Written on August 20th, 2008 at 11:08 am by Darren Rowse
The Buzz about Yahoo Buzz
I opened my inbox this morning to find quite a bit of mail on the one topic - Yahoo Buzz which today opened up its doors to the public and started allowing other sites outside of it’s initial closed test to submit stories to it. Yahoo Buzz is a social bookmarking/voting site (quite similar to Digg) and some of it’s top stories even get to the front page of Yahoo. Sites that have been to the front page of Yahoo have reported more traffic than they’ve ever seen before - even when they are just on the front page for an hour.
This lure of massive traffic has many bloggers ‘buzzing’ today. But is it worth getting buzzed about (OK, I’ll stop with the buzz talk now)?
Read Write Web today asks some questions about Buzz and muses that Buzz could be a system with more editorial control than Digg (particularly with what gets to the front page of Yahoo).
My advice to publishers is to not become obsessed by Yahoo Buzz but to keep an open mind.
I’m seeing bloggers either proclaiming it as the answer to all their traffic needs or writing it off as something that won’t last - but somewhere between these two extremes will be the truth.
As with all social media sites - Yahoo Buzz will appeal to a certain type of audience and reader and will therefore present different opportunities to different publishers.
You can submit stories to Buzz here and get Buzz Buttons for your Blog here.
Tags: social media, Yahoo Buzz
35 Responses to “The Buzz about Yahoo Buzz”
"Motivate Thyself"
August 20th, 2008 11:17 am
Thanks for the heads up, Darren! I’ll have to check it out. I think you’re right to say that taking the middle ground is the way to go with something new like this. But it certainly sounds like it could be a great new way to extend the reach of your blog and therefore your voice.
writer dad
August 20th, 2008 11:24 am
Sounds like it might be an interesting new avenue.
"Motivate Thyself"
August 20th, 2008 11:25 am
Thanks for the heads up, Darren! This looks like a great new tool that has a lot of potential. I’m looking forward to giving it a try.
Tinh
August 20th, 2008 11:26 am
Great news, I have just seen this too. Thanks for waking me up. T
Keith Dsouza
August 20th, 2008 11:54 am
I agree with this, Buzz is here to stay, but how it turns out will only be known after a few weeks or so.
Sid Savara
August 20th, 2008 11:54 am
Darren -
Nice balanced write up. I think just like digg, stumbleupon, propeller etc, it’s only going to be as good as the data coming in, the algorithm and ultimately the users. It’s interesting though that Yahoo has so much intellectual firepower it can use to build this tool, and I think their entrance completely changes the space of social media sites with this vote up/down style.
Brandon
August 20th, 2008 12:04 pm
Well, I’m currently giving it a try. The link in my name is to a blog that is trying it out. give me a buzz and I’ll let you know if I ever get to the front page :)
I’ve heard great thing about it before, so I’m really glad to finally give it a shot. Digg is all but dead to me for a blog based on fitness…
Chris Jacobson
August 20th, 2008 12:18 pm
I sort of stay away from anything Yahoo!, but I may have to take a closer look.
Rian
August 20th, 2008 12:39 pm
It should be noted that this isn’t entirely automated… Yahoo editors have the final say on what makes it to the front page. It’s going to be *much* harder to make it to Yahoo.com than it is to the front page of Digg, if for no other reason than there are only a tiny number of slots on the Yahoo front page. (Unlike Digg.)
Stanley Tang - The 15 Year Old Entrepreneur
August 20th, 2008 2:15 pm
Thanks for the heads up Darren.
This should look interesting…
hemu
August 20th, 2008 2:30 pm
Hey Darren, My Post is in progress on Buzz. But you posted it already. No worries. I always follow your TIPS. I write Yahoo Buzz in my style. Thank YOU for YOUR blog Pro-Blogger.
Dan Mihaliak
August 20th, 2008 2:35 pm
I have noticed that yahoo does have a certain political slant but if you could get an article on Yahoo front page I could see lots of traffic.
Bonie
August 20th, 2008 3:45 pm
nice way to promote my Blogs… :D
J.D. Meier
August 20th, 2008 4:45 pm
I like its look and feel and at the end of the day — it’s about the “experience”
Jumble Blogger
August 20th, 2008 5:12 pm
Just posted one of my article in Yahoo Buzz…!
