---
title: "Mark Fletcher: Boing Boing, Bloglines and Google"
date: 2004-12-22
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2004"
    url: "/tag/2004.md"
---

# Mark Fletcher: Boing Boing, Bloglines and Google

[Mark Fletcher](https://web.archive.org/web/20050213044829/http://www.wingedpig.com/), CEO of [Bloglines](https://web.archive.org/web/20050213044829/http://www.bloglines.com/), wrote up [a detailed response](https://web.archive.org/web/20050213044829/http://www.wingedpig.com/archives/000188.html) to my two recent posts: [RSS Reader Market Share](https://web.archive.org/web/20050213044829/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/002577.php) and [Contextual Adverts in Bloglines in 2005](https://web.archive.org/web/20050213044829/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/002574.php). In his post, Mark analyses [Boing Boing](https://web.archive.org/web/20050213044829/http://boingboing.net/)‘s [web stats](https://web.archive.org/web/20050213044829/http://boingboing.net/stats/) and draws some interesting comparisons between [Google](https://web.archive.org/web/20050213044829/http://www.google.com/) and Bloglines in regards to Boing Boing’s traffic:

“Nutshell: Bloglines is the 3rd largest source of referring pageviews on BoingBoing, and the largest generator of referring hits to BoingBoing content, larger than Yahoo! and Google — and all other search engines — combined. Bloglines generates 30% of all referring hits to BoingBoing.”



I think basically he is making two points:

1\) *“Bloglines is the 3rd largest source of referring pageviews on BoingBoing”* –> meaning Bloglines is now boxing in the Web’s Heavyweight division, with Search giants Google and [Yahoo](https://web.archive.org/web/20050213044829/http://www.yahoo.com/), in regards to **straight referrals to Boing Boing**.

2\) *“…and the largest generator of referring hits to BoingBoing content”* –> meaning **more people are reading Boing Boing via Bloglines** than via any other single method (including landing on Boing Boing’s site via Google or indeed all the search engines combined). At least, that’s what I take from Mark’s claim that “Bloglines audience share is 2.7x larger than Google’s in the number of overall impressions.” I hope I’ve interpreted that correctly.

What does all this mean? At the high level, Mark seems to be suggesting that RSS is the number one *delivery method* for Boing Boing’s content and that Bloglines is the number one *deliverer.* And I mean ‘delivery’ in the wider context of not just referrals to the Boing Boing website, but people reading Boing Boing’s content via RSS.

There are other insights in Mark’s post too, so it’s well worth reading!

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/002589.php))*