Analysis of User Relations and Reading Activity in Weblogs (summary)

Blog has been attracting attention in recently. All operations accompanying the presentation of information can be performed easily on the Web, so the users update content frequently. Commenting and trackback is the functions of blogs. By the trackback functions, two-way communications can be realized in order to continue a discussion by passing “linked” information at the server, so that reverse links can be formed from the destination blog to the originating blog. Beside the blogger updates his own blog, he or she also visits and reads other blogs, writes comment, and creates links and trackbacks. The activities of the blogger give a basis for recognizing relationships. Blogs are now often combined with social networking services. The paper focuses on the relationships among blogs and analyzes how great an effect blog relationships have on the reading behavior of the user. It is examined whether there is a correlation indicating that users often visit blogs with strong relationship (based on factors such as comments and trackbacks). And analyze whether blogs that are read frequently by the users can be identified from blog relationships. The purpose is to determine the actual state of utilization by users.