Technorati: A Weakening Link in the Blogosphere?
We've always loved Technorati. In the 14 months that we've been blogging, we've discovered that it is -- by far -- the most reliable tool for measuring a blog's readership and influence.
PubSub, quite simply, doesn't work. IceRocket got off to a promising start but has fallen well behind. TTLB is obviously limited. Most of the other tools aren't worth mentioning.
And Google? Its ranking methodologies are a black box that today is valued mostly because of Google's market power; it's like saying Windows is the best OS because Microsoft dominates the PC market.
For these reasons, despite its flaws, we've trusted Technorati.
However, the past two months have been a real disappointment. After Technorati went a month without updating our blog link totals, we e-mailed David Sifry and asked if he could check on it. He was nice enough to do a manual update; that was in mid-April.
Since then, nothing. A few days ago, we e-mailed Dave again and he ran another manual update. The result: only four more links from new sites were added -- after a month. My traffic stats show that dozens of sites -- not four -- linked to Media Orchard during that period.
Lately, sites that reliably popped up on our Technorati page when they linked to us -- like Mike's Points and paidContent.org -- aren't showing up at all. And of course, other sites, like Romenesko, have never showed up when they linked to us. We only know about the referrals from the traffic reports.
We know. Some people think we shouldn't pay attention to this stuff. We disagree.
Frankly, we think it matters that a company that presents itself -- and is widely recognized as -- the premier authority on the blogosphere follows through on its brand promise. We think it matters that they do what they say they do.
Dave Sifry has been incredibly responsive when we've contacted him. But there are systemic problems, obviously, and they need to be addressed.
The upside for Technorati is that a service like Technorati is very much needed, and will become even more valuable over time. But as its users depend upon it more and more, it's going to have to keep up with their expectations. The surest way to kill any growing company is to overpromise and underdeliver.
Technorati tags: Technorati
posted by Scott Baradell at
9:46 AM
8 Comments:
You know, I've been thinking about writing a post just like this one. The same stuff has been happening to me.
But It's probably better that someone with an actual readership finally said something.
It appears as though T'rati is all washed up-- which is sad, since there really is nothing else that compares. Will they stage a comeback?
By
Jim, at 5/27/2006
Hey Scott, thanks for the link! ;)
One would think that, in this age of the Internet where so many things are quick and easy (like blogging) or in real-time or whatever, why can't rankings be done on a continuous basis. When we ping Technorati, or another blog service, our post is picked up pretty quickly. So, why aren't stats for links and the like?
-- Mike
By
Michael, at 5/27/2006
I have to disagree with you on a few points. First, I love PubSub. It's great for tracking posts, and one of the sites I use for campaigns.
Second, I never got on the Icerocket bandwagon - that seemed to be one person's suck-up mission - but it never did work well for me.
Third, Google's blog search engine brings up way too much Splogs, so it's not worth it for me.
Fourth, while Technorati has it's issues, it is still the best engine I have found for immediate returns. If I need to search on outreach I did, it will likely be there. If I need to find which blogs are the best to talk to, Technorati is the first stop.
Now, on my own blog, I stopped tagging for Technorati a few months back. It wasn't worth the trouble, it wasn't getting pick up, and I just didn't care enough on my ranking to continue tagging. If my new redesign makes it easier to tag, I'll start up again. If not, not much changes.
For pure PR tools, my bag of tricks includes PubSub and Technorati and Blogpulse, among other super secret tricks.
By
Jeremy, at 5/27/2006
Thanks for alerting us to the missing blogs. I've asked our engineering team to investigate. We are constantly improving and tuning our spam and site ping algorithms, and it looks like we've gotten a bit to agressive with some legitimate blogs.
As for the link count issues, expect to see some dramatic improvement in the next couple of weeks. We've been making slow progress on this, but there's a bunch of improvements that we're going to be rolling out a major update as soon as we feel it is reliable...
Dave
By
David, at 5/27/2006
Thanks, Dave. Unfortunately, the immediate result I've seen is that a whole bunch of links were REMOVED from my count after my post, and it now says I've had 20 links in the past 12 days, when I've had more than 20 links in the past two or three days. Oh well...we'll keep watching.
By
SB, at 5/28/2006
Jeremy: I agree that these are the most useful tools available. I just think we should expect and demand more from them.
By
SB, at 5/28/2006
Technorati is okay for tracking posts, but its ability to tabulate links is useless. I've given up on it, as I fall further and further behind other blogs while I know I'm being linked to just as frequently if not more.
As I said after the announcement of the partnership with Edelman ... track blogs in Chinese? I'd settle for an accurate count of my own links.
By
John Wagner, at 5/28/2006
Technorati is the best blog search engine out there. I know they've had issues, but I believe that as they fix any problems they have, they'll just keep getting better.
By
Shimon Sandler, at 5/28/2006
Post a Comment
<< Home