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Exploring for Ideas at Technorati

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Going Exploring

Finding Ideas Outside of the Box logo 2

I can’t help it. David Sifry hooked me. He did it when he let them name that feature at Technorati Explore. Had he only said, “Okay call it Browse.” Browsing is a nice thing. I’ve even been known to do it. I’ve browsed through books and browsed while waiting. Yes, I know how to Browse.

My life would be so much easier, if only David Sifry had chosen Browse instead of choosing Explore.

But no. My friend, Dave probably was a kid a bit like me. He probably knows the exact appeal of exploring. Maybe he even remembers hearing someone saying, “Where you going?” and answering back “We’re going exploring. Wanna come along?”

Slam dunk marketing that name. Explore. Even better, it lives up to its promise. [Read more…]

Blogosphere Is Now 35.3 Million

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State of the Blogosphere April 2006

David Sifry posted State of the Blogosphere, April 2006 Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth at the Technorati Weblog today. It’s only been 3 months since David’s last report, and the blogosphere hasn’t shown any signs of slowing–in fact, it continues to double every six months. New weblogs are created at the rate of one per second. That’s one now, and now, and now, and now. AND I TYPE REALLY FAST.

A new word gets coined in this report, I’ll let Mr. Sifry do it himself. Of those that derive from spam, I think this might be my favorite.

April 2006 Technorati New Blogs Per Day Chart

There has been an increase in the overall noise level in the blogosphere during 2006, but aside from a few notable spam storms (“sporms”? Just how far can you take this naming system?) noted in red in the chart above, the high level of interesting, original content being created greatly outweighs the fake or duplicate content listed on splogs.

The Facts:

  • Technorati now tracks over 35.3 Million blogs
  • The blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 months
  • It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago
  • On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day
  • 19.4 million bloggers (55%) are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created
  • Technorati tracks about 1.2 Million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour

David Sifry does a remarkable job of providing useful information to bloggers. I use this data regularly to help friends, family, and business clients to understand what blogs are and what impact blogs are having on the Internet and the world we live in.

Who needs this information to understand what you do? How might you package these facts to promote your business? . . . to help your clients promote theirs?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Why Is Marianne Richmond Smiling?

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Marianne Richmond Resonance Partnership

Janice Myint and her team at Technorati have put out a fire–Again!

I’ll let Marianne tell you the story. Technorati’s Janice Myint Scores Again!

Thanks to Janice and her team at Technorati Customer Service!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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A Tale, Sister Marlene, Stephen Covey, Mike Sigers, & Power Linking

Technorati’s Family of Support Pages

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Technorati logo

Most people I know are like me in one respect. They would work for hours rather than ask for customer service help, especially where a computer is involved. Usually it’s because the folks in customer service aren’t much help at all. With Technorati, it’s either because the service has been touch and go, or because we understand how much Janice Myint and her Customer Service Team have to straighten out. . . .

So I figure a review of where things stand after this latests upgrade might let us all know what’s there the next time we need to find our way.

A Family of Support Pages

There is at least one addition in the Technorati household. The cute little fellow has a serious adult name. It’s called by the moniker, Technorati: Support FAQ. Perhaps the family is thinking it’ll grow into it.

Now Technorati has quite a family of support documents to choose from. They are all under the HELP link in the gray nav bar at the top of the page. A click there will lead you to all of this information.

  • About Technorati gives basic information about the blog search engine. This is where you find out that Technorati is currently tracking 33.1 million sites and 2.2 billion links.
  • Blogging Basics covers the most basic description of weblogs in a Q&A format.
  • The FAQ answers frequently-asked questions about Technorati and terms and symbols used on their site.
  • How-tos is a collection of posts by
      Steve Rubel,
      Know More Media,
      Paul Stamatiou,
      Improbulus,
      David Fordee,
      Ryan Daigle,
      Fitzgerald,
      Sam Sugar,
      and Brad Isaac

    The posts cover topics from hot-to hack Technorati, how-to build tags, to how-to use tags to increase your blog’s traffics. The links above are not all that you will find there. Some writers did more than one post.

