Learn More About SocialRank

What is SocialRank?

SocialRank filters the blogosphere and automatically identifies today’s top stories for 1,000 different blog communities. We monitor millions of stories on the Internet, looking at links, comments and reactions of people reading the content to give you only the latest and most interesting stories for any area of interest.

We’ll be launching new communities on a daily basis starting in September 2007. Our first community is ProductivityZen.com - which will display the hottest productivity related blog posts each day.

What problems does SocialRank solve?

You have so many interests, but so little time… 1,000 new blogs are created every second… how do you stay on top of your key interests? Visit any one of the blog communities powered by SocialRank and you’ll immediately discover the top stories - and ONLY the top stories. You’ll get better content and learn more - in less time.

In the bigger picture, the internet is growing really quickly. There are many voices on the internet, and we need an easy and fair way to identify the top voices, and help you rapidly discover them.

How does SocialRank work?

SocialRank is powered by internet users. It monitor millions of stories on the Internet, looking at links, comments and reactions of people reading the content (amongst hundreds of other factors) to give you only the latest and most interesting stories for any area of interest.

We’d love to tell you more about the science and advanced mathematical models and algorithms behind SocialRank, but we have to keep some secrets to prevent bad guys from gaming the system with spam.

If you’re a blogger, here are some interesting facts about SocialRank that will be relevant to your blog:

  • Individual blog posts can rise and drop in SocialRank over time. Your blog’s overall SocialRank score can rise or drop depending on how much attention the greater web pays to your blog.
  • Related bloggers quoting your blog post is a good thing.
  • Focus on writing good quality content and SocialRank will notice ;)
  • You do not have to be an A-list blogger to be featured by SocialRank. You just need to write great content in your specific niche area.

How do SocialRank blog communities work?

The SocialRank team starts a blog community with a pool of passionate bloggers who blog about a specific interest - such as productivity, bicycling, knitting, marketing, gadgets or quantum mechanics.

We ’seed’ the algorithm with a few key blogs in each area. Key bloggers are invited to participate at the launch phase.

From here, SocialRank will help identify new stories, related blogs, and will surface today’s top stories from the blog community. Within a few weeks, the algorithm runs on it’s own - learning about each niche and identifying the hottest stories and blogs of the day.

How can I join a SocialRank blog community?

We invite a few select bloggers in each niche to participate in a ‘nomination phase’. These key bloggers nominate other blogs in their niche that they feel provide great content and should be indexed by SocialRank.

From a list of around 20 key bloggers in each field, we use a peer review system to identify the top 100 blogs for every niche.

The SocialRank algorithm does the rest. Based on this initial ’seeding’ - it will now study the blogs within that niche area and identify the hottest stories each day.

Does SocialRank only surface the top blog posts or also general news sites?

Social Rank does surface posts by the mainstream media - but only if it has gathered lots of references from bloggers in a related field.

Who is behind SocialRank?

SocialRank and the 1,000 blog communities is started by a bunch of idealists at MindValley. Our first product was BlinkList.com. We went on to become fully self-funded and employ a team of 15 wonderful people. SocialRank is our latest project. Join us in creating the next evolution of the blogosphere!

Want to be part of the team?

We are actively expanding our team. Please check out our jobs page to join us.