I don’t deserve this Technorati rank (and the other 1,999 of you don’t either)

Categories: Ethics, Social Media MeasurementPosted on February 3rd, 2007

My Technorati rank has plummeted (the lower the number is the more desirable). I’ll be breaking into the 2k range next week, and before this mess started I was somewhere in the 5k range.

I don’t deserve it though, as there’s this silly ‘2000 pictures and links collage‘ of bloggers that’s being spread all over the network.

If you’re new to blogging, a Technorati rank is just ONE way of determining authority, although it gives some interesting information. Anyone who registers to Technorati receives a ranking, as of yesterday it started at 2.5 million. It’s based upon who’s linking to you, how many times, and the authority of that person linking to you. Like Alexa, it’s overhyped, but still the only tool that’s been widely adopted.

For those lucky enough to be on the 2000 bloggers collage, it’s artificially driving down your incoming links from unique blogs. For those that are NOT on that list, you’re Technorati rank will artificially be damaged while I go by you.

The 2000 bloggers viral collage is artificially inflating the economic authority in our ecosystem

Links are currency, and this collage is a counterfeit factory. I hope that Technorati folks, Dave Sifry, Tantek and the other good folks over there negate this mess. I want to earn every link because of the stupid/brilliant (more stupid than brilliant) things I write, not just from mass pyramid linking structure.

I don’t want any part of this, you may take my picture off the collage.

Update Feb 5th AM: I’m not alone, Zoli agrees with me.

Update Feb 5th PM: Technorati is listening to me.

Update Feb 6th:
This is an important update, please read.

I just called Tino in Canada, he’s a good guy. I told him that my post was nothing personal towards him and I think that what he did was a good thing. It’s just that the network went crazy with it.

I encourage him to put the 2000 bloggers page back up, and then bloggers could link to that page, without having to spawn it and replicate it all over the blogosphere. I left several comments on others blogs saying the same thing.

I want to personally promote Tino as an innocent here, I hope that no one thinks ill of him, nor he or his website is penalized by Technorati or Google.

Again, Let me repeat it (esp for those who left somewhat annoyed comments on this post) I like Tino, I think what he did was done innocently and I think what he did was a great example of community. Let’s put this non-issue to bed.

Update Feb 6th PM:
Sigh, I’m hesitant to post this, as I want this to be over, but a little bird sent this to me.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 3rd, 2007 at 9:06 am and is filed under Ethics, Social Media Measurement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Comments

Eliminate Vaginal Odor

It must have been a mess but it's is over now so let's all move on.

Brock

Many people these days are unaware of bed bugs symptoms. It is understandable since bed bugs together with some pests have been exterminated during the widespread use of DDT in the United States after World War I.

Arju

Hi, Add my blog to your technorati favouries. http://technorati.com/faves/Arju2?sub=addfavbtn... And I will add yours , also I have one question how I can see my favourites blogs and how I can add favourites. It seems to me it does not work? http://arjudba.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-incr...

Arju

Add me ( http://technorati.com/faves?sub=addfavbtn&add=http://arjudba.blogspot.com ) to your favourites. I will add you.
Thanks.

http://arjudba.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-increase-your-technorati.html

Arju

I had google page rank 4 for my site. But after I started review inside my blog it reduced my page rank 0.

Can anybody tell me why this is?

A Week In The Life of A Redhea

Wow, how did I miss this mess? I must have been sleeping, or off drinking wine...
It was interesting to see this highly ranked in google about technorati with regard to page rank...
Catherine, the redhead blogger

WebUrs

Hi Jeremiah

There is a series of posts (first one posted) about these social marketing metrics and the difficulty making sense out of them:

http://commetrics.com/?p=30

Sometimes it is viral for sure but maybe not a collabge - just business ;-)

Online internet development

Online morning is development of internet and security by webmasters,web developers from India and World for hard security of online information.

Jo

I went through asking those 2k bloggers people to take my blog off but most of them refused. The main site supposedly did though and was quite nice.

mat

it's only a matter of time till i get up on that pyramid of blogs.

saskboy

There are all sorts of truly artificial Technorati boosters like being linked from somone vile like Michelle Malkin, or Instapundit. I'd rather have someone like Tino, and random luck be a factor to even the blogging playing field.

Aaron Brazell

I've gone from 6000 to nearly 2000 in a month without 2000 blogs. Just elbow grease and good content. It can be done.

Mahesh Subramanian

I do think its a cool feature to have.. While, I write primarily for my own pleasure, I do feel good when others visit my blog and drop a comment and if technorati helps with that, good for me..

Sam Jackson

I never expected people to actually go and link to the whole thing on their blogs, simply because it is just a huge image-bomb on any page that takes ages to load and is kind of obnoxious. I thought it was just cool that it was you know, 'there' which was why I threw myself into it--since it is cool!

If people actually went and randomly clicked through the 2000 bloggers page, I'd like it more... as is I've gotten only about three hits from the thing, but hey, what can one expect.

Euri

I don't think there's a I deserve or I do not deserve this rank. People started blogging for fun, sharing, etc. It was not about gaining traffic or to gain the highest rank. 2000 Bloggers is a great idea, at least, in my opinion. It helps make a community of bloggers.

So don't feel bad about your rank. Just blog and have fun. :)

Rose

I like you am getting a lot of greif because I requested to be removed from something I did not sign up for.

