The Wall Street Journal recently ran its list of "must-read" industry blogs. The list was put together by polling Journal beat reporters.

That's one way of doing it ... but shouldn't there be a more objective system for determining blog authority for various topics?

Of course there should be, and there is -- Technorati. So why don't we cross-check the Journal's choices?

The list below includes the WSJ's choice(s) for an industry, followed by Technorati's "most authoritative" blog in the same industry, based on its tagging system. (I've skipped over certain inappropriate Technorati results where noted.)

REAL ESTATE
WSJ: Curbed, The Slatin Report
Technorati: Brownstoner

ADVERTISING
WSJ: Adrants
Technorati: Micro Persuasion

WALL STREET
WSJ: Footnoted.org, Jeff Matthews Is Not Making This Up, DealLawyers.com
Technorati: Uncle Jack's (using tag "Stock Market" -- the No. 1 result for the "Wall Street" tag is this -- content warning)

HEALTH CARE
WSJ: Pharma Marketing Blog, The Health Care Blog
Technorati: Hospital Impact (ranks fifth for "Health Care" tag; the first four results are political or personal blogs)

PUBLISHING
WSJ: PublishersMarketplace, Bookslut
Technorati: Miss Snark (ranks third behind two technology blogs)

THEATER
WSJ: Broadway Stars
Technorati: The Artful Manager (ranks second behind a political blog)

OK, at this point I got bored and stopped. But you get the idea.

There's no crossover.

Why? It isn't because the WSJ is playing favorites. The WSJ's choices, across the board, are simply more accurate (although I recommend visiting the Technorati picks as well.)

The reasons for the discrepancies tie directly to the limitations of Technorati's blog-ranking system, which are:

1. Many top bloggers haven't signed up with Technorati; therefore, they don't appear in the rankings at all. This is true of several of the Journal's choices.

2. The categorizing of blogs is imprecise. Currently, categories are chosen by a blog's author -- and the author can choose up to 20 tags. So, for example, Micro Persuasion ranks as the most authoritative advertising blog because Steve Rubel has chosen "Advertising" as one of his tags -- even though Steve writes principally about Web 2.0 technology and its impact on business communication.

3. Technorati's ranking system is based on the total number of inbound links. It's not a measure of traffic, nor does it account for the quality of inbound links. So, for example, my sister linking to Media Orchard carries as much weight as the Daily Kos linking to Media Orchard.

We bloggers can help make Technorati's system better by signing up and claiming our blogs. Then it's up to Technorati to continue to refine its Blog Finder ranking system. There's much work to be done.

Technorati tags: Technorati, PR, Public Relations, Marketing, Blogs, Wall Street Journal, Blog Rankings