I saw the new Google Blog Search with Meme tracking this morning. I actually like it. Very simple way to view the top news and items that are bubbling up in the world of blogs.

A meme tracker or news aggregator takes a list of sources and tells you what's being discussed (top topics) and who's talking about it (top blogs, news sites etc.)

Its a cleaner interface than techmeme.com Techmeme, much more open about its sources and also more obvious as to why some news made it to the top versus others.

This brings up another point in the technology space. One of being "open". I understand companies desire to protect their intellectual assets, but if you look at Apple, they get away with pretty much being a very closed and proprietary system. No call for being open about which applications will get approved by them to be listed on their iPhone store.

Same for techmeme (which also tracks & aggregates news). Its pretty clear no one knows how or why some items make it to the top of the new sites. Lots of people have suggested its because of traffic, most # of times, first post etc., only to find them all being a "part" of the reason why.

Should they all not be more open about the process? How come they get a hall pass?