Yahoo Buzz Gets Hitwise

As we have reported in both MIN and DMR, Yahoo’s new social media network, Buzz, is using its beta release to drive traffic from the Yahoo front page to a limited range of branded media sites. Yahoo itself has been touting partner success stories, namely sites that get massive spikes when one of the highly rated articles in this new recommendation engine floats to the Yahoo.com page. But now metrics provider Hitwise is suggesting that Buzz is rivaling Digg in the places that matter most to major media partners. Heather Hopkins, vp research, Hitwise, UK says she was “amazed” at new charts showing Digg.com driving only 10% more traffic to news and media destinations in the last week. To be sure, Digg.com still is the gorilla in the room when it comes to driving traffic to blogs, games and video. Hopkins concludes that Buzz’s quick rise proves “there is likely room for a new entrant in social news media.” Well, there is room if you have hundreds of million of eyeballs already coursing through your pages. What Yahoo is proving is that it still has scale no one else enjoys, and it can throw that weight around to its partners’ benefit when needed.