Still Cant Figure Out Technorati
Today marks the day that I crossed into the Technorati Top 100 blogs. I was hoping balloons would fall down from the ceiling, or maybe Dave Sifry would call me up and shoot the crap or something. But then when I went to click the top 100 button to see who was above and below me, I don’t find my blog at all. Huh?
According to the Top 100, it’s sorted by Authority, the green rank in the picture in the upper left corner. My authority ranking is 3012. So, even though the Rank says 97, if it’s sorted by Authority, then that puts me somewhere around 77 ( see here) as of the time I’m writing this. (These numbers fluctuate often).
So, um… huh?
Not that the number matters in the long scheme of things, I don’t think, but it was something that I was paying attention to, learning about, and courting as a kind of game with myself. Now that I’m here, I don’t get it.
Anyone? Buehler?
Technorati Doesnt Count Microblogs
Something Mack Collier just said rang a bell in my head: Technorati doesn’t count services like Twitter, Friendfeed, Plurk, Identi.ca, etc, as valid sources of traffic for a blog. Meaning, for the dozens of people who say that they find something interesting and share the link on Twitter, none of that goes towards whether a blog is authoritative.
Does that actually make sense? If we’re shifting as a user base into using services like Facebook, Twitter, and Jaiku more frequently (okay, not Jaiku), why wouldn’t Technorati, the current reigning source of “authority” of blogs on the web, count these sources?
Has Technorati become the Alexa of measurement?
Update: I guess Alexa counts FireFox now, too. Again, if you have the bar installed. Thanks for the update. (Note: Alexa, as far as I know, only counts users of the IE browser with the Alexa toolbar installed in its ratings of who visits your website, versus Compete and others who count much more.)
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.)
Further, they are building a search-meets-reputation kind of data set, very similar to what is in place at Technorati.
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.
Could Someone Explain Technorati
I’ll admit that I’m watching my Technorati number. Why? Because it’s one way that the web measures authority, and I’m interested in that for the book I’m working on with Julien Smith. So, when it does weird things (read: things I don’t understand), I get thrown. Today, I’m thrown again. Look at this:
05/18/08
Authority: 1,761
Rank: 1,122
05/23/08
Authority: 1,811
Rank: 1,043
05/25/08
Authority: 1,812
Rank: 1,043
05/27/08
Authority: 1,813
Rank: 1,874
***UPDATE***: as per Darren’s comment above it jumped back down. But why?
Authority: 1,817
Rank: 1,032
So, my blog rank just hopped 840 down. I just lost ground by 840 other blogs. Meanwhile, the authority is pretty much the same.
Does that mean over 800 people got their blog fairy wings ahead of me? How does that work?
Interestingly, Mitch Joel has his own questions about Technorati this morning.
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?
