I love the idea of "authority over time" - a really cool mashup would be to superimpose this on a list of blog post subjects - that would be very useful - a quick glance could provide a ton of data!

I see Technorati being acquired this year - probably by Microsoft. Google's purchase of Feedburner (reported by Techcrunch today) should be lighting some fires under Microsoft's butts about blog platforms - and hopefully they realize that "Spaces" just isn't enough to give Microsoft much of an authority rating in the blogging world (besides Live Writer!).

Even over time, they lack authority.

Rob
Rob La Gesse | Homepage | 05.23.07 - 6:30 pm | #

Interesting related post from the Google OS blog:

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com...- authority.html

Rob
Rob La Gesse | Homepage | 05.23.07 - 7:45 pm | #

I actually was able to preview the new UI and my first question was 'where's rank?'. The kind folks at Technorati held their guns on 'authority'.

Personally, I don't feel there's any validity to 'authority'. It doesn't tell me how to set goals to get in the top 2000, 1000, 500, etc.

How high does your authority have to be to be in the Top 100?

Rank IS authority. Bring back rank!!!
Douglas Karr | Homepage | 05.23.07 - 8:27 pm | #

I don't like the new system either. Personally, I had a goal to be a top 20K blog by end of year and I feel like I just got robbed. Did it really mean anything? No. But it was a benchmark, and now that's gone.
Geoff Livingston | Homepage | 05.23.07 - 9:19 pm | #

Thanks all for adding into the conversation. I am personally interested in the link that Rob gave to Google's explanation of Page Rank, another metric that I have some issues with. Still, it is nice to see how they lay it out.

And Rob us right, the scuttlebutt is that Technorati is prettying up for a sale. We shall see.

Rob; As for an authority over time mashup, maybe we can get some of your programming friends cracking on this?
Kami Huyse | Homepage | 05.24.07 - 11:03 am | #

It goes to show all of us that the technologists behind these "engines" rely upon economics and not upon our perceived "best practices" whatever they might be. Google, Yahoo, Technorati...whatever. They're going to manipulate their "heuristics" to service their funding model. Do we really understand what Technorati's exit strategy is yet? Until we do, they're just another web service vendor looking to make a buck.

Integrity of results? Please. Who's buying baby? Show me the money!!!
Dee Rambeau | Homepage | 05.25.07 - 12:01 am | #

Dee; Yes indeed, these are companies in the marketplace to make money (not just great ideas). Where the two intersect is just gravy.
Kami Huyse | Homepage | 05.25.07 - 9:37 am | #

Maybe the community will rise up against Technorati on this one - a la the recent Digg.com uproar - and they'll go back to the ranking.

As for the Power 150, Technorati is still pushing rankings out computer to computer, so it doesn't appear to bother the Power 150 rankings yet.

In fact, if you rollover your Technorati score on the Power 150, you can still see what Technorati says is your ranking.

Now, if Technorati does stop pushing rankings out machine to machine, then the Power 150 will adapt and use the authority as a benchmark.

Take care.

Todd
Todd And | Homepage | 05.25.07 - 12:20 pm | #

Yep, they went back, you can see Dave Sifry's comments on my updated post about this issue.

Todd; As for your tip on seeing your ranking at the Power 150, what a great service - you know I am partial to it!
Kami Huyse | Homepage | 05.25.07 - 2:36 pm | #