Who is Technorati Trying to Reach
Technorati is a site that I used to explain as a place to search for information, a place to find out who’s talking about you, and a tagging format that you might consider adding to your blog posts.
But when I visit the site, I no longer get it. All the stuff I wanted to use (mostly for searching about blogs, references to ideas, and my own blog’s stats) seems to have been hidden, bent, or watered down.
Who are you courting, Technorati? Why aren’t you ours anymore? And where’s your successor?
The Sound of Content Ripping Free From Its Page
Yahoo’s announcement that they intend to introduce a different method of search, such that Yahoo will pull microformatted data out of a page and deliver it on Yahoo’s results instead of passing the searcher through to the target page should send a shiver through the minds of SEO experts and content producers alike. Let me explain it again: imagine search results that don’t encourage users to land on your website, but instead, they’ll get served at the search results page. Sweating yet?
From a user’s perspective, this is much more useful in certain situations. In the Blogspotting article, Stephen Baker uses the example of someone looking for restaurant info. Instead of getting links to all kinds of varying pages where the info is housed, you’ll get a simple, easy-to-read, useful collection of data that should help you get what you need.
From a content producer’s perspective, this requires you to make a lot of changes to your perception of what matters, and especially if you believe the value of your content is the site that houses it.
Advertising on the Page Pales
If someone’s seeking how-to videos on playing cello and you’ve got a cello podcast relying on a wrap around of Google Adsense for bandwidth and beer money, that video might now have “legs” to land on a search results page sans advertising. In all cases where you’ve built ads and affiliate programs all over your site, a search like the one Yahoo’s Prabhakar Raghavan is envisioning might leave your ads in the dust.
Good Content Will Be Found
On the other hand, if it benefits you or your organization to get your content out to more places, then as Mzinga’s Aaron Strout pointed out to me, this is a case where excellent content will suddenly have MORE visibility, and you’ll be heard by more folks. If you look at it another way, asking users/searchers to jump through hoops to connect with what they’re searching for doesn’t sound all that appealing, does it? You can watch a video pretty much anywhere. You can read anywhere. Content was built to be let loose, even if this means changing the business model a bit.
Producing great content and this new way of searching go hand in hand, but it also means that you have to consider tweaking your content for this new world. Include ways for people to get back to your main site, including links, directly IN the content you’re creating. For text, consider adding links back to your main site in each post. For audio, make sure to read out your URL at the end (maybe near the beginning, too) of every post. Ditto with video.
Get a Jump on the Competition
If you look at this as an opportunity, you can see all kinds of ways that having quality microcontent, using appropriate microformats would be a great way to deliver portable value that might catapult you ahead of other previous search efforts.
And, for the average user, it’s worth considering how you might interact in this new space, and think ahead on how you present YOUR brand in a world where semantic data might change the search game in a big way. ( Read more from Nova Spivak from Twine on how users should see this announcement).
So what do you think? Is your data ready? Are you?
The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
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Linqia-Searching the Social Network Seas
Social networks are multiplying. You can’t deny that. To that end, along comes Linqia, a search tool that intends to help people understand what’s out there, and where they might find people with shared interests. One way to think of it is “Yelp for Social Networks.”
The average consumer might not know they need this tool yet. I imagine this will be more interesting for marketers and advertisers right off the bat, because it’s a way to find more niches and more places to reach people with shared interests. Non-profits might benefit from using it, too.
It’s brand new and growing, so a lot of my searches weren’t immediately successful. I’m thinking that once a growing user base can get in here and do some populating, that will change.
One to watch, insofar as we need a way to “see” the various social networks that exist out there.
Participatory Culture and Human Search
Tonight, I pointed out on Twitter that a free video of Zoe Keating got me to buy one of her albums.
Then, TheJennTaFur said back that I needed to check out Nuttin But Stringz if I liked Zoe. She was right. It’s really cool. Here’s a little interview:
We are in a time where participation is so easy. We can get involved. We can share. We can collaborate. We can point and help define.
One reason I support Mahalo and other human curation projects relates to what Doc Searls said the other day on Steve Gillmor’s The Gang. He said it’s arrogant to think that Larry and Serge have solved seach and that nothing more will advance the field (or something to that effect). He’s right, and I think that PART of that will be human curation and participatory search.
What’s your take?
