Technosailor - Latest Comments in Technorati Authority the Authority?

Re: Technorati Authority the Authority?

James Joyner — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:22:00 -0000

True, although PageRank is kinda screwy, too. OTB has dropped from PR7 to PR6 for some reason, although we're supposedly about to go back to PR7. Yet, our incoming links and link quality have never been higher. (I'm showing with 46,712 backlinks.)

At the same time, my Hollywood site has become a PR6 and my Sports blog is a PR5 despite comparatively little linkage, let alone standing in their respective communities. Indeed, my new blogs all hit PR5 almost instantly even with no significant links from outside my network.

Re: Technorati Authority the Authority?

Dave Zatz — Wed, 23 May 2007 16:52:09 -0000

Yah, good point. I guess that's why Google has an advantage since they have so many data points available to them in calculating their version of authority (Page Rank). Instead of pure quantity of links, I guess Technorati needs to weight links. I want to make a BCS analogy here, but that system is so broken I probably shouldn't. ;)

Re: Technorati Authority the Authority?

James Joyner — Wed, 23 May 2007 15:48:11 -0000

I would agree that in-post links are more important than permanent "blogroll" type links, although they can be gamed, too.

The premise that being linked by any blog is as useful as any other blog in determining "Authority" is rather dubious, though. Surely, a link from an opinion leader in a given field is more important in that regard?

Re: Technorati Authority the Authority?

Aaron Brazell — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:13:58 -0000

Zatzy: Surely, you don't mean moi! ;)

Re: Technorati Authority the Authority?

Dave Zatz — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:07:49 -0000

Technorati is the best blog search engine, but the numbers of ranking serve no real purpose. I do appreciate breaking blogs down into groups of authority as they've done, but the individual numbers don't mean much. Of course the entire ranking system is gamed by folks who produce successful WordPress templates and those who create blog networks and link to all their properties. ;) For a true measure of a blogs worth, only in-post links should be tabulated.

Re: Technorati Authority the Authority?

Travis Seitler — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:53:03 -0000

TTLB.

(Kidding!)

Re: Technorati Authority the Authority?

Geoff Livingston — Tue, 22 May 2007 11:48:00 -0000

We need to find something else. I agree this is extremely subjective, but what else is there we can rely on?

Re: Technorati Authority the Authority?

Aaron Brazell — Mon, 21 May 2007 18:17:18 -0000

David-

Acknowledged that you guys have made the experience far better. No doubt. The speed is vastly improved, though not really "there" yet. I still end up waiting longer than I should. Have you guys applied the 80/20 rule to the site? I'm also massively alarmed by the number of b5media blogs that have lost their claim in Technorati (which naturally causes all kinds of problems if we're using your API, though I'm not 100% convinced it's your fault - I don't know). There's other things that I could discuss with you and I may give you a call sometime. Perhaps a better solution would be to connect with you for coffee or a beer when I'm in the Bay area in July. I'm sure there's a number of things we could discuss that would be helpful to Technorati as well as b5media.

Re: Technorati Authority the Authority?

Dan Schawbel — Mon, 21 May 2007 18:16:21 -0000

I think technorati is a great site for finding out who links to your site and the growing popularity. How would we find out if it is working properly and covering all links?

Re: Technorati Authority the Authority?

David Sifry — Mon, 21 May 2007 18:07:20 -0000

Aaron,

We've been working very hard at Technorati to continue to improve the data, the data quality, the speed of the experience, and to add additional context around what you're searching for. I'd love to hear more about your complaints with the service, we're continuing to work 110% to get you the best experience you possibly can from us.

Give me a call - 415 846-0232. I'd love to hear from you and see how we can make the service better.

Dave

Re: Technorati Authority the Authority?

Lisa — Mon, 21 May 2007 17:43:09 -0000

Nothing really has changed.. the 'authority' listing was always there - they've just renamed it. Authority versus Rank is bound to become the latest 'tastes great! less filling!' argument for those who care.

Personally? Makes more sense to me to say "I'm ranked #1 in Technorati" (out of however many millions of blogs they track) rather than say "I have an authority score of 10,000" - - rank makes more sense. (disclaimer - I'm not really ranked #1 in Technorati :p)