I don’t put that much weight on authority because you’ll always notice that splogs are counted in that system as well.

Also, authority might mean more if when you did a general search, blogs that fit showed up in order of authority. As it stands now if you were to do a search for beauty blogs, someone with an authority of 100 may show up on the same page as someone with an authority of 3. That means searching through pages and pages of blogs to make sure you are finding all of the higher ranking blogs.

And personally speaking, when I moved my personal blog off of Blogger and onto WordPress, there was no way to merge their profiles in Technorati to show that as a whole my blog had a specific authority. Instead I have to have two separate accounts diluting their rank.

I will say this though, I did like their State of the Blogosphere report.

The size of Technorati’s index doesn’t matter.

Again, most people don’t find blogs by searching specifically for them. They find them by searching on the big engines using individual queries. If the blog has content that matches, they “find it.”

I suspect the the majority of people using Technorati to search for blogs are other bloggers. Can’t prove it empirically, but that’s what my gut and experience tells me as a participant myself in Technorati for years.

In terms of Twitter:

Tweets get indexed in the Big Three search engines all the time — primarily through sites that aggregate Twitter streams around specific subjects. Do tinyurls count toward PageRank in Google? Of course not, but I don’t think that was at all what Shannon was suggesting.

I think Shannon was simply advocating a more “open” approach from Technorati that would examine links back to blogs from sources other than just through Technorati (Twitter, Facebook, whatever) for providing “Authority.”

This actually would be fairly easy to implement with a simple tracking script that gets added into the header of any blog included in the Technorati index.)

However, your “anger” at someone possibly thinking Technorati could be better seems to have blinded you to an improvement that might actually make your site even more successful.

What a shame.

Finally, since it seems like you are a Technorati-employed “evangelist” I would suggest you spend some time searching Technorati for the phrase “blogger etiquette.” If your goal is to win people over, I don’t think your tone and approach here is doing your beloved company any favors.

I hope you aren’t their “official” blogger outreach person. If you are, you deserve to be fired. Clearly you don’t get the space that your company claims to have helped pioneer.

You say:

>>3. Technorati’s blog search is 5 – 10 times larger than Google’s blog search, and more accurate, and faster! http://mashable.com/2008/10/09/iterend/&lt;&gt;4. As for indexing Twitter… The fact that anyone would even say something so stupid proves the ignorance of this blogger. It’s PROPRIETARY !<<

Huh? Tweets get indexed in the Big Three search engines all the time — primarily through sites that aggregate Twitter streams around specific subjects. Do tinyurls count toward PageRank in Google? Of course not, but I don’t think that was at all what Shannon was suggesting.

I think Shannon was simply advocating a more “open” approach from Technorati that would examine links back to blogs from sources other than just through Technorati (Twitter, Facebook, whatever) for providing “Authority.”

This actually would be fairly easy to implement with a simple tracking script that gets added into the header of any blog included in the Technorati index.) However, your “anger” at someone possibly thinking Technorati could be better seems to have blinded you to an improvement that might actually make your site even more successful. What a shame.

Finally, since it seems like you are a Technorati-employed “evangelist” I would suggest you spend some time searching Technorati for the phrase “blogger etiquette.” If your goal is to win people over, I don’t think your tone and approach here is doing your beloved company any favors.

I hope you aren’t their “official” blogger outreach person. If you are, you deserve to be fired. Clearly you don’t get the space that your company claims to have helped pioneer.

* 38% of frequent readers said blog links were the top tool for discovering new blog content.
* 34% cited web search, and 11% said blog search engines were the top tool for discovering new blog content.

So basically, people are discovering new blogs through a combination of Web Search and links within blog content. This is pretty much what I would have thought. In fact, the Jupiter study pretty much repudiates the idea that social networks are driving meaningful blog traffic.

Now, here’s where it get’s interesting:

“Blogs are not consumed in isolation, but experienced as part of a connected conversation: Nearly half (49%) of blog readers and 71% of frequent readers read more than one blog per session.”

This is actually where I think the social network can influence traffic and loyalty. Social networks allow you to reach influencers within your content segments who over time can help build buzz and awareness. As these networks expand beyond the digital denizens, you’ll start to see more influence. I just don’t think we’ve hit critical mass yet.

Good topic.

>>3. Technorati’s blog search is 5 – 10 times larger than Google’s blog search, and more accurate, and faster! http://mashable.com/2008/10/09/iterend/&lt;&gt;4. As for indexing Twitter… The fact that anyone would even say something so stupid proves the ignorance of this blogger. It’s PROPRIETARY !<<

Huh? Tweets get indexed in the Big Three search engines all the time — primarily through sites that aggregate Twitter streams around specific subjects. Do tinyurls count toward PageRank in Google? Of course not, but I don’t think that was at all what Shannon was suggesting.

I think Shannon was simply advocating a more “open” approach from Technorati that would examine links back to blogs from sources other than just through Technorati (Twitter, Facebook, whatever) for providing “Authority.”

This actually would be fairly easy to implement with a simple tracking script that gets added into the header of any blog included in the Technorati index.) However, your “anger” at someone possibly thinking Technorati could be better seems to have blinded you to an improvement that might actually make your site even more successful. What a shame.

Finally, since it seems like you are a Technorati-employed “evangelist” I would suggest you spend some time searching Technorati for the phrase “blogger etiquette.” If your goal is to win people over, I don’t think your tone and approach here is doing your beloved company any favors.

I hope you aren’t their “official” blogger outreach person. If you are, you deserve to be fired. Clearly you don’t get the space that your company claims to have helped pioneer.

@Jonathan W I’ve come to know shannonpaul as an acquaintance and know her to be extremely sharp, very knowledgeable, and of the highest integrity. This blog post has merit, perhaps Technorati should be listening!

With regard to the blog, I believe its spot on. I’ve claimed a number of blogs with Technorati to no avail, and in days found the pages strewn about Google and other search engines. Technorati may be great for some things, but for everything else, I do not use it.

Great points and great post @shannonpaul