I’m sorry – I really try and understand the internet properly so that I can explain it to you – but in this case, it’s going to have to be the other way around.
This is going to sound really stupid. Especially coming from somebody who is supposed to be some sort of expert about the online music environment. But there are just some aspects of the internet that I just can’t figure out, despite the thousands of people telling me how incredibly useful or crucial a site is.
I can’t work out Technorati. I just don’t get it.
What’s it for? How do you use it? Why is it so important?
I know it ranks blogs – but to what end? Look at the entry for New Music Strategies, for instance. It’s ranked at 16,087 with an authority of 265.
In what possible way are those numbers meaningful?
Please help – I genuinely have a comprehension shortfall in this area.
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6 Comments
It’s a little like Google’s PageRank. They look at who links to you and, based on who links to them in turn, figure out how “important” you are. This then powers their Authority ranking such as deciding which things to post on the front page and flagging posts as more worth checking out that others. Flickr’s “Interestingness” works in a similar way.
As a webmonkey Technorati is most useful for me to see who’s linking to what. If I’m following blogs about an event (such as the Supersonic Festival) I’ll use Technorati to look not just for links but also mentions of the phrase. I also use it to see who’s talking to me and my projects.
Technorati is a blunt tool for sure and their methods are pretty vague and often late but they do cast the net very wide.
In short, ignore the numbers. It’s nice that they make them visible but they’re not of any real use to the average Joe.
Originally it billed itself as a blog search engine, then Google came out with one and killed it. Then they re-aligned it for a tool to discover who was linking and talking about you, it _was_ useful for a time to discover discussions around a certain tags. I think certainly more could have been done with it, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technorat hints there going down the pan, I’m not surprised.
No offense, Tom, but anything that cites Andrew Orlowski as a credible source is too suspect for words. The man is notoriously negative about all things good on the internet and should never be listened to. Ever. Horrible writing style too.
I think Technorati reflects the internet well in that it’s a big ever-changing mess that’s impossible to rank efficiently. The Google Blog Search, for example, is reliable but only tracks blogs with a full RSS feed. Technorati gets its hands dirty and it shows.
That said, I probably wouldn’t miss it too much if it went.
Mostly I use Technorati to look up who is linking to me and thank them or link back to them, especially if they send a lot of traffic my way.
From the Technorati FAQ (Coincidently I just looked this up today):
“Technorati Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has.
It is important to note that we measure the number of blogs, rather than the number of links. So, if a blog links to your blog many times, it still only count as +1 toward your authority. Of course, new links mean the +1 will last another 180 days.
Technorati Rank is calculated based on how far you are from the top. The blog with the hightest Technorati Authority is the #1 ranked blog. The smaller your Technorati Rank, the closer you are to the top.
Since at the lower end of the scale many blogs will have the same Technorati Authority, they will share the same Technorati Rank.
The Technorati Top 100 shows the most popular 100 blogs based on Technorati Authority. The #1 ranked blog is the blog with the most other distinct blogs linking to it in the last 6 months. If your blog’s rank is, say 305,316, this indicates that there are 305,315 blog ranks separating your blog from the #1 position.”
Digital saturation? How many people can do how many virtually limitless things?
Technorati may be a very well hyped example of how saturated media has become. In all aspects; the digital domain has made it possible to flood our lives with enormous amounts of all types of media / information. Each of us has the freedom to choose what we will or will not interact with, but as time moves on our systems of filtering the content will need to become more precise.
This digital saturation could be the beginning of the end of the mega-rich artist…as everyone on earth becomes empowered creatively via technology. (I can live with that)
I think, practically speaking, Technorati brings new visitors to your site. As people mentioned, some “specialists” track keywords on Technorati and then visit your site if you discuss them. This is good in terms of traffic, bad in terms of much else. I got a lot of people selling me stuff based on keywords, I used, and a lot of 1-time visitors who don’t really bring much value to the conversation.