THE TOP 10 ONLINE STORIES OF 2008

For most of this year, I was the Web editor here at the old
Times-Standard, toiling away on making sure that this newspaper did
its best to bring all of its brilliant content to the Internet.

It was a nice job in a cozy office with Jeff Soderberg, the technical
guru of all things interactive at the T-S.

But since early November or so, I have switched jobs, becoming the
city editor and leaving my digital roots behind. But even with that
transition, I can't help but be interested when the top 10 list of
online stories for 2008 was circulated in the office.

First, here goes the list:

1. Judge says Feds violated 10th Amendment by subverting state marijuana laws

2. Feds launch massive pot sting (with video)

3. SoCal's atheist billboard taken down

4. UPDATED: Major sting targets commercial grow op (with video)

5. America in Crisis: Are we preparing for martial law?

6. No longer a Long shot?: Raiders' Davis may land his prized
possession after all

7. Rodoni dies in 101 crash

8. Seized pot worth $25M to $60M

9. Arcata man falls to his death

10. Driver sought: Suspected drag race on 299 results in fatal crash

So what does this reveal about the Web? I argue, absolutely nothing!
What we have here is a collection of random stories, some of which
went viral. Those that went viral, for whatever reason and because of
this or that blogger, got the most hits.

The Web is such a strange, interesting place, the likes of which has
never been seen before in human history. It's such a dynamic place
that it's hardly possible to predict what will be the top 10 stories
of the year ahead of time, or even what type.

It depends so much on what gets noticed, and what gets forwarded,
that developing a plan of action to produce such results in self-defeating.

I would argue that only the Rodoni story, and one or two others, were
made popular by primarily local views, and the only ones driven by
our paper's traditional news audience. The rest is directly the
result of a viral spread.

What does that teach us for driving traffic at the T-S Web site?
Beats me, but it sure is fun to watch.