Since 2019, the USA has consistently been the leading country in terms of absolute visits to this blog as well as two others that I own. This predominance is largely attributable to its substantial population size. However, when adjusting for the number of visitors per million inhabitants, Finland and the Netherlands have traditionally occupied the top spots.
However, less than six months ago, an unexpected development occurred. Hong Kong surpassed the USA in terms of absolute visits, becoming the new leader not only in total numbers but also in visitors per million inhabitants. Its visitor ratio is now nearly 300% higher than that of Finland, which ranks second, and almost 700% higher than that of the Netherlands, which is in third place.
One hypothesis for this surge in interest was a recent post about an upcoming book I edited with a professor from the University of Hong Kong, who has a high Scopus h-index. However, this post is recent and does not correlate with the start of the increased interest several months ago. https://19-pacheco-torgal-19.blogspot.com/2024/07/book-advances-in-bio-based-materials.html
Another possibility was that recent posts might have been of particular interest to visitors from Hong Kong. I analyzed the 10 most viewed posts from recent months (below), but this analysis did not reveal any specific trends that would explain the surge. Thus, the question remains: what is driving Hong Kong's mysterious interest in the latest posts on this blog?
1st place - The new study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) will empower edtech companies to attack universities worldwide
2nd place - Rectifying Euronews' oversight: The imperative of carbon sequestration in building sustainability
3rd place - Adapt or become Irrelevant: Scientists urged to become Influencers as AI alters the fabric of scientific communication
4th place - Schrödinger, Life, AI, and God-Like Powers that Reign as Humanity's Ultimate Desire
5th place - The Economist - AI Co-authorship Estimated at Over One Million Scientific Publications
6th place - 10 Essential Criteria for Crafting a Disruptive Researcher Hiring Policy
7th place - Portugal's Scientific Publications Expected to Exceed Russia's by 1600% in 2025
8th place - Gen AI's Dark Side: Researchers Expose Rising Tide of Deceptive Content and Fraud
9th place - Compulsory psychological assessments for candidates applying for positions as university professors and researchers
10th place - GPT Awakens: Unveiling the Dawn of Synthetic Consciousness
