Duncan Riley> A melodramatic title to be sure, but I didn’t want to use Technorati is broken because I’ve used it before, and also I’m sad. Because Technorati is dying. It’s not the same depth of sadness you’d have for a close friend or family member, its more like losing an associate, you know, the sort of person you wave to or say Gday (sorry Hi for US readers) to on your way into work. You might not even know their name but the familiarity of the interaction causes sadness when it ceases to be. Inevitably though the relationship is replaced, a new person might now sit in that cubicle or office space, and they might be less or more friendly, new patterns of interaction emerge.
In the blogosphere, Technorati is the old, and services such as Blogpulse are taking their place. The new interaction is not the same however. I miss the particular way that Technorati use to deliver me my stats, figures that included the number of blogs linking in and the number of stats, which was actually accurate and changed every day. I miss the way I could look where I ranked in the blogosphere and trust that the number was accurate. I miss being able to troll through recent links and discover new blogs and interesting people. Sure, I can do it with some of the other services, but the old Technorati just did it in a way that I was comfortable with.
But like many deaths this one is being argued across the blogosphere. Jeremy gets right to the point, in a way I cant without swearing profusely. Doc defends Technorati. Others report on the quest to moneterize Technorati while its core services die a slow and painful death. Scoble uses the word ragging in a sentence. .
But what does it all mean. The Technorati we all knew and loved is dying. Perhaps in the model of Google Technorati has tried to expand its business whilst ignoring its core and initial function. Search at Technorati gets worse and more inaccurate by the day whilst its competitors grow stronger. Is there life in Technorati? maybe, but only if they start focusing on getting the fundementals right first. David Sifry, hear this plea of love for a lost associate and act, because tomorrow there is always BlogPulse, PubSub, Bloglines and others, but alas they will never be the same.