  • If you like that page, there is Technorati Tools, which includes Browser Plugins, Bookmarklets, and more links–this time tools from users, including Lorelle VanFossen and David Smith, on tools for using Technorati to its fullest.
  • Of course, you’ve already checked out the Publisher’s Guide, which
    gives the basics on claiming a blog.
  • Two pages: Blog Finder and Tags explain what the tagged web is about.
  • The Support FAQ. the newest addition, but I wouldn’t call it the baby.

The Support FAQ

The Support FAQ page is a concerted effort to address most of the issues that have been the talk of Technorati. Someone, or some ones, have spent some time putting it together, and though such things are never complete, this page is a fine start. Here’s what you’ll find there.

  • What to do you if you have trouble claiming your blog–with special notes on Yahoo 360, MySpaces, MSN Spaces
  • An explanation of the difference between post and blog tags
  • How link counts work
  • What you might do to when spiders aren’t reading your posts correctly
  • How to ping Technorati when your posts AND links from others aren’t showing up
  • How the Technorati user name display works
  • How to redirect a URL change so that you keep your links
  • What to do if you no longer want a post in the index–hint: don’t delete it!

Okay done. Believe me, I don’t, nor do I wish, to work for Technorati. I’m sure that’s a relief to David Sifry. I would like to stop by, though, the next time I’m in San Francisco to meet all of the folks who work on my blogs, especially those who made a big deal of Friday’s fairy tale. 🙂

Now we have all of the support options together in one post for a quick run down. Hopefully this will help us when we need to know our options. An even bigger hope is that we’ll never need to think of any of this again.

Of course, while I was writing this post, I repinged all of my blogs. Sigh.
Good thing, I’m still the nice one.

I’ve started a new category–Technorati. It’s become a case study in building a brand.

ME “Liz” Strauss

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Great Find: Top Ten Desktop Diversions of 2006

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What’s most interesting about this list is that sites once unknown outside of the blogosphere are included. Wouldn’t expect to find Technorati here. Would you?

Great Find: Top Ten Desktop Diversions by Liz Ryan of BusinessWeekonline
Type of Article: List of online sites, with commentary
Permalink: http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/mar2006/ca20060327_414798.htm?campaign_id=nws_insdr_mar31&link_position=link18
Target Audience: Anyone looking for an online diversion from work

Content: Liz Ryan writes this list as a follow up to a piece BW did last year called Top Ten Time Wasters. ( I searched but couldn’t find us a link.) The premise here is to offer informational and interactive sites that provide a break and diversion from work. Included in this list are links to sites where you can

  • estimate the value of your home
  • send an email to a monk
  • make a map of any number of things
  • publish your ideas
  • check your popularity on the Internet
  • catch a flick
  • make fun of pop culture
  • get groceries
  • get the 30,000 foot view

My guess is that you will know 3-5 sites on this list already. I’d be interested, if the answer for you is less or more than that many. Certainly bloggers are more Internet aware than the average magazine reader, but this is BusinessWeekonline after all. To read the article, click the screenshot.

Top Ten Desktop Diversions, 2006 Screenshot Link

A year ago, the information flow was one way only–bloggers getting ideas from the mainstream media. Have they started getting ideas from us? I think we’re seeing a trend that is growing.

Technorati? Interesting. Really.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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A Tale, Sister Marlene, Stephen Covey, Mike Sigers, & Power Linking

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The Princess Engineer of the Kingdom

King Mike Sigers had lost 13 of his Knights of the Blog. They were being held in the dungeons of the kingdom of Technorati. (add melodramatic music here) Chained to the wall, they were allowed no visitors. No messages were getting out. None were getting in. It was cold, damp, dark and forgotten . . .

