Puffery Dept: LO Ranked #1 Politics Blog in OR

Well shut mah mouth, or at least put something tasty in it! A while back we responded to being included as one of the blogs tracked by BlogNetNews, a new aggregator source that--like LeftyBlogs, our favorite aggregator for Oregon-themed political blogs--concentrates on blogs at the state level. Their pitch is that:

Our launch version offers these features:

1. The day's top news based solely on what news stories Oregon bloggers are linking to -- no matter what mainstream news source they're in.
2. A micro search engine that will only search the Oregon blogosphere.
3. A quick guide to the hottest blog comment sections in Oregon.
4. A quick index of the day's most active Oregon blogs.
5. A guide to the blog posts most link to by other Oregon bloggers.

In one place, in one minute, you'll get an update on what's going on across the blogosphere. And your readers will be able to find the best Oregon content, not based on random voters or some editors choices, but based on the real actions of Oregon bloggers and their readers.

I'm withholding judgement on the look and feel of the service, but I have nothing but praise for their new feature: the Oregon Influence Index. What is it and how does it work? Well, some of that is a proprietary secret, but here's what BNN says about it:

Our rankings come from data provided in your RSS feeds, data from the activity of readers on BlogNetNews.com and data about Internet traffic from third parties. Each Sunday morning at 12:01 AM, BNN will release a new top 20 list of the blogs most powerfully shaping opinion in the Oregon blogosphere.

OK, cool. So yesterday the first weekly ranking came out. Wanna see it?

Oregon's Most Influential Political Blogs
Rank Blog
1 Loaded Orygun
2 Mover Mike
3 Middle Earth Journal
4 The Rev. Chuck Currie
5 Oregon Media Insiders - News, commentary and rank gossip.
6 Metroblogging Portland
7 BlueOregon
8 Welcome to Blog
9 BTA Blog
10 HinesSight
11 Oregon Commentator
12 Pacific Views
13 worldwide pablo
14 The Oregon Catalyst
15 The Moroccan Cliff Divers
16 Zeros and Ones
17 Portland Transport
18 Portland Architecture
19 Couv Operator
20 Blog Town, PDX

As I said, I don't know what their methodology is, but damned if I don't like it! This is just a weekly ranking, and we've been assured that blogs don't typically stay in the top slot every week (the index was first tested for Virginia blogs), but BNN has definitely captured our attention. We've stuck their button into our sidebar; apparently it will automatically change the number on the button as the rankings change. So check again next Sunday to see if we're an Oregon juggernaut, or just a flash in the pan. Oh, and what's the best sign that they've got a good algorithim going? It's one of the blogs they're following, but Jack Bog's Blog is curiously missing from the Top 20. (And no, we're not affiliated or involved in any way with BNN.)