Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...

Technorati tags: Humor, Observations, Malaysia, World, Technorati, Datuk K, Siti Nurhaliza, Maya Karin, Khairy Jamaluddin, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Lina Joy, Mahathir, Blogs, Blogging

... who's got the highest Technorati ranking of them all?

Okay, granted this is really trivial, but Walski couldn't help looking Technorati up to see what the Malaysian bloggerhood has been talking about. Don't ask what possessed Walski to do this - maybe the 7th Lunar month... who knows?

So anyway, Walski selected a handful of seemingly "hot" Malaysia-related tags (personalitites, actually) and looked them up, namely, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Mahathir, Khairy Jamaluddin, Maya Karin, Lina Joy, Siti Nurhaliza, and of course, Datuk K.

Technorati has a nifty little charting utility, which Walski has used in this post, that tracks a given keyword used for the last however-so-many days (you can choose between 7, 30, 90, 180 and 360 days). Walski's used 30 days for this post.

And so, (drumroll, please), presenting the Technorati rankings...
(in the full post)

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Our good 'ol Pak Lah has probably been one of the most blogged about individual of late, a quick blg search has revealed that Pak Lah has been tagged in at least 6,786 posts. The chart on the left shows the number of daily posts for the last 30 days.

The sharp spike you see is for August 3rd, which is the day the 2nd Penang Bridge and Monorail projects were announced in the mainstream press.

Now, of late a lot of discussions pertaining to Pak Lah, has been done in relation to another personality that is rather well-known.

Tun Mahathir
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's predecessor is definitely being talked about of late, particularly since the Tun issued a list of questions that the Malaysian government needs to answer. Now, a Technorati search on Mahathir may be a bit skewed, since people have probably been talking about him for a lot longer, AND he has an equally outspoken daughter, Marina. So, a Technorati search should exclude any references to Marina Mahathir.

The result (as expected) is a whopping 13,074 posts mentioning Mahathir (minus Marina)! Not surprising, if taken into consideration that Dr. M was Prime Minister for a lot, lot longer than his successor.

But the chart also shows that blogs have been discussing Dr. M a lot, pretty much consistently the last 30 days, with the expected spikes along the way when he's reported or mentions him in the mainstream media.

One person, though, linked to his successor has also been a hot blog topic, and one the Tun has mentioned in his press and talk statements of late.

Khairy Jamaluddin
The famous (or infamous) son-in-law of the Prime Minister has also been one individual that's been blogged about quite a bit, although not as much as the PM. Note the scale on the charts, if a visual comparison is to be made, however.

The spikes appear to be within the last few days, and has to do with press statements made by him refuting certain allegations that have been spreading around the nation. To date, there are only about 926 blog posts found.

One of these allegations refuted was the one stating that he had married a second wife in secret. The supposed other person happens to also be somebody that's been blogged about quite a fair bit.

Maya Karin
Probably best known for her role in the 2004 film "Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam" (which one IMDB reader commented as totally inept film-making), and its sequel a year later. Walski only found out that the rumor linking her with KJ after his public denial of any links.

Not surprisingly, the Technorati chart pretty much confirms that most people were probably not aware of the rumored linkage, as the spikes seem to coincide with those of KJ being mentioned.

Blog posts to-date stand at 692, but date back quite a long way with the first blog post on record being almost 2 years old.

Lina Joy
Another female Malaysian that has a significant Technorati hit count is Lina Joy, whose civil court appeal to change her stated religion in her identity card is currently being heard. This is the person that has been the center of controversy ever since she apostacized from Islam a few years ago.

As of this afternoon, around 1,794 blog posts about her can be found via Technorati. The discussions about her tend to be partisan in nature; with tradition-bound Muslims on the one hand using her case to state their displeasure with religioius freedom, and on the other hand those who support this freedom.

Datuk K
Another Malaysian personality that is seing a lot of blog post publicity is Datuk K (Datuk Khaled Mohamed Jiwa), the businessman who will soon be Mr. Siti.

The spikes in his Technorati chart occur around the time it became official that the marriage is on. Walski expects that as the extravaganza show wedding approaches closer, his rankings will probably once again shoot upwards.

As of this afternoon, there are a total of 1,508 blog posts that mentions him. But it goes without saying that Datuk K would not have gotten anyone's notice whatsoever, if it had not been for his bride to be.

Siti Nurhaliza
Of the few personalities mentioned in this post, bar none, the most talked about Malaysian has to be Siti Nurhaliza, Malaysia's pristine queen of Malay popular music.

A whopping 8,897 blog posts about her to-date! To be fair, people have been yak-yak-yakking about her for a long, long time, well before the rumors about her and Datuk K. The spikes in her 30-day chart coincide with those of her hubby to be, indicating that it also occured around the time her upcoming marriage was formally announced.

This, by the way, also means that more Malaysians chatter about celebrity life and gossips, than discussing issues about the natioin. Good or bad? You be the judge... but it can be both, depending on your perspective.

At the very least, Siti is more popular than Pak Lah, that's for sure. But neither seem to be as popular a discussion topic as Dr. M.

Conclusion (and disclaimer)
And so, in conclusion, the little tag research done by Walski sort of confirms an earlier assertion that Malaysians love to gossip and talk about stuff that happens around them. The internet age hasn't changed this little habit, only the medium used.

But in addition, Walski's found a new tool to play with! Mind you, though, the number of hits listed above are bound to change - in face, they do, by the minute in some cases.

The charting facility does serve one other purpose, though, which may not be so obvious, but has been pointed out in earlier portions of this post: if you suspect two people are somehow connected, even if they're rumors or hearsay, as long as people talk (or these days blog) about them, you can use this chart tool to find a correlation.

Disclaimer: Walski did this purely for fun, and no other reason. Well, perhaps curiousity would be the other reason, but definitely no malice intended. Okay, one other reason: to tell everyone about this nice charting tool from Technorati.

Happy yakking, folks!