Technorati

Technorati has announced that the account you setup on Technorati can now be used as an OpenID provider. Ian demonstrates how to use your Technorati profile to authenticate a blog on Google's Blogger service.

I am pretty sure I would never use my Technorati profile to authenticate as an OpenID provider, but it's a good marketing bit. It's a good way to show that your profile could be used in this manner -- something many might not know about (I didn't). Technorati also began supporting OpenID for profile creation in October 2007.

Another update they have made over the past day which I do find beneficial is the addition of a URL link on the authority pages. In the past, some of the headlines linked directly to a site, but the majority of the time, the story linked to the site's Technorati profile. This was a huge frustration factor for me as I want to see what the site says about me or a client, not the site's profile page. Now (as shown below) they have the link to the profile and directly below it the full URL linked to the actual site. Bravo!

Yesterday we discussed the new version of Technorati and I concluded that I was confused by the new features. Even created a nifty video to demonstrate my confusion. Today my buddy Molly (aka DemoGirl) has created a demo of the new Technorati and also attempts to help clear up my confusion. It's the first time I've ever heard her say "I think" as is she isn't sure either!

No idea if the Technorati team had anyone externally test and review the new version but it certainly doesn't appear that way. Dorion/Richard, any input here on how you developed the new version?

One of the questions I had was around the section on the right called "Contributing bloggers". I wondered how those blogs got listed. Molly thinks it's random - which I don't agree with after seeing "Fergie's Tech Blog" listed on there every time I visit the page since launch.

Check out Molly's video - it's a better demo than mine and explains the updates pretty well.

Technorati relaunched the core of their site today with a "focus on bloggers and advertisers," says Michael Arrington of Techcrunch. We've already learned over the past couple of months that new CEO Richard Jalichandra cares about all blogs but really cares about his Top 100. Is this relaunch a way to highlight the big blogs in an attempt to drive more advertising? Not sure frankly.

There are some good updates it seems - like moving to show the hot posts around the net, etc. I've gone through the service and the only word that comes to mind is: CONFUSION. I even created a video to demonstrate my confusion - it's below.

• What's the difference between a blog and a news site?
• Why is does it say "percolating the latest blog posts" but then talks about news stories?
• What is an attention link and how does it differ from a reaction?
• What is a contributing blogger? Is it someone who writes content or someone who works for Technorati?
• Are these top stories or rising? If rising, how does one appear here? Some of the top stories in each category have one link. Are these hand-picked by Technorati or is it algo-based?
• No feeds for the categories?

Can Technorati regain it's foothold in blog search and ranking? Leave your thoughts in the comments after you watch my confusing video inside.

Last week we learned that Technorati has taken blog posts older than six months out of their online index claiming that it was a part of their "economization" plan. Tonight I see that they are only displaying inbound links up through approximately 30 days ago. Counts have dropped dramatically overall. I always liked Technorati for the ability to look back in time (since CN began) and see who linked to what posts. That is gone now. I sure hope it's a bug.

I hope we get some clarification from Technorati as to what is going on with these link counts and how they will affect authority figures since those are based on six-month figures. Please report in if you are seeing the same thing on your site. So far I have tested 10 sites and all are in the same ~30 day link display period.

Wouldn't this have been a good topic to discuss along with other planned changes at BWE?

One of the discussions I was looking forward to at BlogWorldExpo was the "new media moguls" panel. The panel included the CEOs from b5media (Jeremy Wright), Pajamas Media (Roger Simon), Technorati (Richard Jalichandra) and a Director from Weblogs. The panel was moderated by Jason Shellen, a former Google employee who seemed very nervous during the chat. I was most interested in hearing from Richard as he has been in the Technorati CEO position for about a month or so and it was his first chance to meet a good landscape of users. Frankly, he blew it.

First a note. Moderator Jason focused almost the entire time exclusively on Pajamas and b5media. Third place for mic time went to AOL and last was Technorati. This made it a bit difficult for Richard to discuss Technorati's plans but I believe he had a responsibility to speak up. This is the first part of how he blew his chance to win us all over.

