The Global Difference Graph (GDG) now comprises 1.3 billion change records back to August 2018. In January of last year we looked at some initial trends in the ephemerality of online news and we looked recently at how those trends have remained largely constant over the past two years. Using the same queries as in January 2019, you can see the latest statistics below, which are largely identical to what we observed a year and a half ago.
- Deletions: 1.64% of articles were deleted within a week (0.71% within 24 hours). In all, 42.2% of deletions come within the first 24 hours after an article is published.
- Redirections: 2.41% of articles redirected to a different URL within a week (1.87% within 24 hours). In all, 75.2% of redirections come in the first 24 hours.
- Errors + Redirections: Combined, errors and redirections account for 4.03% of URLs within a week (2.59% in 24 hours). In all, 62% of URL-level changes occur within 24 hours.
- Unchanged HTML: 4.51% of articles had completely unchanged HTML within a week (6.42% in 24 hours). In all, 95.9% of HTML changes occur in the first 24 hours.
- Title Change: 6.61% of articles had changes to their title within a week (5.68% within 24 hours). Roughly 83% of title changes come within the first 24 hours.
- Body Text Change: 19.4% of articles had changes to their body text within a week (21% within 24 hours – this number is slightly higher because pages that are deleted or redirected after 24 hours count towards the 24 hour count but not the one-week count). Roughly 82% of body text changes come within the first 24 hours.
- Title + Body Text Change: 15% of articles had changes to their title, body or both within a week (15.1% within 24 hours. Roughly 82% of title and body text changes come within the first 24 hours.