We love them, we hate them: RANKINGS!

Rankings are an inevitable tool to keep the human rat race going. In this regard I’ll pick up my last two posts (HERE & HERE) and have some fun with it by using it to analyse R-Bloggers’ web presence. I will use number of hits in Google Search as an indicator.

I searched for URLs like this: https://www.google.com/search?q=”http://www.twotorials.com” – meaning that only the exact blog-URL is searched.

Blogs	NoHits
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com	82300
http://www.programmingr.com	73500
http://googleresearch.blogspot.com	58000
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com	53000
http://borasky-research.net	33100
http://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu	32500
http://andrewgelman.com	30000
http://yihui.name	29600
http://xianblog.wordpress.com	27900
http://nsaunders.wordpress.com	27600
http://chem-bla-ics.blogspot.com	26600
http://plindenbaum.blogspot.com	24600
http://blog.ouseful.info	24300
http://www.vcasmo.com	24200
http://yz.mit.edu	23500
http://romainfrancois.blog.free.fr	22700
http://blog.revolutionanalytics.com	21000
http://robjhyndman.com	18400
http://freakonometrics.blog.free.fr	16100
http://perfdynamics.blogspot.com	15400
http://www.stubbornmule.net	14800
http://zoonek.free.fr	14800
http://jackman.stanford.edu	13900
http://www.bytemining.com	13700
http://learnr.wordpress.com	12600
http://tommy.chheng.com	12200
http://mazamascience.com	12000
http://www.investuotojas.eu	11500
http://www.r-statistics.com	11300
http://www.franklincenterhq.org	10800
http://gettinggeneticsdone.blogspot.com	10700
http://mpastell.com	9930
http://pineda-krch.com	9780
http://blog.saush.com	9220
http://www.premiersoccerstats.com	8950
http://developmentality.wordpress.com	7250
http://www.dataspora.com	7200
http://blog.hiremebecauseimsmart.com	7050
http://isomorphismes.tumblr.com	7040
http://www.mathfinance.cn	6930
http://blog.nguyenvq.com	6150
http://www.drewconway.com	5970
http://www.carlboettiger.info	5520
http://www.statisticsblog.com	5110
http://www.decisionsciencenews.com	4950
http://www.r-chart.com	4810
http://chartsgraphs.wordpress.com	4480
http://www.portfolioprobe.com	4410
http://procomun.wordpress.com	4330
http://jeromyanglim.blogspot.com	4080
http://spatialanalysis.co.uk	4080
http://www.theresearchkitchen.com	4080
http://www.forex-bloggers.com	4070
https://www.rmetrics.org	4050
http://princeofslides.blogspot.com	3900
http://www.cybaea.net	3740
http://www.cerebralmastication.com	3710
http://ygc.name	3670
http://ryouready.wordpress.com	3450
http://jeffreybreen.wordpress.com	3410
http://systematicinvestor.wordpress.com	3400
http://sgsong.blogspot.com	3310
http://industrialengineertools.blogspot.com	3290
http://www.r-tutor.com	3270
http://fishlab.ucdavis.edu	3270
http://ggorjan.blogspot.com	3250
http://blog.ynada.com	3220
http://farmacokratia.blogspot.com	3170
http://4dpiecharts.com	3130
http://heuristically.wordpress.com	3040
http://blog.rtwilson.com	2910
http://www.wekaleamstudios.co.uk	2890
http://www.dataists.com	2840
http://ikanb.wordpress.com	2750
http://shape-of-code.coding-guidelines.com	2730
http://onertipaday.blogspot.com	2710
http://blog.fosstrading.com	2700
http://blog.echen.me	2690
http://www.theusrus.de	2670
http://cloudnumbers.com	2630
http://paulbutler.org	2620
http://biostatmatt.com	2460
http://www.johnmyleswhite.com	2430
http://dataninja.wordpress.com	2360
http://realizationsinbiostatistics.blogspot.com	2340
http://statisfaction.wordpress.com	2300
http://uxblog.idvsolutions.com	2250
http://timelyportfolio.blogspot.com	2210
http://radfordneal.wordpress.com	2200
http://sas-and-r.blogspot.com	2200
http://pairach.com	2110
http://yusung.blogspot.com	2050
http://blog.flacso.edu.mx	2010
http://www.rensenieuwenhuis.nl	2000
http://michaeldhealy.com	1990
http://freigeist.devmag.net	1950
http://www.fernandohrosa.com.br	1920
