Mar 19 2007

Technorati is Misleading

Published by at 6:19 pm under blogging,blogsearch,technorati

For those new to blogging, you may not have heard about a site called Technorati. Basically, Technorati is a blog monitoring source that keeps track of all the blogs that have registered on the site. Registering is relatively easy and free, and if you’re new to blogging, and serious about it, it really is a must as it helps others to find your blog.

Technorati also keeps track of links between blogs, and rates blogs according to a few different factors (from what I understand);

  • the number of total links to your blog
  • the number of individual blogs linking to your blog and
  • how many people favourite your blog

Now if you’re a preblogger like me, chances are you won’t really give a damn about your Technorati ranking. But some of the “probloggers” and the wannabe probloggers do use it as a measure of their success.

Similarly many of the “pay for review” services factor in Technorati ranking when determining what price you should be able to charge for a review – one such site is ReviewMe.

But there’s something really weird happening at Technorati at the moment. I don’t know if it’s a temporary glitch or a permanent flaw, and it seems like John Chow’s blog is one of the main offenders (or perhaps it’s that he has so many outgoing links that it is really obvious). It seems like a link from his site is good for hundreds. Many bloggers are reporting astronomical increases in their rankings overnight.

Examples

Mitchell Harper – My Technorati Ranking Dropped From 120,343 to 3,960 Overnight

Tyler Cruz “As a result from the most recent reviews (And partly due to John Chow) I’ve jumped from 8,746 to 1,675 on Technorati!”

John Chow even acknowledges it ” However, because Technorati thinks over 500 of my blog posts are actually blogs, all the Top Commentators suddenly picked up hundreds of blog links overnight”. And “After all, who wouldn’t want to see their blog go from 50,000 to 2,000 overnight?”

And, of course there’s the fact that Technorati doesn’t even recognise that johnchow.com is a blog, yet still count the links from it (and in multiples too). John has written about how he got banned from Technorati.

John Chow on Technorati

Elaine Vigneault also points out that Technorati give themselves a rank of 1

Technorati.com Technorati Ranking

So in conclusion, take Technorati rankings with a grain of salt, particularly if you are relying on this rank for advertising. It often seems to duplicate links from both the site and the post, and chances are the more “johnchow.com” links a person has, the less likely it will be that their rank displays the true state of affairs.

Update: I just noticed Matt Coddington at Net Business Blog (a great read) has written something similar about this too.

9 responses so far

9 Responses to “Technorati is Misleading”

  1. dioon 19 Mar 2007 at 9:32 pm

    Then what is the measure. Whome to trust?

  2. Technorati Rank Meaninglesson 19 Mar 2007 at 11:58 pm

    […] Technorati is Misleading […]

  3. Elaineon 20 Mar 2007 at 1:01 am

    Hi Dio, there isn’t ONE organization to trust. Rather, you have to take a broad look at many rankings sites and do you own research. If you’re looking at a website and wondering if you want to advertise there, try taking a look at these things:
    1. Google Rank (updated every three months)
    2. Alexa Rank
    3. Big Boards Rank if it’s a web forum
    3. Technorati Rank if it’s a blog
    4. Ask to see their traffic data. The worst they can do is say no.
    5. Is the website in your niche? Does it serve your customers?
    6. Are their rates reasonable?
    7. Location, location, location. Where will they put your ad?
    8. I’m sure Meg has more ideas… :)

  4. Megon 20 Mar 2007 at 9:47 am

    Hi Elaine

    Thanks for the detailed response, I think you’ve summed it up pretty well :)

  5. lyndaon 20 Mar 2007 at 11:52 am

    Wow! this is some interesting info… thanks…

  6. Jeremyon 20 Mar 2007 at 4:05 pm

    I’m sure this fluke will be fixed by Technorati. I guess until then you should post away.

  7. kubion 20 Mar 2007 at 8:33 pm

    it really does depend what you’re writing for i guess. but it also helps when you’ve got people responding to what you post. encouraging.

  8. […] Mark Robinson is reporting that Technorati has fixed the errors I previously mentioned. […]

  9. […] Technorati Adjustments Apparent Mark Robinson is reporting that Technorati has fixed the errors I previously mentioned. […]