Does Technorati Actually Care About Blogs?
Not more than two days ago a friend lost his 5 year young son in a pool accident.
Today, after I was at the funeral of a friend and colleague yesterday, my feed reader was full of supportive entries for Dawg and his family.
Within 2 hours after NYCWatchdog had blogged about the cruel event, a friend, Avitable, had set up a donation entry and pledges started to roll in. As I am writing this 114 bloggers have already donated in little more than 24 hours.
Technorati lists 64 links to that post. I have followed the evolution of the donation entry with interest and wondered if a personal blog could make it into the popular news section at Technorati.
64 Links would be a Top 10 ranking at this moment, but obviously TC doesn’t care about blogs, blogs written by non-paid bloggers. Bloggers who love to share their life.
Does Technorati really care about blogs or rather only about it’s own pagerank?
Where would Technorati have been today if no blogger was narcissistic enough to check his/her own link popularity?
Disclaimer:
1. Links to Technorati get a nofollow tag from me, because the content of Technorati changes permanently and hence the site can not be trusted IMNSHO. This should become a new rule.
2. Both Avitable and Dawg are personal [blog] friends. Dave Sifry and Co. aren’t.
3. I have donated and so should you. Or at least leave a supportive comment at NYCWatchdog’s entry. Losing a close friend, relative never is easy. Imagine it were your kid who left us.
Um, I don’t want to seem insensitive, but isn’t there just a little conflict of interest here?
As for the central question, the popular news page would seem to have nothing to do with blogs at all, so isn’t it just kind of invalid? The page is pretty clearly listing nothing but formal news outlets. If you want Technorati to also show personal sites in that list, or to produce another collated one or whatever, you have an argument. But don’t claim that the page not showing information it’s not intended to show means they don’t care about the missing topic.
I don’t see “environmentalism” over in the Categories sidebar. While it could thereby be argued you don’t care about the environment, the simple fact is that’s not what this site’s about.
Su said this on June 24, 2007 11:25 am
Su, as written in the disclaimer, obviously there’s a conflict of interests. But as far as I’m concerned, Technorati still is all about blogs. And right now, Avi’s entry has more than 80 back links… so why is that entry still not popular news according to Technorati?
Is there a difference for the search engine, called Technorati, and professional blogs? Who cares about blogs relating to personal stories? Does every blogger have to be a professional to be recognized as popular?
Pardon my French, but… F**k that!
Franky said this on June 24, 2007 11:32 am
But as far as I’m concerned, Technorati still is about about blogs.
You might ask them about that before making assertions.
And let’s be clear here: You are talking about a single page which again is listing nothing but news outlets like the New York Times and the BBC. Get your friend written up in the Washington Post, and then let’s talk.
Also, you are not talking about Technorati as an entity. That single page is not responsible for answering the question of whether they care about blogs.
Does every blogger have to be a professional to be recognized as being popular?
You’re mixing topics. To directly answer your question above: No.
But of course that has nothing to do with the real problem in your question, which isn’t about popularity. The issue I’m pointing out is that you are foisting your own interpretation and desires onto a page with a clearly different purpose, and then complaining about the mismatch.
I’m not saying they shouldn’t list popular blog topics somewhere(there’s a popular blog page, but not an equivalent one for popular specific blog items). I’m saying that it does not seem they belong there on that specific document which you are singling out.
Consider my last paragraph above, and answer this question: What would your response be to someone tromping in here and demanding that you cover environmental topics, and claiming that you’re a pack of tree-haters if you don’t?
Su said this on June 24, 2007 11:54 am
Uh… a! Sorry, Su, but a popular topic still is a popular topic AFAIK. Screw every major outlet. I’m a blogger and have several [persanoal] blogger friends.Relationships built on more than the blogger trying to become professional. No matter what business idea might be behind, I’m the first one to recognize business principles, but that doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to call them out.
Point is… without [primarily] narcissistic bloggers, Technorati would have been nothing more than one of the insignificant, hopefully better search engines on the Internet.
Today, Technorati is nothing more than a board trying to save the VC money and getting some attention. Respectless of what is really popular among bloggers.
Sorry, but I much more respect IceRocket. No matter how much I hate Mr. Cuban’s narcissism.
Franky said this on June 24, 2007 12:04 pm
Well, now you’re just ignoring my points. I’m obviously done here.
Su said this on June 24, 2007 12:12 pm
uh!?
Did you have points?
Sorry bout that! I promise you I will visit your blog and think about your opinions.
Ooops… sorry. You prefer to stay incgonitus.
Damn, and I really tried to be positive this time.
Sorry Su.
Franky said this on June 24, 2007 12:22 pm
I just think that a blog is a blog is a blog, whether it’s written by a “professional” or not. I have a doctorate and a better education than most professional bloggers. I’m also a professional who is the CEO of a mid-sized company. But my blog doesn’t count? That just seems strange.
Avitable said this on June 24, 2007 12:28 pm
Avitable, even if no one might care. Every one among the professionals, Dawg, Puppy Monster, and you will always be in my memories.
I have no kid,s and I surely don’t want to be in this situation.
My thoughts are with Dave, and for a moment I forget every professionalism.
Franky said this on June 24, 2007 12:55 pm