http://statbandit.wordpress.com	1870
http://www.win-vector.com	1840
http://lukemiller.org	1830
http://ropensci.org	1720
http://www.eggwall.com	1650
http://benmazzotta.wordpress.com	1620
http://bms.zeugner.eu	1610
http://cartesianfaith.wordpress.com	1580
http://linkedscience.org	1570
http://stevemosher.wordpress.com	1550
http://intelligenttradingtech.blogspot.com	1520
http://www.imachordata.com	1480
http://blog.diegovalle.net	1470
http://jermdemo.blogspot.com	1430
http://nortalktoowise.com	1420
http://ekonometrics.blogspot.com	1340
http://digitheadslabnotebook.blogspot.com	1320
http://flyordie.sin.khk.be	1310
http://schamberlain.github.com	1230
http://gribblelab.org	1180
http://www.quantf.com	1130
http://offensivepolitics.net	1020
http://www.markmfredrickson.com	981
http://blog.mckuhn.de	948
http://erehweb.wordpress.com	889
http://confounding.net	886
http://simplystatistics.tumblr.com	875
http://www.babelgraph.org	859
http://csgillespie.wordpress.com	857
http://joewheatley.net	844
http://helmingstay.blogspot.com	843
http://theaverageinvestor.wordpress.com	825
http://quantitative-ecology.blogspot.com	785
http://zvfak.blogspot.com	776
http://ucfagls.wordpress.com	766
http://opendatagroup.com	760
http://cameron.bracken.bz	740
http://rtutorialseries.blogspot.com	738
http://opencpu.org	708
http://novicemetrics.blogspot.com	700
http://lamages.blogspot.com	680
http://nir-quimiometria.blogspot.com	679
http://tonybreyal.wordpress.com	677
http://brokeringclosure.wordpress.com	658
http://socialdatablog.com	643
http://dancingeconomist.blogspot.com	629
http://www.rtexttools.com	603
http://danganothererror.wordpress.com	589
http://thebiobucket.blogspot.com	567
http://holtmeier.de	531
http://val-systems.blogspot.com	519
http://thelogcabin.wordpress.com	489
http://dcemri.blogspot.com	484
http://rdatamining.wordpress.com	477
http://bridgewater.wordpress.com	460
http://www.rcasts.com	444
http://dsparks.wordpress.com	436
http://pr.cloudst.at	422
http://polstat.org	409
http://www.compmath.com	401
http://techno-realism.blogspot.com	399
http://www.backsidesmack.com	395
http://geotheory.org	393
http://miraisolutions.wordpress.com	367
http://econometricsense.blogspot.com	352
http://blog.binfalse.de	344
http://rforcancer.drupalgardens.com	317
http://blog.rstudio.org	316
http://mcfromnz.wordpress.com	309
http://www.quantumforest.com	309
http://blog.quanttrader.org	303
http://chrisladroue.com	293
http://www.michaelbommarito.com	289
http://procrun.com	280
http://mikeksmith.posterous.com	279
http://bio7.org	278
http://kbroman.wordpress.com	278
http://martynplummer.wordpress.com	272
http://bryer.org	268
http://www.funjackals.com	265
http://www.harlan.harris.name	252
http://www.milktrader.net	248
http://www.surefoss.org	241
http://rigorousanalytics.blogspot.com	231
http://www.jameskeirstead.ca	229
http://programming-r-pro-bro.blogspot.com	225
http://plausibel.blogspot.com	224
http://statistic-on-air.blogspot.com	217
http://mintgene.wordpress.com	212
http://moderntoolmaking.blogspot.com	205
http://quantitativeecology.blogspot.com	199
http://www.sigmafield.org	199
http://www.ancienteco.com	194
http://worldofrcraft.blogspot.com	191
http://rappster.wordpress.com	190
http://stotastic.com	189
http://evolvingspaces.blogspot.com	184
http://strugglingthroughproblems.blogspot.com	166
http://sharpstatistics.co.uk	161
http://leftcensored.skepsi.net	160
http://omegahat.wordpress.com	156
http://drunks-and-lampposts.com	155
http://amathew.com	152
http://onlinelabor.blogspot.com	147
http://johnramey.net	144
http://gossetsstudent.wordpress.com	138
http://tomhopper.wordpress.com	135
http://ggobi.blogspot.com	134
http://blog.fellstat.com	131
http://www.openanalytics.eu	130
http://www.numbertheory.nl	127
http://stats.blogoverflow.com	127
http://the-praise-of-insects.blogspot.com	122
http://lpenz.github.com	118
http://christophergandrud.blogspot.com	118