Thanks for the informattion Darren.
nakatoo
August 20th, 2008 6:56 pm
i think that yahoo buzz will never catch up with digg
Chrisinbc
August 20th, 2008 7:32 pm
Thankyou Darren for sharing this info with us. I will certainly check it out to see what all the buzz is about! Pardon the pun! I am indeed sure that having your article posted on the front page of Yahoo would be a real boost for your blogs traffic. I think that would be absolutely awesome! I won’t hold my breath, but I am certainly going to submit an article or two to Yahoo Buzz.
Archit
August 20th, 2008 7:35 pm
Many bloggers have replaced Digg with Yahoo Buzz on their blogs which is I think is not a sensible step now. I’d stick with Digg for now and take Yahoo Buzz as my secondary Digg-like site.
Not saying this would be my model in the future too.
Typhoon
August 20th, 2008 7:58 pm
Yahoo Buzz is gonna rock in future i think..even i posted about yahoo buzz on my blog to test the yahoo buzz for the first time..
moneymanager
August 20th, 2008 8:06 pm
thanks for info darren,
just checked it,seem like old wine in a new bottle,aka-digg.
still worth a try
Keral Patel
August 20th, 2008 8:06 pm
I am also reading a lot on the Yahoo Buzz with all gates open now.
Maybe we will see lots of Buzz Me up buttons on blogs now onwards.
Right now I am not using Digg buttons nor Yahoo Buzz buttons so maybe will try Yahoo Buzz buttons for sure.
Steven Wilson
August 20th, 2008 8:22 pm
Yahoo Buzz is another avenue to maybe bring some traffic to ones site,but I would not let it become my only source.
Steve
Travis Prinzi
August 20th, 2008 9:48 pm
I gave Yahoo! Buzz a shot last night and made it into the top page of Entertainment. The funny thing was, though I’ve never had as many “stumbles” on stumbleupon or bump-ups from reddit, I get more traffic as a result of both of those sites.
Adam Singer
August 21st, 2008 12:39 am
Just FYI — the content on here is very pop-culture/mainstream oriented. Not geek pop-culture like Digg, but average pop culture.
Have a look at the ‘most popular’ stories. It reads like a general interest list. Niches may not have much of a chance here - but I could be wrong.
Chris Motch
August 21st, 2008 1:09 am
It will be interesting to see how this turns out, being a fledgling blogger it can be easy to see how the lure could be so great, but as Darren touts blog day after day, content is key, post good content and they will indeed come, I’ve yet to see the day but one day.
Ezine-Today
August 21st, 2008 5:08 pm
I’ve never had anything with Yahoo so far, but what I’ve read here I’ll think about posting some of my blog content on it and see what happens.
Mr. Javo
August 22nd, 2008 1:02 am
I added a button yesterday and my post about Yahoo! Buzz got many votes. It brought me good traffic, I like it :)
ramiro marques
August 22nd, 2008 6:18 am
I agree with your opinion about Yahoo Buzz. It will be better than Digg.
The IT Skeptic
August 22nd, 2008 10:29 am
How disappointing that they have only provided a javascript button. I use Drupal and the Service Links module which is based around URLs for submission. they are trying to be too clever, a humble yahoo.com/url=?myurl… would have sufficed.
me myself
August 22nd, 2008 1:32 pm
well it sounds interesting. yahoo has another new amazing feature that i’m sure many people will love to join it.
indocontest
August 23rd, 2008 12:24 am
I think I’ll wait till yahoo fix the java. :)
Infonote
August 23rd, 2008 6:06 pm
From my initial observations, Yahoo Buzz seems to be catered for entertainment/gossip.
Cats In To Lions
August 26th, 2008 3:49 am
My previous post was in yahoo top buzz for 8 hours. The traffic I got is pretty average but the quality of traffic is much better than digg, su and reddit.
I publish another post 3 hours ago about how my buzz experience went on. Criticized buzz a bit on their weaknesses and guess what,
some one has submitted the post to digg under the title,
“Does Digg have to worry about Yahoo Buzz? Not so much”
And it is getting diggs like crazy.
To tell you the truth most of them are digging just for the title. Not more than 25 % have actually visited my blog to read the post. :-) Social media networks are like some of our friends which we want to get rid of , but can’t actually do so :-)
shawn
August 26th, 2008 12:22 pm
Yahoo sent me the same thing too. But, thing is. I dunno how to submit my content to them….lol
tomek
October 5th, 2008 5:15 am
Hi, I am trying to set up Yahoo Buzz on my web which is based on Drupal, and I want to add it into the service.links module. Anyone has found a good way to decipher the URL the Yahoo Buzz sends via the javascript?
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