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Technorati 2007 — The Keyword Is Simple!

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Simple Is Elegant

technorati 2007

Today Technorati has unveiled a new site redesign that changes how it works from the deep backend to the beautiful, easy-on-the-eyes home page. The changes have been in the works since January 2007 and are made to reflect the new living web and people, like us, who live and work here. David Sifry explained it this way.

Whereas folks using Technorati a couple of years ago were predominantly coming to us to search the blogosphere to surface the conversations that were most interesting to them, today they are increasingly coming to our site to get the 360 degree context of the Live Web – blogs of course, but also user-generated video, photos, podcasts, music, games and more. They want all the good stuff out there, all in real-time, and we’re using the power of 80 million bloggers to help organize it and make it fun to browse; using the wisdom of crowds as a mirror on ourselves.

homepage at technorati 2007

Finally, the Keyword Is Simple!

You won’t hear me complaining about more bells and whistles this time. Finally, with a long hard look, the team has backed off what doesn’t work and put their stock in a new keyword — simple.

Here are some of the changes you’ll find when you go there.

  • Simpler interface. Everything is easier on the eyes and easier on the brain. Lots less visual noise.
  • Simpler context. Preview information is useful and cut back to speed up load times.
  • Simpler search. No more search silos, i.e. keyword search, tag search and blog directory search. One search gets you everything across the Live Web — blogs, posts, photos, videos, podcasts, events, and more.
  • New simple streamlined blogsearch. A new blog-only search homepage at search.technorati.com (an easy shortcut is s.technorati.com)

    technorati fast blog search 2007

Technorati has been listening. You can see it everywhere. I won’t ruin all of the cool stuff. But don’t miss the tickertape. It’s just fun — the web alive, on the move.

Sure, I bet you’ll find a few kinks to work out. If you do, feel free to leave word here. I’ll pass your issues along all at once for everyone’s benefit in getting problems fixed.

Sometimes we forget that Technorati is a small business, not some Google-sized corporation. It’s 45 people who are grateful when we remember to say, “thank you.”

Thank you, Dave, Janice, and Liz. Thank you to the entire team for listening and for a fabulous job! Good luck in catching all of those pesky bugs.
Liz

See Also
Come check out the refreshed www.technorati.com!
The Technorati Blog May 23rd

WTF? T-rati Monster Diggs Up a New Feature!!

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I Know What You’re Thinking

Maybe you caught it. Last night at about 9:40pm CST — that’s Chicago time — if you went to visit Technorati, you would have seen a white screen with words that said something like this

Doh! The Technorati monster has escaped again! We’ve gone to find him. We’ll be back in no time. (I’m remembering as best as I can.)

Shortly thereafter, when service returned, a smiling Dave Sifry announced on his own blog and on the official Technorati WTF page a new Technorati feature by saying,

I hope you’ll come to love as much as I do. It’s called WTF (no, not that: It’s “Where’s the Fire.”)

Where’s the Fire?

WTF - Where's the Fire? at Technorati

Where’s the Fire is about what is HOT! in the blogosphere. Here’s when you write a WTF blurb.

  • When you write post that sizzles or read one that fries you, write a WTF blurb about it.
  • When you think it’s time that folks knew about how YOUR passion for blogging makes you a hot ticket, write a WTF blurb then too.
  • When you’re the first to find out that America’s sweetheart has doused her latest film in gasoline, write a WTF blurb about it.

Okay so, you can write about news and fast breaking information If you think folks are interested in that kind of stuff.

Here’s how you use the WTF blurbs.

  • When you have a burning question about what your next post will be, search the WTF blurbs.
  • When find a blurb about a story boiling with debate or buzzing with electricity, vote it up!
  • When you find a blurb that turns you on to something so cool it’s hot, vote it up!

You know the drill.

There’s a new toy in the Technorati neighborhood. The T-rati-Rex must have Dugg it up when he ran away last night.

No worries. Janice says her team is still our team — this new feature didn’t shake their system.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
To Dave Sifry, Janice Myint and Technorati
Congratulations on the Tag Page at Technorati! Is it Our Turn Now?

To Dave Sifry, Janice Myint and Technorati

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Dear Dave, Janice, and all the Technorati Team,

I’m sorry I rained on your parade yesterday. That wasn’t very nice of me. Usually I’m more careful of such things.

My head was still attached to my heart. The problem was I was only thinking of the people on this side of the equation. I could have let you celebrate your glory for a day. How arrogant of me to charge right in there to find fault. I really am sorry.

But how did you respond?

With winning colors!