http://f.giorlando.org	112
http://bayesianbiologist.com	110
http://www.graphoftheweek.org	109
http://oneliner.soma20.com	109
http://inundata.org	107
http://geokook.wordpress.com	104
http://blog.datapunks.com	102
http://eranraviv.com	102
http://eranraviv.com	102
http://www.compbiome.com	101
http://www.techpolicy.ca	99
http://www.psychwire.co.uk	97
http://blog.carlislerainey.com	93
http://vasishth-statistics.blogspot.com	93
http://www.statsravingmad.com	93
http://using-r-project.blogspot.com	93
http://www.nikhilgopal.com	92
http://thedatamonkey.blogspot.com	92
http://jeffreyhorner.tumblr.com	90
http://menugget.blogspot.com	88
http://www.twotorials.com	88
http://dataexcursions.wordpress.com	84
http://viksalgorithms.blogspot.com	83
http://exploringdatablog.blogspot.com	81
http://sachaepskamp.com	81
http://aphysicistinwallstreet.blogspot.com	77
http://lastresortsoftware.blogspot.com	75
http://www.nomad.priv.at	72
http://applyr.blogspot.com	71
http://www.knowledgediscovery.jp	71
http://weitaiyun.blogspot.com	71
http://xmphforex.wordpress.com	71
http://statsadventure.blogspot.com	70
http://davenportspatialanalytics.squarespace.com	70
http://anandram.wordpress.com	69
http://rpint.wordpress.com	68
http://datadebrief.blogspot.com	66
http://blog.cloudstat.org	64
http://www.r-podcast.org	64
http://rmkrug.wordpress.com	62
http://denishaine.wordpress.com	61
http://expansed.com	58
http://r.andrewredd.us	57
http://isseing333.blogspot.com	57
http://solomonmessing.wordpress.com	57
http://rtricks.wordpress.com	57
http://anrprogrammer.wordpress.com	56
http://arungaikwad.wordpress.com	56
http://geolabs.wordpress.com	55
http://lookingatdata.blogspot.com	55
http://factbased.blogspot.com	54
http://severity.blogspot.com	54
http://swordofcrom.wordpress.com	53
http://librestats.wordpress.com	51
http://marcinkula.wordpress.com	51
http://gsoc2010r.wordpress.com	47
http://psyccomputing.blogspot.com	46
http://fabiomarroni.wordpress.com	45
http://jedifran.com	45
http://alstatr.blogspot.com	43
http://r-video-tutorial.blogspot.com	42
http://alexfarquhar.posterous.com	40
http://bmb-common.blogspot.com	40
http://rdataviz.wordpress.com	40
http://mypapertrades.blogspot.com	38
http://pitchrx.blogspot.com	38
http://simonmueller.net	38
http://statisfactions.wordpress.com	37
http://nzprimarysectortrade.wordpress.com	36
http://seanmulcahy.blogspot.com	36
http://www.speakingstatistically.com	35
http://joshpaulson.wordpress.com	34
http://learningrbasic.blogspot.com	34
http://mockquant.blogspot.com	33
http://costaleconomist.blogspot.com	32
http://rsnippets.blogspot.com	31
http://statmethods.wordpress.com	29
http://aviadklein.wordpress.com	28
http://obeautifulcode.com	28
http://blog.cloudst.at	24
http://rstats.posterous.com	23
http://notebookonthewebs.tumblr.com	22
http://0utlier.blogspot.com	21
http://gjkerns.github.com	21
http://eigensomething.blogspot.com	10
http://brocktibert.wordpress.com	9
http://toddjobe.blogspot.com	9
http://mickeymousemodels.blogspot.com	9
http://forgetfulfunctor.blogspot.com	9
http://rocknrblog.wordpress.com	9
http://dmbates.blogspot.com	8
http://blog.nextbiomotif.com	8
http://indiacrunchin.wordpress.com	8
http://blog.trenthauck.com	8
http://mikescnc.blogspot.com	8
http://jeroldhaas.blogspot.com	8
http://tlevine.tumblr.com	8
http://empty-moon-9726.heroku.com	8
http://www.proc-x.com	7
http://jointposterior.blogspot.com	7
http://gastonsanchez.wordpress.com	7
http://mlt-thinks.blogspot.com	7
http://rstats.wordpress.com	7
http://playingwithr.blogspot.com	7
http://scottmutchler.blogspot.com	6
http://iamdata.wordpress.com	6
http://sfchaos.blogspot.com	6
http://nightlordtw.wordpress.com	5
http://pleasepasstheroc.blogspot.com	5
http://wiekvoet.blogspot.com	5
http://d7.stattler.com	4
http://yetanotherrblog.blogspot.com	4
http://blog.iwanluijks.nl:80	3
https://rlearner.wordpress.com	3
http://margintale.blogspot.com	1

