by Chris Bodenner
David Carr chronicles the success of the new and improved Buzzfeed, helmed by Ben Smith:
In a sense, [BF and HuffPo founder Jonah] Peretti is reverse-engineering the HuffPo formula. At The Huffington Post, he used search optimization to create a gaudy funhouse behind a serious front page. At BuzzFeed, the funhouse was the point of it all. The main headers on the home page told the story: “LOL,” “cute,” “win,” “fail,” “omg,” “geeky,” “trashy” and “wtf?” … After a week in which Facebook announced an initial public offering that could end up in valuing it at $100 billion, it’s clear that the social Web — Facebook, Twitter and their ilk — will rival search — Google, Bing and their ilk — as a force for helping people find content. The average person’s Facebook feed, just like BuzzFeed, is a mix of the comical and the consequential, functioning as a kind of human-enabled RSS feed that belies the traditional architecture of media outlets.
The Dish has long been fed by a Google Reader filled with hundreds if not thousands of blogs, but in some ways our most efficient RSS feed has been our inbox. It receives about 400-500 emails a day, containing a vast number of obscure links that readers know Andrew will specifically like and post. In a way, we subscribe to our readership.
Earlier coverage of the new Buzzfeed and what it means for political blogs here.
(Image via BF)
