Squidblog

Bestseller lists tend to be self-fulfilling. Popularity is contagious.

For example, a book that hits the New York Times’s bestseller list will sell more copies because of the increased visibility. Which then helps its continued inclusion on that list, at least for a little while. Movies are slightly different, but if a movie opens well, more people are likely to check it out based on early reviews and word of mouth.

Online, it’s no different. The most visible web sites and blogs tend to be the most linked to and referred to, which in turn helps them remain the most visible. The cream rises to the top — and stays there.

At Squidoo, we’ve decided to shake things up a little. (Not that we suggest you shake your cream or milk containers.)

LensRank (how we determine a lens’s popularity) will still be based on the same formula, measuring things like traffic, click-outs, reader ratings, inbound links and affiliate sales. But now we’re going to change when that formula is calculated. On Monday we’re going to introduce a 14-day rolling window.

Which means what, exactly? Well, that our lensrank calculations will be done using data from the past two weeks, rather than looking strictly at a lens’s lifetime of publication. That will ensure that the freshest, timeliest and most actively updated lenses aren’t trumped by the lenses that perform well because they’ve been around longer. Squidoo is still rewarding the exact same qualities, but we’re tossing the grandfather clause out the window.

So, heads up that you might see some interesting changes in ranking this week. No, it’s not an accident. Yes, your lens can still rise to the top. Now that we have more than 13,000 lenses, the competition is getting a little stiffer!