#14: Separating the wheat from the chaff with Technorati

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By now, we have some very practical examples of how big (deep? wide? vast? huge?) the live web really is. We’re much more than knee-deep in the big muddy.

In this Thing, we will look at another search engine (like Del.icio.us) with social bookmarking features, Technorati. When this tool first appeared on the web, way back in 2002, it was unique, but now it has many competitors that do some of what it does (like Google Blog Search, PubSub, and Feedster).. Technorati attempted to establish a measure of value or quality for blog posts by tracking inbound and outbound links, not just tags. When I write a blog post and comment on your blog post by referencing it, some little meter at Technorati counts that reference; similarly, when someone else comments on my blog post and includes a link to it, another little Techno-meter clicks.

Technorati took the number of these inbound and outbound links, added some other things including frequency and volume of posts, and converted it all into a measure it called “authority.” They maintain this is more than just a measure of “popularity,” much more sophisticated than a simple hit counter or the number of subscribers to your RSS feed. Some folks disagree with their claims (why am I not surprised?) but this attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff is a significant addition to the live web.

Here’s what Tris Hussey says about authority:

Bottom line, blogs that post more and more often start to inch up the authority ranking. Posting frequency is only part of the formula though, links in factors very highly as well. Someone could write 20 posts a day every day for months and not edge up if they are rarely if ever linked to. Then how do you help improve your ranking (as my title suggests)? Post and link.

I know, I know it sounds overly simplistic, however there are only two things in this metric you can control, your posting frequency and who you link to. I've seen time and again that when I slack off posting, my traffic dips, when I pick right back up, so does my traffic. Traffic means people will have a better chance of finding you and when they find you, they can link to you. What about the linking to other people part? Part of good blogging and getting "found" is linking to other
people who are writing about the same topic.

This led to some great writing advice from Paul Chaney about how to increase your readership and thus your authority -- by writing blog posts that readers will value and want to follow:

So, dear blogger, the onus is on you. If you'd like to see your blog stand
out from the pack, post with greater frequency and hang in there for the long
run. One more thing...write posts worth linking to. Here are some tips where
that's concerned...
• Write original material rather than copy and paste what someone else says.
• State a firm opinion.
• Every once in a while, write a good "how-to" post.
• Write some "top ten" posts.
• Break news
whenever possible. A good "scoop" will go a long way toward getting link love
and Google Juice.
• Find a yet unexploited niche, or one that is marginally exploited, and go after it. Become the expert on that subject.

Pretty good advice for any writer, huh? I think I’ll share this with my students.

Discovery Activity:

1. Explore Technorati (Frankly, I find the home page a little silly, but whatever . . .)
   
2. Click on Popular to see the Top listings. On the right, see the Top Blogs and their Authority ratings. You can click on the link to see the Top 100 Blogs. At the top of each Popular screen, you can see how popularity is measured.
   
3. In the Search box, type in some tags of interest. For example, I used college teaching writing and selected English as the language.
   
4. To just search on blogs, use this fast search page: http://search.technorati.com/ I used the same search terms, but I also selected posts with “a lot” of authority. Note that you can subscribe to any search using RSS.


5. Blog about what you discover!

Extra! Extra!

In addition, Technorati’s founder Dave Sifry posts a Quarterly Report on the Blogosphere (now called the “State of the Live Web”). The latest report appeared in April, 2007. You can enlarge each graph by clicking on it. If you love data as I do, these are fascinating reports and can really spark some thought!

Obviously, there is a lot more to Technorati. You can create your own account, set up WatchLists, link to Favorites, “claim” your blog if you want it indexed by Technorati’s spiders, and much, much more. If you explore further, share what you find with the rest of us.