Last week, I entered the Cato@Liberty blog you’re reading in the health​care100​.com rankings of health care blogs. Which might have been unfair. Most or all of the blogs in that ranking are exclusively focused on health care. Cato@Liberty covers many other issues and could get credit for visits and incoming links that have nothing to do with health care. So I made sure to enter only the health-care-specific URL and RSS feed.


The results (as of July 2, 2007) are in: Cato@Liberty (Health Care) tied with three other blogs for 24th. That put it ahead of such popular blogs as:

We have yet to eclipse The Health Care Blog (tied for 7th), but Matthew Holt is on notice.


I am not convinced that Cato@Liberty’s health care content deserves that ranking, however. The “Cato@Liberty (Health Care)” entry on the health​care100​.com list links to Cato@Liberty’s main page, rather than the health-care content page. In contrast, the WSJ​.com: Health Blog entry links to that blog’s health-care content.


I’m guessing that using the health-care-specific URL and RSS feed actually would tend to understate the popularity of Cato@Liberty’s health care content, since many readers presumably access our health-care content along with the rest. The health-specific RSS is certainly Cato@Liberty’s weakest suit in the health​care100​.com rankings. But when we edge out The Health Care Blog, I don’t want to hear any talk about asterisks.


A bigger concern is that Cato@Liberty’s strongest showing is in the “Technorati Authority Ranking” portion of the health​care100​.com algorithm: “Technorati’s authority ranking shows the number of unique blogs that have linked to a particular blog over the past six months.” This must be capturing non-health-care-related links to Cato@Liberty. I hope the good folks at health​care100​.com will let us know if that’s the case and whether it can be remedied.


My favorite blog name on the list: Fingers and Tubes in Every Orifice (tied for 71st).