Fleeting Fame

Daypop has started a new feature, “ Top Word Bursts,” which highlights “heightened usage of certain words in weblogs within the last couple days.” They also show excerpts of blog posts that are currently using the listed words.

I must have been briefly cited because I had a near-blizzard of hits arriving from Daypop between 8 AM and 1 PM today. Unfortunately, I was away from the computer during this entire period. By the time I was able to check out Word Bursts to see what all the commotion was about, I was off the list, gone, history. I didn’t get to enjoy my itty-bitty moment of fame. Blog time isn’t very forgiving, is it?

I suspect that the word that was involved was “Devlin,” which would indicate that my wish for this story to gain blogging attention was fulfilled to some extent. However, I did a search and found nothing in the mainstream American media other than the original Breslin column in Newsday. It doesn’t appear that the blogging flurry had any impact beyond the blogosphere--where it really mattered—which supports my theory that blogging as a “Media Phenomenon” is overblown.