When checking the results manually I discovered slight deviations in the numbers and admittedly have no clue why this is.. Sorry if any blog is under- overrepresented due to such an error – please report!

Here is the R-script:

require(XML)
library(stringr)
library(RCurl)
library(xtable)

GoogleHits.1 <- function(input)
   {
    url <- paste("https://www.google.com/search?q=\"",
                 input, "\"", sep = "")
 
    CAINFO = paste(system.file(package="RCurl"), "/CurlSSL/ca-bundle.crt", sep = "")
    script <- getURL(url, followlocation = TRUE, cainfo = CAINFO)
    doc <- htmlParse(script)
    res <- xpathSApply(doc, "//div[@id='subform_ctrl']/*", xmlValue)[[2]]
    return(as.integer(gsub("[^0-9]", "", res)))
   }

# Example:
GoogleHits.1("R%Statistical%Software")

###################### Begin get r-blogger's URLs: ###########################################
# get blogger urls with XML:
script <- getURL("www.r-bloggers.com")
doc <- htmlParse(script)
li <- getNodeSet(doc, "//ul[@class='xoxo blogroll']//a")
urls <- sapply(li, xmlGetAttr, "href")

# extract sensible blog urls:
# get ids for those with only 2 slashes (no 3rd in the end):
id <- which(nchar(gsub("[^/]", "", urls )) == 2)
slash_2 <- urls[id]

# find position of 3rd slash occurrence in strings:
slash_stop <- unlist(lapply(str_locate_all(urls, "/"),"[[", 3))
slash_3 <- substring(urls, first = 1, last = slash_stop - 1)

# replace the ones with 2 slashes:
blogs <- slash_3; blogs[id] <- slash_2

# dismiss:
blogs <- blogs[blogs != "http://domain"]
###################### End get r-blogger's URLs: #############################

###################### Begin Google Search: ##################################
# with lapply google mocks about roboting the site..
# I'm blocked on the 300th recursion..
# unlist(lapply(blogs, GoogleHits.1))

# try splitting, doesn't work (blocked the same as before)
res1 <- unlist(lapply(blogs[1:170], GoogleHits.1))
res2 <- unlist(lapply(blogs[171:334], GoogleHits.1))

# try to do it in 2 sessions (saving first result), or manually re-connnect host before second try:
df1 <- data.frame(Blogs = blogs[1:170], NoHits = res1, row.names = NULL)
save(df1, file = "df1.R")
load("df1.RData"); unlink("df1.RData")

# second run:
df2 <- data.frame(Blogs = blogs[171:334], NoHits = res2, row.names = NULL)

# bind dfs, sort by NoHits:
finres <- as.data.frame(rbind(df1, df2)); finres$Blogs <- as.character(finres$Blogs)
(finres <- finres[order(finres$NoHits, decreasing = T), ])

htmltab <- xtable(finres)
print(htmltab, type = "html", include.rownames=FALSE, file = "Bloggers.Google.Hits.htm")
###################### End Google Search #####################################

###################### Begin Plot: ###########################################
pdf("RBloggersWebPresence.pdf")
par(mar = c(4.5, 4.5, 3, 2), ylog = F)
plot(finres$NoHits, cex = 0.5, col = 3, 
     ylab = "No. of Hits in Google Search",
     xlab = "Blogs", log = "y")
set.seed(19)
rid <- sample(13:nrow(finres), 15)
text(x = rid, y = finres$NoHits[rid], 
     labels = finres$Blogs[rid],
     cex = 0.75, srt = 90, pos = 4, offset = -1) 
title(main = "R-Bloggers' Web Presence")
dev.off()
###################### End Plot ##############################################