11-14-08
Cats or Dogs: Which is the most popular on the web?
After Jemima Kiss pointed us in the direction of some live puppies yesterday, so began a quick conversation about cats and dogs and their respective popularity on the web.
Bobbie Johnson quickly stepped in proclaiming that cats are for nerds and making sure we’d seen i has a HOTDOG and FailDogs. Robin reminded us of Upside Down Dogs too and Jimbob was quick to defend the dog faith and come up with a cunning theory that somehow Cats = Mac and Dogs = PC, after my claim that there was a direct correlation between a love of cats and a love of technology.
Katy even went on to question the relative ‘social media worth’ of other animals like parrots and Iguanas, then Grant threw a random one in the mix reminding us of Oolong the rabbit – a former internet phenomenon that’s now in a heaven-like hutch looking down on all this nonsense.
Anyway, I suggested that the ultimate Cats V Dogs Web-Off should take place to settle this once and for all and have spent a bit of downtime this evening listening to this rather good Kitsune mix (Nice one Phil) and deploying some crude research tactics to get the ball rolling – What’s the most popular on the web? Dogs or Cats?
Well in all honesty I thought cats would win it hands down, given the HUGE popularity of things like LOLcats, ICHC, StuffOnMyCat etc. But I was wrong. After checking Google, Flickr, Twitter, Delicious and Technorati – it looks like in terms of sheer volume of mentions – the dogs have it with 6 to 1 wins.
Or do they? Every time dogs seem to beat cats, apart from when you get to the ultimate test of all – pure unfiltered Google results. As this is surely a measure of the whole web and everything on it (sort of) – I’m declaring cats as being the winners. Not that I’m *cough* biased or anything.
Here are the results, blow by blow.
(Oh and today there’s even been some anti-cat propaganda being floated around the web, in a bid to skew the real results)
Google Trends (Search Volume, all years): Dogs 1 : Cats 0
Twitter (Twist, last 30 days): Dogs 2: Cats 0
Technorati (Any authority, all mentions): Dogs 3 : Cats 0
Flickr Results (Keyword search): Dogs 4 : Cats 0
YouTube Results (Keyword search): Dogs 5 : Cats 0
Delicious Results (Tag search): Dogs 6 : Cats 0
Google Results (Total hits): Dogs 6 : Cats 1
10-24-08
“Blender Defender”
I actually think this is a bit cruel. But I appreciate the geekery involved and the website created to showcase the project. And did find it a little bit funny, if I’m being really honest.
[via @juter]
10-15-08
General Geekery
Whilst Suw is on ‘blogging sick leave’ I’ve been geeking out with a guest post over at Kits and Mortar. I wanted to write about cats, GPS and stuff and it turned into a rather lengthy post. The first of a few I hope, thanks Suw! It’s really funny though to be blogging away from home after so much one-on-one love with middledigit. I think that might explain the slightly different style and unusually lengthy nature. PS – if you work in PR, it’s worth reading this – what happens when someone like Suw is confronted by reams of spam from PRO’s, even after taking hte time out to write this.
In the meantime, I’ve also been doing HEAPS of Flickr trawling and stumbled across this – some awesomely geeky ink-work. I am awarding the proud owner of these tattoos full middledigit-certified geek status. The first ever award and (I have a feeling) the first of many. More geek tattoos here BTW.
05-15-08
Look what the cat dragged in today
A slow worm. Oh joy. I have a real fear of snakes and even though this is technically a lizard of sorts, it’s very much a snake to someone that doesn’t like snakes.
Although these lizards are often mistaken for snakes, there are a number of features that differentiate them from snakes. The most important is they have small eyes with eyelids that blink like lizards. This is a feature that is not found in snakes. They also have visible ears like lizards do, which snakes do not have. They also have a notched tongue rather than the forked tongue of a snake. They shed their skin in patches like other lizards, rather than the whole skin as most snakes do. Also, the pattern of their ventral scales is totally different from that of snakes.
Oscar (our cat) has been bringing in quite a few of these lately and every time it fully freaks me out. Also, “Slow worms are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 from being killed, injured or sold “. Random post over and apologies for the slightly crappy photo – didn’t wanna go too near and leaning made it hard to keep the camera still.
04-29-08
The Daily Mail, LOLcats and ‘me’
Ages ago I came across the image of a white cat wearing blue swimming goggles and I chose to adopt it as my avatar and profile image for Facebook. I now use it everywhere I’m online (look at the top of this blog or click through to one of the other places I am) and I’ve even just got some Moo cards printed up with ‘the cat’ on.
So, it was a bit of a shock this morning to be emailed a link to a massive picture of ‘me’ in the Daily Mail this morning – included in a feature on LOLcats. It just felt strange.
