Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with popularity

WTF do these internet download numbers mean?

arniec — Thu, 14 May 2009 06:56:04 -0800

Help me try and figure out how many times my podcast is being downloaded. I have requests, unique hosts, bytes downloaded, etc. but while I understand what each mean individually, I'm not sure which to "trust". Preface: I'm using Dreamhost and these stats are coming from their panel stat application, which is running Analog 6.0

For a specific example, let me focus on one of my recent podcasts (a single MP3 show, not a series of shows). This show is showing 11613 requests in my stats. This is a LOT higher than most of the shows in that domain (the more "regular" shows are about 200 requests give or take), and I expected this surge as the most recent show is about the new Star Trek movie and given that movie's popularity it makes sense this show would have more traffic.

But I had been assuming a request was able to be equated to a listener...give or take, I knew it wasn't exactly 1:1 given Google bots, etc. but I thought it was a close approximation. For example, when most shows have 200 requests and this one has almost 12,000 I figured I could take that as a 5000% boost in popularity...

But then I looked at distinct hosts served and I'm only seeing a number of 3,216. Given how drastically different 3,216 is from 12,000 I thought something was up and dug deeper.

In the stats it then shows me the total data transfer for that domain for the month (144.27 GB) and it shows that the Star Trek episode has drawn 27.9% of my bandwidth for the month, so about 40GB. Dividing that 40GB by my file size (45mb) I figure I've only gotten about 917 downloads... again a HUGELY different number than 12,000.

However for one of the shows with 200 "requests", the math shows about 100 downloads... So I don't get why most of the shows would be off by 100%, but the show that should be most popular DOES have the most popular requests, but that number is off by 1300%.

Any ideas?

What Is It About Soccer?

netbros — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:51:30 -0800

Please help me understand the immense popularity of soccer (football, futbol) worldwide. And ... ... why it still continues to languish in the United States. Like basketball, it seems like a constantly moving, fast-paced game that the American sports enthusiast should enjoy. The rest of the world has certainly figured that out. What is it about soccer that the world knows and Americans don't?

How does Google work?

andihazelwood — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:10:03 -0800

Does anyone understand the black art of being listed in a Google search? One day, I posted a conversation topic on our community group forum. Candidates and subscribers started participating in the discussion, and people tell me they started watching the discussion. Later that same day, a search for "Bundaberg Regional Council" listed the thread as the 4th link on Google. I sent a press release to the local media, the candidates and other "stakeholders" about the forum, and mentioned it being listed 4th on Google. The next day it went up to second place. Then I redated the original post, so that it would stay on our group homepage instead of dropping off. The next day, the thread disappeared from Google. It's still gone today. Anyone have any idea why this happened? Not that its critical, but now my press release certainly looks silly.

How do I keep the "Popularity" Column Always Active in ITMS?

LC — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:40:55 -0800

How do I keep the "Popularity" Column Always Active in ITMS? I like to check out all the new music every week and for efficiency start with the "popular" songs for that album. Each time I go to a new album in the music store I have to reselect that column. Is there any way to have it always selected?

Has President Bush ever been greeted anywhere outside the US by cheering crowds?

UbuRoivas — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:55:50 -0800

Has President Bush ever been greeted anywhere outside the US by cheering crowds? The APEC* conference is currently under way in Sydney, with much of the city centre fenced off & patrolled by just about every policeman in the state, not to mention Dubya's own thousand-man travelling security entourage.

Amidst all the media coverage of special police powers, no-fly zones, protests, impending riots & so on, it occurred to me that plenty of people want to protest, while the majority seem to regard the whole thing as little more than a nuisance, and a bit of a circus. On the other hand, I've heard not one word about even one single person wanting to line the streets to cheer on the so-called "leader of the free world".

If Australia is supposed to be such a loyal ally of the US, and being culturally similar, one would think that at least a few hundred people would want to encourage the leader of the International War on Terror, but that's just not happening.

This made me wonder: where - if anywhere - in the world has Bush Jnr been greeted by enthusiastically cheering crowds? And if he has ever visited your town (outside the US) what was the reaction of the man in the street?

* A Pointless, Expensive Crock

most popular heather in america

raaka — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 06:19:03 -0800

There has to be a word that means "popular because it is popular". Like Delilo's Most Photographed Barn in America.

The closest I found is "bandwagon effect" which has to do with people adopting some action after learning new information. This is not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for the acquisition of more cachet (or whatever) because the thing is already popular. It has to do with the thing, not the people making the thing popular.

keeping track of best web services

rmm — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 11:02:51 -0800

Anyone know of a site that measures the popularity of a site - not just hits, or subscribers, but if a web service is growing (be it subscriber base, popularity) and if it's considered the most authoritative, etc. For example, say I'm trying to compare using Technorati versus Feedster - where would I go to compare these two sites, their features, their popularity? There's a great side-by-side comparison of Google vs. Yahoo! product offerings on LukeW's page (http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?189) - it would be something like that, but ideally with more of a demographic aspect to it (size of user base, etc.). I don't want it to be as crass as the Hollywood Stock Exchange - just something giving me the sense of what people are using and which companies are leading in certain areas. Yes, I know I ask for a lot - if it doesn't exist, let me know. thanks!

Who rocks the world?

crapples — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 20:12:28 -0800

Empirically speaking - Who are the most popular musical artists of the modern era (e.g., since 1955)? I'm able to find data on the most popular albums of all time (number one is The Eagles, Greatest Hits); but I want to know - all things considered - who the most popular artists of all time are. To answer this question precicely, I would think you would need, at the very least, an ordered count of total combined album sales (which I can't find). You may need to look at the popularity of live shows (which may be even harder to find and incorporate into the results). Finally, you may also need to control for longevity... maybe average album sales per 5-year period or something like that.

That last one might be taking it too far. But - with the best data available, who are the top several?

Why is this flickr photo so popular?

ColdChef — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 13:37:15 -0800

Why am I getting so many views on one particular Flickr photo? One of my Hurricane Katrina photos is wildly more popular than the others. And it's not a particularly good pic. Is there a way to find out if this picture has been linked somewhere? Or can someone out there tell me why it's so compelling?

It's had over 67,000 views, but none of my other photos are near that. There are also 60 comments on it, but that can't really explain it's popularity since it was well over 40,000 views before people started commenting. (I thought about deleting the comments, but...well, they provide an "interesting" perspective on their own.)

I looked to see if it was ever a "picture of the day" or anything like that, but I couldn't find anything. I'm mostly just curious, since, as I said, it's not even really a good picture.

Are Popular Women More Likely to Cheat Than Unpopular Women?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 20:11:29 -0800

Are pretty and popular women more likely to cheat than unpopular women? I have always gone for the quiet, shy girl that was pretty, but pretty in the sort of way that most guys wouldn't notice. Are girls that can have any guy they want more likely to cheat? Or are they more faithful because they have trouble finding guys interested in more than their looks or popularity?