Bluesky tracking enhancement: attention from posts with embedded links

1. What's new?

On 3 December 2024, we launched the newest attention source on Altmetric: Bluesky.

We are now working to enhance the Bluesky content we can track and bring to our users (see section 4 below for a summary). The first enhancement, live now, is the ability to track mentions included in posts with embedded links.

2. What are posts with embedded links?

By posts with embedded links, we define Bluesky posts where a user has added a URL, allowed the embedded content from the URL to appear in the post, then removed the URL to save on characters.

For example, the first post in the image below shows both a visible URL, and the link card it generated. The URL leads to a research output we've been able to track since we launched Bluesky.

The second post in the image below, where the link card is visible but the URL is not, is an example of a post with embedded link. Thanks to our latest enhancement, we can now track research outputs from similar posts, too.

3. Value and user impact

Tracking Bluesky attention in Altmetric enables users to capture more research conversations on a platform the community continues to demonstrate a strong interest in.

We are now able to tracking posts with embedded links that we have collected from 9 December 2024 onwards. This has already added 2,158 posts to the Bluesky we can track - a number that will continue to grow as we collect more content.

At the time of writing, we are tracking a total of 518,040 mentions from 504,323 individual Bluesky posts.

4. What Bluesky posts can Altmetric track right now?

At the time of writing (3 December 2024), we are tracking:

• Original posts and replies collected since 24 October 2024

• Reposts collected since 5 November 2024

• Quote posts collected since 13 November 2024

• Mentions from posts with embedded links collected since 9 December 2024
  

In addition, we are working on improvements that will help us add the features below as post-launch iterations. We will share separate release notes when they are live.

• Mentions included in the alt text of images

• Cohort data from user profiles

• Posts published before the dates detailed above (we are working on an improvement that will allow us to track more historical content after launch)
  

Due to technical limitations, please note we won’t be able to track:

• Mentions from links created using link shorteners

• Likes

• Follower count updates in real time

• User profile location data

Please contact the Altmetric Support team for any further questions, we'll be happy to help!