheap.

Drudge is a jackass in the same league of jackasses as O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Palin, and the Koch brothers.
- emmdeeaych
  
  What can it tell us about the propensity for meatheads to be meatheaded? I do mean drudge, and his drudgeons.
David A

Well, I’ve certainly freaked some people’s youtube channels out by linking to them on Reddit.

Then again I’ve also been linked from some international blogs, and gotten 10,000+ views in half a day.

Weird how the internet works.
Anonymous

I think there’s definitely a place for curated news or curated link aggregators. I would like to see more and better aggregators of the ‘this is what you should be reading’ variety than the ‘this is what we think you want to look at’ variety.

I think it’s a little odd that the article makes the assumption that driving traffic to other sites is somehow inherently good. While there’s surely much to learn from the Drudge site, I don’t see how linking to other sites would be considered “success” for scholarly publishing.
dross1260

Having a hard time with “Drudge” and “curato”r used in the same article.
Anonymous

Drudge not only didn’t break the Schwarzenegger “love child” story, it has not even reported it yet. I submitted it to their tip link, perhaps it was just an oversight…