Corporate Takeover – Web Style

News of Technorati receiving funding had me stirred up with mixed feelings. I blog every now and again how the app has gone far afield of how we all used to talk about it back in the day. Now that I’ve heard they’ve received some more money to go and try to figure out how to take on business services, I realize that I want them to do something with that money. I want them to buy Twingly

Twingly could be considered a remix of Technorati, back to what Technorati did well years ago. They have some neat features, like this widget that shows the recent blogs linking to your post. (And for the record, I like Twingly and what they’ve done.)

twingly

Further, they are building a search-meets-reputation kind of data set, very similar to what is in place at Technorati.

twingly

So, it works, is a refresh, but harkens back to what Technorati has done a different way.

I say, buy it, absorb it, sort things out, and then build us even more tools we can use. What’s necessary? Personal reputation data, attention data, affinity metadata (if you like this site, you’ll love that site), and more.

Could Technorati do that without buying Twingly? Sure. I think they could. But wouldn’t the infusion of fresh blood make for a potential better swing at the prize?

What do you think on this one?

I use Skitch to do screenshots. It’s cool.

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Tagged as: blogs, software, startups, technorati, twingly

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Wogan

I think they should stay as they are - at least for now. I've been using Twingly for a while, and I think it does the whole blog-searching thing a little better than Technorati. Mainly because they allow anyone to ping their service, with or without registering. That, and I love the name.

Maybe they can reconsider when Twingly finally realises its full potential as a blog search engine. It's not as if it's a 100% (or even 70%) clone of Technorati, and I think it does things differently enough to qualify as a unique service. Let's not get Google-esque about buying everything in sight.

At least, then, Twingly will be driven by innovation rather than profit margin. The latter is what kills services.

~ Wogan

Michael Martine | Remarkablogg

Thanks for introducing Twingly. I hadn't heard of it, before. But you know, T'rati is so lost, anymore, that if I were Twingly, I don't think I would want to be bought by them. If Twingly's all that, better that they make it on their own.

paul merrill

Twitter vs. Twingly? I have no idea.

But I appreciate what you're doing, Chris.

Martin Källström

Chris,

Thank you for the nice words about Twingly. I can't see us selling to Technorati, though.

Also, their financing is based on moving away from blog search and placing their brand on a whole other business. If they are aquiring anyone it is going to be a company like BlogAds.com. I think their new investors would be dismayed if they went and threw the money on something having to do with the business they already failed at.

On the bright side I can tell you that we're headed pretty much straight for what you are asking for with attention profiles and recommendations. The connection between bloggers and readers is not as transparent as it should be. There is no easy way for a blogger to tell what his/her readers are actually interested in. We'll provide that.

Once again, thanks and keep the good work up.

Regards,
Martin

Scott Purdie

Twingly is really really cool, i searched my blog - bingo, all my posts turned up and im just small - but it was nice. The features you have shown are useful. Just now im posting things that have inspired me, helped me or that im thinking about. With Twingly. I think they will do their best to give bloggers the tools to understand what readers want to read and then write about what readers are keen to read.

What i really like is that its fresh and funky, i hope they build features users want and need!

kevin

Next to twitter is there any site that constantly has more issues than technorati?

What they are going to do with that money is get something their advertising system really going so they can take a run at federated media or companies along those lines.

Of course knowing technorati their advertising system will probably cause people's pages to load really slow and work about 1/5 of the time.

I enjoy using twingly but another blog search tool that I am enjoying is the social search tool on blogcatalog.com, a site that is frankly not getting enough coverage but doing some really cool things with social media and blogging.

Here is the url for their social search tool: http://www.blogcatalog.com/search

Sue Murphy

I hadn't heard about Twingly until just now (thanks for pointing it out!) but upon first glance I find it a much more user friendly site than Technorati. I find Technorati to be cluttered and busy. I like being able to see only information I want to see.

As for the takeover? Maybe Twingly just needs some better marketing and some day they can take over Technorati! :-)

Keren Dagan

This article from ReadWriteWeb: article Long Tail Ad Network Makes Sense for Technorati questions the need for a blog search engine. I do agree with it to some extent yet I think that it is not the search or the content published on the site (top blog post) that draws us to visit it.
I think that it is an important service to us the bloggers. It help us to see who read us, react to what that we are saying. It help us to find who should we interact with and what interest them.
It also shows us where are we in the blogsphere relative to others. It helps us to find the top blogs and bloggers (NOT blog posts).
I like both Technorati and Twingly for the same reason. They are building a system of records for the blogsphere.
Maybe because we are their main customers today and we are so use to pay small fees (in other words free) they have hard time making money serving us.
So, I'm totally fine if they look and find someone else to pay the bills as long as they keep building (and exposing) the data supporting the bloggers community.

Keren

Corporate Takeover – Web Style

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