Micro-Bloggers Go Big With Very Little

(NEWSER) - If you think blogs are useless, think again: Scientists have developed a “hedonometer,” or happiness gauge, that analyzes personal online statements to pinpoint the overall contentment of the US population on a given day, the Discovery Channel reports. The program looks at sentences beginning with “I feel” and then grades the statement based on what follows. “Triumphant” gets an 8.87; “hostage” scores a 2.20. More»

Virtual sexual harassment stifles voices, raises fears of real-world hostility

(NEWSER) - Violent, sexualized threats against female bloggers are forcing some of them out of the online community, reports the Washington Post. The problem, highlighted by the harassment that caused Kathy Sierra to suspend her popular technology blog, is frustrating at best; at worst, it causes women to fear for their safety and abandon the medium. More»

Data analysis tells you words to use and when to build your brand

(NEWSER) - You might think all you need to do to get your 140-character gems rebroadcast on Twitter is make them, well, good. Wrong. Fast Company looks at some data-proven tips from Hubspot's Dan Zarrella:

• Links work—If they're the right links: Retweets (or RTs) are three times more likely to have links than the general field, but use the right URL shortener. Newer services such as bit.ly are tops; old standby TinyURL is out to pasture.

(NEWSER) - The blogosphere might not be the future of news sprung fully formed from the corpse of old media, Michael Massing writes in the New York Review of Books, but neither is it “parasite” feeding on newspapers. “The practice of journalism, far from being leeched by the Web, is being reinvented there, with a variety of fascinating experiments in the gathering, presentation, and delivery of news.” More»

(NEWSER) - Women's "infidelity blogs" have surged in number in recent years and they're attracting a large and loyal following, the Independent reports. The bloggers say they're not trying to flaunt their affairs, but rather to use anonymity to share details of their secret lives and find support among like-minded people. "I feel there is a definite lack of space for women to say the unsayable," says the founder of True Wife Confessions. More»