Technorati gets bashed almost daily by someone and I have written about my dislikes in the past as well. From their inability to count links, to 0's all around, to the WTF, everyone is wondering what's up over there. Richard continued to leave us wondering what's in it for them. While leaving the room, another attendee commented to me, "Who cares about Technorati anymore?". Maybe it's no surprise that the large Technorati booth was empty most of the time.

The little that he did speak (along with his blog posts) made one thing clear: he is most interested in the Top 100 and their opinion of Technorati. He tried to back up but wasn't able to do so even saying, "most of you in this room are included in the Tecnorati databsae." Most of you? Why would anyone attending this conference not be included? This makes absolutely no sense to me.

In business, it's important to treat your best customers best. We did that at my previous employer. But why would a blog at number 30 be more important for Technorati than a blog at 30,000 or 3 million? The higher rated blogs aren't "helping" Technorati's bottom line any more than the other blogs are.

Richard, I sure hope we will hear more from you on what Technorati's plans are besides only showing interest in the Top 100 and removing posts after 6 months. It would be good to see Technorati succeed and to turn around the negativity that is the current Technorati vibe. Perhaps you could start with my 5 Quick Suggestions for Improving Technorati.

With new CEO Richard Jalichandra in place a week now and an interview under his belt, I thought it would be a good time for me to provide Five Quick Suggestions to Improve Technorati.

Suggestion #1 - Focus on the house

In an interview with Wired, Richard said his goal in the next year is to "build a WUME (wholly unique media experience)". I would suggest Richard take some time personally (not using interns) to review all of the current feedback from bloggers across the spectrum about their thoughts on Technorati. Richard can start with our Technorati coverage over the past year. The current "house" is not in order - counts aren't correct, blogs aren't updated correctly and there are lots of other small issues which seem to frustrate the blogosphere. Fix those first Richard as more positive bloggers talking about Technorati will help your WUME, otherwise it will hurt your chances.

Suggestion #2 - Realize that you track x million blogs

In your first blog post Richard, you mention going to the Top 100 and asking for advice first. What about the other x million blogs you track? The top 100 is not a sales contest with you discussing revenue projections with your best salespeople. Goes back to what I said in Suggestion #1 above - you've got a branding issue - something more than the Top 100 are needed to fix. Especially since the Top 100 might not even be correct given the tracking issues :)

Suggestion #3 - Kill off the WTF immediately

I hope you kill off the WTF feature of Technorati. Since Topics was added, WTF is not needed, it's a joke among bloggers and appears to receive very little traffic and votes per story. Not to mention that a large percentage of the submitted stories are spam and porn.

Suggestion #4 - Upgrade the Customer Service

In my customer service test last year, Technorati scored the lowest with an F overall. Recently when I inquired about a few topics, the autoreply said basically, "we are busy, if we can get to it, we will. If we don't, feel free to nudge us and we might possibly reply". Richard, I would suggest you do some anonymous testing yourself to verify the level of service provided.

Suggestion #5 - Create incoming tracking alerts

One of the small features I'd love to see is a way for an alert (sms/email/twitter) each time someone links to one of my stories. This is different than the alerts that Google provides and could become a good way to drive blogger traffic back to Technorati. Offer up a nice widget and a Facebook application as well and it's a way for visibility for your brand. Allow me to create the same alerts for my brand competitors.

Quick Conclusion

As you can see, all of my suggestions will help lead to greater blogger acceptance levels. Improvement in the blogger acceptance level is critical before rolling out new features. It's time for you to join the conversation and since you are fresh meat, it's a great time. Good luck Richard and I look forward to watching your journey back.

TechCrunch has the exclusive on a new feature launching today from TechMeme called "The Leaderboard". Mike notes, "The list will be created based on the blogs that created the most headlines on Techmeme over the previous thirty days (so it will change frequently)." You can also check out our 5 suggestions for improving TechMeme.

There is some discussion from Mike and others that this will affect Technorati but I am not so sure I agree with that. As Darren Rowse points out on the TC comments, "it is a great way of measuring things in a niche - however as it only looks at blogs writing on technology it misses 99% of the blogosphere."

Only headlines will be counted in the "Presence" scoring - “the percentage of headline space a source occupies over the 30-day period.”

