Yes, it's jarring to see the juxtaposition between the the first (Dialect Map) and second (Boston Marathon bombings) pieces of content. But it should also be remembered that articles about the Boston Marathon bombings could be found anywhere from a variety of sources, while the Dialect Map tool was exclusive to the New York Times.
I think that goes a long way to explain why, in the context of solely the NYT, the Dialect Map was more popular. But let's not take that to mean that, overall, people were more interested in the Dialect Map than the bombings. They weren't.... they just got their information about the bombings somewhere besides the NYT.
I think that's missing the point, you kinda cherry-picked one piece to compare to (albeit the next-most-popular one). As the article mentions, only four of the top ten were breaking news stories. And yeah those are the least interesting because that is the most basic and straightforward function of a news organization and, as you noted, rather interchangeable with competitors' offerings. And I don't think the article was attempting to say that "people were more interested in the Dialect Map than the bombings."
But, the point is, when stacked up against the rest of the Times' original/exclusive/investigative pieces - their differentiating content - an interactive "app" was more popular than traditional journalistic prose (even from noted celebrities!), and that they demonstrably missed opportunities by not creating more apps.
As an aside, I agree with corresation's point that the "only 11 days" argument is weak, in fact it probably got a massive viral boost by coming during the holidays. Anecdotally I was with my family when we all did the quiz and talked about it.
> They weren't.... they just got their information about the bombings somewhere besides the NYT
Probably "other sources in addition to NYT", but yes.
Not just that, but the Boston Marathon bombings were an ongoing story - the NYT had a number of different stories that related to it.
NYT is actually not a great place to go for truly breaking news like that - except for pre-planned NYT-exclusive releases, they're almost never the first to post a story. On the other hand, they usually have more in-depth research, better analysis, and (most importantly) better fact-checking than other news sources; this is clearly a direct tradeoff.
I'm actually surprised that the Boston bombings was so high on the list. If anything, I think that speaks to the trustworthiness of the NYT as a news source, even in the online era.
Also, by its very nature, the dialect map feature appealed to people all over the US. It will have received a lot of clicks from people who would otherwise never have visited the NYT. Doesn't prove much.
I think that goes a long way to explain why, in the context of solely the NYT, the Dialect Map was more popular. But let's not take that to mean that, overall, people were more interested in the Dialect Map than the bombings. They weren't.... they just got their information about the bombings somewhere besides the NYT.