Tuesday, April 20, 2010

'Rest In Peace, Technorati'

I used to visit the blog aggregator website Technorati.com to see which sites had linked to mine. Their "blog reactions" feature was one of the most valuable services a blogger could use, especially for small up-and-comers. I'm pretty sure Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and Michelle Malkin never used it because only about 8 trillion blogs already link to them. But for the little guys it was invaluable.

Anyhow, about seven or eight months ago Technorati changed their "reactions" feature during a major site redesign and it hasn't worked since. Various users have complained for months on a support site to no avail, other than the occasional wan promise that it's in the works.

Today, Dividist wrote the epitaph for a once-valuable site.

A perfect example of a company completely losing its way. This was exactly what brought most bloggers back to Technorati every day. This was the one thing that Technorati did better than anyone else. I can only assume that they ran out of money at exactly the wrong time, could no longer afford the infrastructure needed to support this capability in an exploding blogosphere, could not raise money during the downturn and then made a fatal mistake...

They listened to an impatient VC insist they cut costs and reinvent themselves as a quasi social network because - you know - "social networks are hot and cool and look how much buzz twitter and facebook get."

So now you have a site that provides no value to anyone except potentially the top 100 sites, who have no real need for what Technorati offers.

A classic clusterfork. Rest In Peace Technorati. There is still no service that is as good and useful to the average blogger as you once were. But now you are completely useless to everyone.

I really can't disagree.


4 comments:

William J. Kelleher, Ph.D. said...

Mr. Ross:

Technocrati is still useful to new guys in the blogosphere, like me. I'm looking for politically oriented bloggers.

I would like you to know about the book I am working on. It will advocate the use of Internet voting in all US elections. Its entitled

How to Sideline the Superrich in All US Elections with Secure Internet Voting

The first draft is finished. Two chapters discuss the security issues. It can be done with all the security of an online purchase or electronic banking.

One chapter is entitled "The Original Intentions of the Framers for US Presidential Elections."

I also discuss the outrageous costs of running for president. Obama spent about $740,000,000 in 2008. Of course, this gives an unfair advantage to the superrich who can make big contributions.

Most importantly, I show how a system of presidential elections based on Internet voting can neutralize the power of Big Money, and make the president and vice-president directly dependent upon the people who elected them.

The superrich, and everyone else, will be free to spend as much money as they want to, but with the system I propose big spending cannot influence the voter's choice.

No agent/pub, yet. But all my chapter drafts are online for free reading or downloading at:
http://ssrn.com/author=1053589

You and your readers are welcome to read any of this, and comment on it to me, or in your own writing.


Yours,

William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
Political Scientist, author, speaker, CEO for
The Internet Voting Research and Education Fund
A CA Nonprofit Foundation
Email: InternetVoting@gmail.com

Nice Deb said...

Yeah, I've had an authority of 1 there for months, and the last post it shows for my site is from January. I emailed a query, but got no response.

It's too bad they're completely worthless, now. I might s well take their widget down.

vanderleun said...

What's his face, the fellow who created Technorati, was looking for an acquisition and a payday. Didn't happen. Booted him. Got worse. Utterly useless. Can't imagine that they're making enough to make a payroll.

Too bad. They had nice aspirations but peaked in 2006.

Adios. Haven't been there for months. Won't go there now.

wjk: Internet voting? Sorry. DGAS about this lame idea in "participatory democracy."

Anonymous said...

http://technorati.com/search?return=reactions&q=directorblue.blogspot.com

You can find them on your blog page:
http://technorati.com/blogs/directorblue.blogspot.com