R.I.P. Technorati? August 17, 2007
Posted by showmescifi in Blade Runner, blogging, blogs, david sifry, exoplanets, technorati.add a comment
Since the beginning of the blogging era Technorati has been among the best (if not THE BEST) blog search tools.
In recent months Technorati has changed its site and become increasingly irrelevant.
I had hopes that it would turn things around..but that now seems very unlikely.
You see David Sifry – the founding visionary of Technorati has left the building, quit, gonzo – outta here.
Without Sifry at the helm Technorati is a listless ship and one that will continue drifting in obscurity. It’s a sad day indeed. There is nothing wrong with Google’s blog search, i like it alot. But having Technorati as an independent and viable blog search tool was great to have.
Technorati is still alive – apparently – but it’s a shell of its former self.
Domain Mapping With WordPress – Kiss Your Traffic Goodbye (in the short term) July 31, 2007
Posted by showmescifi in b5, babylon 5, blog, blogging, doman, doman mapping, exile, google, technorati, traffic, wordpress.7 comments
It’s been three weeks since we moved from showmescifi.wordpress.com to showmescifi.com – thanks to a WordPress domain mapping feature.
In principal it’s a great idea, a great service and is easily done. We had a small issue for a few hours when we didn’t realize that the existing mail server would no longer work – a friendly wordpress.com support person helped out and now email works (thanks to WordPress and Google Apps).
The only REAL problem for ShowMeSciFi is that since we’ve moved, traffic has been cut by nearly two thirds.
Why is that?
I’d speculate a number of things..i think we lost alot of our Google/Technorati juice for one.
Google and Technorati now treat us like a new site almost – with no history of authority and links.
It’s really quite unfortunate that such a great service can have such a negative affect on readership.
That said – we’re committed to building ShowMeSciFi and continuing to populate with the stuff that SciFi fans care about. Thanks for being part of the journey.
Star Wars Trilogy Deluxe Arcade – What will it sell for? July 27, 2007
Posted by showmescifi in arcade, arcade games, blogging, ebay, firefly, Sci Fi, sciencefiction, scifi, serenity, star trek tng, Star Wars, star wars arcade, star wars legacy, Star Wars Toys, star wars trilogy, starwars, Timothy Zahn, weird al, wordpress.add a comment
How many quarters have I sunk into a machine just like this one? I wish i knew…
In another installment of neat Star Wars stuff on eBay – this week we’ve found a Star Wars Trilogy Deluxe Arcade unit in perfect working order according to the seller.
This isn’t the original arcade game but the reworked one that came out in 1998 where you get to play all the movies. I always got stuck in the lightsaber battle with Vader (though i think it was cursed with a sticky controller in the arcades i visited).
If you’ve got the $$ and the space – or hey if you want to make some small money for your local retail establishment this might be the auction for you.
According to the seller, “Original cost was over $8,000 new. Buy it here for a fraction of that cost! It has steadily earned over $100 a week in my location.”
The seller has it listed for $3,000 or Best offer – so far he’s got one offer that he rejected.
Take a look for yourself on the eBay auction page
Technorati Authority?!?! May 8, 2007
Posted by showmescifi in blogging, technorati.1 comment so far
Technorati has recently changed the way they calculate blog links and position. It’s something they call ‘Technorati Authority’.
Personally i think they should just be honest and call it Link Farming.
Technorati used to count how many blogs link to another and how many links in total (including multiples from the same blog). Now in their infinite blogging wisdom they’ve decided to only count total number of blogs for a six month period.
It’s an infantile and amateur approach to measuring authority.
Simply counting links as opposed to counting the authority of those links and volume doesn’t prove anything. If ShowMeSciFi is the linked in the Top Blogs listing on WordPress (which it has been numerous times) that should have more ‘authority’ than if it is linked just once in the Top Blogs listing – it should also have more ‘authority’ than if it gets linked on a link farm.
What would make more sense is something along the lines of how Google’s Page Rank works. Using links alone is what killed search relevancy for all other search engines. I’m not sure why Technorati which has such a strong and solid understanding of the blogging world would degrade itself in this way.
Technorati ‘Authority’ does not reward true authority it awards popularity which is something that can be manipulated.
I hope that Technorati is just doing this as an experiment on a path toward a true ‘authority’ metric that accurately reflects both the popularity, the relevance and the actual ‘Authority’ of a blog.
Technorati now beats Google for indexing Showmescifi March 8, 2007
Posted by showmescifi in blogging, google, technorati, wordpress.2 comments
Barely a month ago I ranted about how Technorati was inferior to Google for indexing wordpress.com sites.
I WAS WRONG (apparently).
My general premise was that Technorati was indexing this (and other wordpress.com sites) not nearly as regularly as Google’s blog search. As of this AM, that’s not the case.
A story posted more than 14 hours ago on ShowMeSciFi.wordpress.com is indexed on Technorati and yet is it not on Google’s blog search. Which for all intents and purposes means that Technorati for this blog at least, may well now be more accurate than Google.
Sure it has alot to do with the regularity of posting. When ShowMeSciFi posts every day, Technorati seems to be indexing this site better, while Google remains relatively constant or lagging.
Regardless, my apologies to Technorati, I shouldn’t have doubted you and keep up the fine work.
Show Me SciFi 