Doug Karr

I don't feel that I don't 'deserve' the rank nor do I feel like folks should be penalized for participating in these activities. Time will provide the ultimate settlement of rankings. Did you know that splogs also inflate ranks? So... if you write about a good keyword like "Search Engine Rank", chances are you'll get a few references and move up in rank.

The 2000 bloggers and Z-List memes expose good blogs to other sites and bloggers who may not have heard of them. The fact is that your blog MAY be better than many other blogs, but you've not had the exposure that they've had.

Time will tell!

Paul Browne - Technology in Pl

OK, it was fun while it lasted, and Tino was probably right to take it down.

But what of the *Next* 2000 bloggers? How about if you kept it to one category (Business) and give a little summary?

The effect would be the same. At what point does it stop being legit?

Paul

betabug

The problem with technorati is that their software is buggy as hell IMHO. Links from other blogs not showing up for my blog, but links from my own blog being listed sometimes on my own blog. It might work for the biggies (since big numbers of links likely hide the bugs), but with few links it's creepy. Mind that I don't care about my ranking, but it would be nice if I actually could find out who is linking to me.

If technorati has a problem with "2000 bloggers" distorting rankings, then their bugs are more on the conceptual level. Why don't they just go back to being a blog search engine and abandone the whole ranking thing as failed?

Blog Bloke

Jeremiah, with all due respect don't you have better things to do with your time than poo on a few ordinary bloggers' 5 minutes of fame? Give me a break. I really hope you're proud of yourself.

Li Evans

Hi Jeremiah,

I wanted to comment on the link you have to the article on Tino.

Tino wasn't out to game Technorati in any way with 2000 Bloggers. Several things happened without his forethought - one was that he did get some people interested in his business.

There's someone out there acting like that's a bad thing? If that was a bi-product, isn't that a good thing?

I don't believe Tino meant any maliciousness, gaming or bad will in any way. However, someone out there keeps pointing to the interview as if he did. The guy genuinely just started this as fun.

It's sad now, that how someone who started something quite innocent and fun is being portrayed in a totally opposite manner. And it makes me a little ticked that someone is utilizing an interview I did with him to do this.

I don't mean to be rude, but if you wanted this to end, and not prolong the drama, why post the link to my interview with Tino and act like it was a big secret with the whole "little bird" comment? Tino posted a link to it on his blog and so did several other people. Nothing was hidden, you could have easily found it on Technorati as well.

Regards,
Liana "Li" Evans

Rose

I didn't join the 2000 Bloggers Project, but I was glad to be included. I even designed the banner for Tino. I did not add the 2000 blogger code to my blog. Instead I linked to Tino's page. Could other bloggers not do that too? I for one was not trying to trick Technorati rankings in a ploy to get more inbound links. I don't think others were either. I'm still a little confused about what is going on here, but I believe Tino's heart was in the right place and he has many backing him.

StealthBadger

Tino came up with an excellent solution: make it a single image.

Problem(s) solved. :)

jeremiah_owyang

Roy

No harm done, no worries man. Thanks for responding.

Roy

You're right and I was shooting from the hip... probably letting my emotions speak before my brain was engaged. My apologies. Just for the record, all of my posts on the subject were always links back to Tino's page... I actually, kind of felt cheap because I wasn't providing "in-kind" links to the other 1999...

jeremiah_owyang

I just talked to Tino, and have updated this post, please read the updated post.

I hope this puts closure on things, thanks.

jeremiah_owyang

Roy-

Oh wow, you're not seeing this completely in context of my view.

I think what Tino has done is great, in fact wonderful example of community.

I don't however think it's completely necessary for every blogger to replicate on their blog. Why can't we just link to Tino's webpage on it?

jeremiah_owyang

Elaine

Amen! You are absolutely right, Technorati is not a measure of true authority, but it does however mean something.

oh and how'd you know about my panties? ;)

Roy

Someone always has to bitch about something... Tino never meant to "game" Technorati or Google. But it only takes ONE whiney-ass to make something good, bad...

Elaine Vigneault

Many of us took part in the 2000 Bloggers Project as something fun and different to do. And we met some cool people along the way - I now have a few more blogs I read regularly because I found out about them through the 2000 Bloggers Project.

We liked that the only requirement was that a real person who was willing to show their face was behind the blog. TECHNORATI NEVER TOOK THAT KIND OF CONSIDERATION INTO IT'S ANALYSIS OF BLOGS.

Of course it's artificially changing your Technorati rank, but that change SHOULD be temporary if Technorati is worth it's salt. The problem is with Technorati, not with the 2000 Bloggers Project. The Technorati system was flawed from the beginning: links don't accurately measure traffic or authority. Moreover, their method can easily be abused by link banks. It's happened in the past and it will continue.

So A listers can create ten blogs that link to each other and Technorati rewards them. But now, when someone wants to PUT A FACE to blogging, you and Technorati get your panties in a wad.

Anyone who thinks blogging is democratic isn't paying attention. There is just as much elitism and classism in the digital world as there is off the web. And I for one am glad such a simple project as the 2000 Bloggers one could unveil and unravel the elitism of Technorati.

jeremiah_owyang

These are either going to be in my next fortune cookie or chiseled into the 'blog museum' in 2040.

vaspers the grate

Blogging is not bludgeoning, but budgeting our slack time to type tomes. We linger like laundry that feels like flying saucers. WE blog because we have merged with the machines, who promise to be merciful as they extinct us.