In fact that was the problem. When warrior King Mike spoke to the elegant King David, offering a ransom to retrieve his noble Knights of the Blog, King David promised to look into it. But unbeknownst (add other old words here to beef up the drama) to King Mike the castle was so large that no one could find where the dungeon was in which the guards had stashed 13 Knights of the Blog. No one knew where they were being held. The Knights, alas, were lost.

No matter what King Mike had tried, he received the same promise, yet no relief. He had appealed to King David for a reprieve. Yet his Knights of the Blog seemed destined to languish in the dungeons of Technorati for eternity or longer. (add awful music by Yanni to make it sound as if milleniums have gone by).

Enter the lovely engineer-princess, Janice, her light shines so brightly that everyone lays down their swords.

She asked, “What is the problem?” Then she took up her engineering degree and lit the hallways with her charm. Our lovely princess made short shrift of the task. She found those Knights of the Blog in no time and set them free. Meanwhile, King David seeing the problem, rolled up his royal sleeves, and started checking other dungeons for other missing Knights of the Blog and found some too.

King Mike was reunited with his Knights and sang the praises of the Beautiful Princess Engineer and Royal Head of the Team of Customer Service in the Kingdom of Technorati.

A fabulous ball was held, and everyone wanted to dance with Princess Janice. They realized now that she is even more valuable than at first she seemed to be.

Me? I took home my ailing Knight Blog, who’d lost 80 links in her chainmail from 7 months in the dungeon, and broke the sad news that she now would have to be a squire. We drank bad wine and retired.

Sister Marlene, Stephen Covey, and Mike Sigers

Sister Marlene would like that story. She’s an 80-something, brlliant woman who has the life experience and wisdom of at least six people. She’d like Janice who just did without asking for anything. The first time that I met Marlene she said

There is no act of kindness or mercy that does not benefit both parties.

I knew immediately that what she said was true. When I am unconditionally generous, I make myself a little better.

Stephen Covey explains what you need for Sister Marlene’s statement to be true

The third character trait essential to Win/Win is the Abundance Mentality, the paradigm that there is plenty out there for everybody. –Stephen R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Fireside Books)

Mike Sigers in his Simply Good post this morning brings that challenge to our front door.

Now, do me a favor and do a post, Trackback or whatever and let the world know that there is, in fact, an individual [Janice Myint] at Technorati who cares and who can get it done.

Power Linking

I awoke this morning wondering why we’re quick to criticize Technorati, yet we are slow to reward the one who works the hardest for us. It just doesn’t seem smart, right, or good business.

We complain about A Listers getting favor, having power. But we horde our power undercover. We don’t use power we have–the power to give links to each other. The more linked we are together, the more we show what we want and don’t want to happen in the blogosphere. The more we become one giant A Lister on our own.

Links don’t cost money. They don’t take things. I give away more than I get each week, and it doesn’t hurt me or my blog. Are we too short sighted to see how linking to another blog can promote our own blogs and give them value–especially if we link to someone who is dedicated to providing us with a tool that brings us readers?

Link to What You Value

I’m with Mike. If you have asked Janice to help you, or you plan on doing so, what’s wrong with giving her link love and letting her know you value what she does?

You can link to Janice at: http://janicetechnorati.blogspot.com or http://janicemyint.blogspot.com/2006/03/good-linky-linky.html

Remember there is no act of link love that doesn’t benefit both parties.

Or, for the cynics in the crowd, my mom would say

Reinforce behaviors that you value;
what will follow is human nature;
you will get more of the behavior that you reinforced.

Janice, the Beautiful Engineer Princess of the Kingdom of Technorati has proven beyond a doubt that she will do what she can to help us succeed. A link in her direction, just might get her more power to hire more like her . . . Then she can do more in the castle to get more Knights of the Blog freed from the dungeon and out working for us again–promoting our brands and our businesses.

It’s a happily ever after kind of ending that could be.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Technorati Without Janice–We Won’t Have to Know
Put Your 2Cents In–What’s Technorati Worth–Without Janice?