Every comment that I forwarded was attended to as far as I can tell — fast, effectively, and without a word of “hey look us.”

And then this morning, an IM from Janice with the biggest surprise of all.
Major corrections to my link count.

Sometimes it’s even harder to move when everyone’s watching.

Thank you, Dave, Janice, and everyone who heard me.

Thank you, for letting me know I bet on the right team.

Liz's Signature

see
Congratulations on the Tag Page at Technorati! Is it Our Turn Now?

Congratulations on the Tag Page at Technorati! Is it Our Turn Now?

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The Exciting New Tag Pages Go Live Today!

When you go to Technorati this morning — oh you’re one who’s stopped going? — well go on over. They have exciting news! David Sifry has announced the new and updated Tag Pages in honor of the second anniversary of Technorati tags. At the Technorati weblog, where he makes the announcement, David explains the beauty of both the tag pages and the value of tags.

Technorati Tag Pages

And, with the launch of our new Tag Pages, we’ve improved the way that you can check out the Live Web, too. A Technorati Tag Page shows you everything in the known universe (blogs, videos, photos, podcasts, music, people) tagged with your topic or interests, all in one place. [ . . . ]

The beauty of tags is that they’re metadata: data about data. What does that mean? Tags actually describe their subject, as opposed to, say, keywords, which just occur within them.

Is It Our Turn Now?

I’m delighted with your new Tag Pages, Dave. Seems every time I turn around there’s another new feature or an improved whistle to one. I bet it feels grand to be growing and winning technology awards. I just wonder how many customers asked for this one, because the Technorati users that I know have more basic things at the top of their wishlist.

Every morning and throughout the day, I play a game I call Technorati Roulette. I get links on posts, and I check in. There’s no predictability to whether my link count will go up, go down, or even change. I might have the fun of seeing my archive chronology suddenly rearrange time in some alien fashion.

Every time Technorati does a reset, upgrade, or anything new, I lose 20 or more links, just like that! I’ve learned to expect it every weekend. It’s a fact of Technorati life.

You might say that’s because Technorati only tracks 6 months of links. That argument doesn’t work. That might work if my archives went back 6 months but they only go back 60 days!! And there was no weekend in the history of this blog that I took on as many links as I’ve been losing in one fell swoop. So that math doesn’t work.

Things at Technorati I have been broken since five months before I wrote Dear Niall Kennedy and David Sifry at Technorati. That would be about 16 months now.

Here are my problems today:
Janice does her best to address what’s going on. The engineers look. The issues remain. There are plenty of emails with screenshots about the problems. Sorry to do this out loud, but behind the scenes hasn’t worked. Maybe this way some folks reading will feel they are not alone.

  • This is my link archive page — Question: What happened to the links between 20 hours and 4 days ago? Answer: They’re scattered among my other links throughout my link archive chronology. (Click to enlarge.)

    Technorati 108 Archive page 2

  • I still have rogue links that repeat and repeat through my archives. I’ve discussed this one and sent screenshots too often to detail it here. Page through my link archive chronology, and you will see four or five of the same links crop up over and over.
  • Random Example: Page 61 of my link archives lists my links from 29 days ago — except for the two entries that are from 24 days ago. Many/most archive pages have one or two entries out of chronology like that.
  • Somewhere around link archive page 115, EVERY ARCHIVE PAGE REPEATS. I HAVE NO LINKS OLDER THAN 60 DAYS. I HAVE BEEN WRITING ABOUT THIS FOR MONTHS.

That’s just me though. What about the folks I know who haven’t been indexed for over 100 days? What about the folks who can’t get indexed at all? What about the folks who can’t claim their blogs? How important is an improved Tag Page to them?

David, I’m sorry to rain on your parade. But c’mon. Where are you looking? It’s our content that you’re indexing. We’re stakeholders in what you do.

Sooner or later, someone like Blog Pulse is going to provide a service that works and folks will go there. We’ll go there because it’s more reliable than Technorati roulette and because it’s more fun than writing this kind of post to a guy that I really like.

When is it our turn? When is our wishlist important enough?

— ME “Liz” Strauss

UPDATE: WHEN I PUBLISHED THIS POST I DROPPED 10 MORE LINKS. I CAN’T QUIT LAUGHING ABOUT THE TIMING OF THAT.

UPDATE: THANKS DAVID, JANICE, AND THE ENGINEERING TEAM FOR RESTORING MY LINK COUNT. I APPRECIATE IT. :p

Related articles
Put Your 2Cents In–What’s Technorati Worth–Without Janice?
Technorati Has a NEW Home Page–My Blogs Are Stuck Again