Mike also notes, "I think this is a much better way of ranking the very top blogs than the Technorati approach. Technorati has deep flaws, for reasons stated above. Techmeme, by contrast, has zero spam and tends to mirror what the tech blogosphere is writing about perfectly." Except that at a basic level, Technorati is not biased as TechMeme is.

Yes, TechMeme is a great tool, I check it out several times each day and it is absolutely a great way to see what the tech blogs are writing about. Many times, I use it as a research tool for the articles I write.

What does this leaderboard actually do? Remember that TechMeme is not unbiased. It pushes the sites that Gabe believes are the biggest or most influential by default (whether by human or by algorithm). So for example, let's say XYZ site breaks a story and 5 others write about it including 2 of the "TM Faves" - those Faves have a much better chance of pushing out XYZ site as the headline and thereby capturing that bit of the "Presence" score. In fact, if you want to talk about gaming, any of the TM Faves only has to write a story about any topic already on TechMeme to obtain a great chance at another headline presence score addition.

Marhsall Kirkpatrick has a more objective review than Mike's which includes, "That's a fine thing to measure in 30 day increments, but it's also important to acknowledge that not all blogs are equal in Techmeme. It is a black box, but it certainly appears that some big blogs carry a whole lot more weight than others. If my personal blog links to some one else's blog post, that post will not be shot onto Techmeme. If TechCrunch, Engadget or Read/WriteWeb link to some one's blog post, the journey for that blog post to make it to Techmeme is going to be a whole lot shorter."

He is right but he is missing the point. If discussion doesn't count, then his personal blog won't get the points once RWW posts about the same thing. It's all about float fellas and ladies and if anyone thinks this list will change every 30-days, they are surely mistaken.

(and fyi, I have no idea if CN is included in the 100 or not)

Technorati has launched a new feature on the site called "Topics." Topics pulls the best posts from the "best blogs" and lists them in a river-style format. Sean at Mashable calls it "useless". Personally I would rather they spend the time fixing the authority rankings rather than add new technology. Let's make sure the foundation is strong before we add a new floor on the house.

From the T'rati blog: We considered a number of factors to get the seed list of blogs including Technorati Authority, frequency of posting, use of relevant tags, links to related subject matter and general topicality. With Topics, we help you discover what bloggers are writing about in Entertainment, Technology, Politics, Sports, Business, and Life.

Of course what they really mean is "... we send you what bloggers we want to link to are writing about...". This is why I like TechMeme for my tech news. I can see at a glance which stories are hot, check a variety of opinions from the a-list, the wanna be a-list and all of the others. With Topics all I see is what they feed to me.

What would make Topics stronger are feeds and listings. Allow me to grab a feed from a category, now that might be hot. And then show in the individual blog whether they are part of a topic and how to suggest a feed addition.

On August 30th, Technorati announced that they were working on the blog spiders and that new posts would not be available during this time. Later that evening, they noted that they were now on to re-pinging all in and outbound blog links. While the new site links appear in my linked page, the counts for authority and total link counts haven't changed in what appears to be since the spider updates.

On Saturday morning, I took a look at what Technorati calls the Top 5 blogs and here are their counts then and today:

• Engadget - 30,898 - 30,898
• Boing Boing - 25,141 - 25,081
• Gizmodo - 24,362 - 24,290
• TechCrunch - 22,151 - 22,088
• Huffington Post - 19,319 - 19,319

It does appear that counts are going down but not up so I am betting that they have not turned the "add" count mechanism back on. Yes, I know that the bigger the blog, the less movement as Technorati only counts authority as 1 per blog over a 6-month period. But for newer active blogs, the counts should be changing daily.

Please report in on your blog counts - have they changed or only moved down in the last week?

I am really excited to share with everyone that Technorati has bumped CN to the #1 rank position. It took a year, but beating out sites like BoingBoing, TechCrunch, HuffingtonPost wasn't easy. I would like to thank my mother, all my fans... oh wait, there's another, and another... CRAP! All blogs are rated #1 today! So let's all live like a rockstar for now :)

Come inside for some examples »