reese
Brilliant! Helps me see what links are of use/interest to people and perhaps tailor what I share accordingly. Thanks much for sphinning this.
It seems like the big corps and big media can sometimes be the slowest to change to "new" (term used very sarcastically in this specific example) ways of presenting information online. It reminds me of so many corp. sites that are still using flash, or just had the flashlight go on a year ago that "there’s this new-fangled flexible way of coding called CSS that we should check out." The BBC has good authority and reputation, but that gets degraded when they practice poor inaccessibility and usability (as Mindy mentioned). I’m baffled by what appears to be their protectionist or risk-management approach to including external link. It’s just a link. LOL.
The balance among SEO, usability and design is an art not always easily acheived. I appreciated the reminder about things like your average user not knowing what a "digg" is. I might think twice and pop a "what’s this" tool tip on sites when appropriate.
Story: URL Shortening With Built In Analytics, AND It’s Seo Friendly? Nice!