I once tried to get in touch with the owner of the original image to find out more about the cat and check he/she doesn’t mind me using their image, but the website I took it from didn’t reply. Seeing ‘myself’ this morning has made me realise how much I do really want to know more about the cat in the blue goggles so I’m going to get on the case with finding ‘my owner’. Hopefully I’ll be able to update on this soon and I might need your help in doing so!
12-17-07
Still here
So, another load of time flies by and I don’t post anything. I don’t think I’m one of those bloggers that naturally likes to write a lot about something and offer up my opinion. Maybe if I had more time I would be but right now I’m not and don’t seem to be able to even if I want to. Instead, I’ve been on Twitter a whole lot more recently and also enjoying Facebook as more and more people emerge from the shadows and get really enaged with it (Disclaimer – I work with Facebook).
Anyway, here’s Kitty Wigs which Ged sent me (via Twitter, which is down for planned maintenance at the moment and I’m really mising it). My favourite is Pink Passion (pictured below). I just couldn’t face another Monday with no new stuff.
More to come this week as I’ve got lots to share – Le Web, amazing customer service, awful customer service, being human on the web and a whole load more stuff that I don’t know about.
Normal service to resume shortly.
10-17-07
Hello, nice to meet you again
Wow. A bit of a radio silence there. Sorry about that. I blame the perfect storm of being hugely busy at work, being away at the weekends and having a lot of other stuff to do and on my mind.
So, as by means of a bit of a catch up – here’s some stuff I’ve been doing and thinking.
1. Bite won the Facebook pitch. I’m on the team and am delighted to be working with the guys at Facebook. Especially when you read stuff like this. PR Week said it was “arguably the most sought-after retainer of the year” and that “Tech PR insiders agree that this was one of the most competitive pitches in recent memory”. Enough said. Very chuffed. Hugely excited.
2. We bought a car, our first (nearly) new one. One a bit like this. After polling my mates and colleagues before buying it, I already know that some people hate it. I liked it and then I drove it – just plain fun and reminded me of my 1972 VW Beetle that’s still waiting for me in a garage back home.
3. I met with Lloyd and talked about the Social Media Cafe he’s currently planning. Nice cup of tea and a pleasure to have a chat about something so completely logical.
4. I’ve been watching a lot of TED talks. Can’t get enough of people talking about stuff they are so incredibly passionate about. Here’s a directory of them all.
5. I’ve discovered MarsEdit via Chris Green. Looks like it’s going to be very, very useful indeed to write this blog (need all the help I can get right now as I’m struggling a bit to find my inner-blog-strength).
6. I’ve still been enjoying the constant feed of amusing cat photos from Esaba. This is where I found my Facebook profile pic that seems to get a lot of comment. There’s a little widget you can add to iGoogle that generates a new pic with every refresh. (see example below)
7. I’ve saved another 100 links or so to del.icio.us since my last post. All manner of stuff in there. I just can’t get enough of del.icio.us and am finding it increasingly hard to see how people who spend a lot of time on the web can manage without it. If I ever have to use a PC/Mac that isn’t one of mine I feel very, very wrong.
8. I’ve been drafting a monster post about “being digital”. One day I look at it and think it’s shite and another I can’t stop writing it. Hmmmmm, we’ll see.
9. I went to my Grandma’s funeral. Nothing more to be said on that other than this.
10. Sam at Glide told me about journa-list.com – a really useful site that allows you to track what different national and BBC journos are writing about and track their output as feeds. Much time saved. Nice simple tool that needs to be expanded upon.
09-07-07
baddreamkitty
Also like to see files being named nicely. Nice one b3ta.
06-27-07
I hate everything (but love cats)
Have to resist the urge to post stuff about cats pretty much daily. Here’s one that a) caught me just in the right (but wrong) frame of mind so it instantly became much more meaningful b) Freaked me out a bit as I’m not quite sure if it really is a cat.
From the wonderful Funny Cat Photos widget I have sat on my iGoogle main tab.
05-24-07
Facebook Frenzy
So, Facebook is everywhere now. I’m now in the strange position where I have friends, colleagues, journalists and clients all in one place. It could all go horribly wrong.
More people are talking about Myspace than Facebook on Twitter (see TweetVolume graph below) but everything is aligned nicely for it to go bigger with recent news and the word “poke” about to enter the mainstream with a different meaning – even if there seems to be some weirdness surrounding the launch – “Some of the behind-the-scenes stuff makes the young company appear a bit naive; one source said Facebook had said partners were not allowed to use the terms “MySpace” or “social network” in their discussions of the launch”
PS – Interesting to see that cats and dogs are fairly evenly represented on Twitter but the dogs have it by 20 tweets. I prefer cats so I’m going to go and try and tip the balance.
middledigit_
If technology doesn't seem like magic, it's probably obsolete . . .
hello_
I'm a digital creative/strategist/doer that blogs about all kinds of stuff that usually involves brands, digital marketing, technology or cats.