The New Look Technorati and Technorati Authority

Earlier this month Technorati underwent an extreme makeover of sorts, not only with respect to the site design, but also with respect to how blogs are ranked.  Technorati is now the fifth largest social media property, still well behind Facebook.com and MySpace.com, but somewhat surprisingly ahead of Twitter.com and Digg.com.  The new Technorati not only focuses on trying to provide a better measure of the top blogs on the Internet at any given snapshot in time, having changed the familiar definition of what is required to obtain “authority.”  Technorati is also is trying to build original content by encouraging individuals to write for Technorati.  I signed up to write for Technorati, and already posted my first article, regarding the Allergan victory in its patent infringement lawsuit, holding off generic competition with respect to ALPHAGAN® P, which is indicated for the lowering of intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension.  In any event, I am pleased to report that IPWatchdog.com is doing quite well in the overall Technorati rankings, presently ranked #2,271 out of all blogs on the Internet, with an overall Technorati Authority of 568.

Before the launch of the new look Technorati, Technorati Authority was based on six months of blogosphere data, with link popularity defining the authority any particular blog enjoyed, with a link from a particular blog counting as a single authority point regardless of how many times a particular blog linked to you. So if you were linked to every day by a blog it would still only count as 1 authority point. When Technorati announced their changes they explained that most people are looking for posts and information that is less than a month old the new Technorati Authority is going to limit the look-back window to a 1 month time frame. This improvement along should make the blog rankings at any particular point a closer snapshot of what is actively happening at any moment in time, and should make the Top 100 list, and the subcategories rankings, much more volatile. According to Technorati, “resulting Authority will better reflect the fast-changing nature of the blogosphere.” Additionally, rather than granting authority based only on link popularity, the new Technorati Authority will reward “authors on posting frequency, context and linking behavior, as well as other data inputs.”

Another interesting component of the Technorati makeover is the introduction of Topical Authority, which measures a blog’s influence within a particular subject category. Blogs will appear ranked by topical authority within Technorati’s various blog categories, with factors such as linking behavior from blogs and posts within the same category impacting a blogs Topical Authority. Other factors that will impact a blogs Topical Authority include how well a particular blog’s overall content matches the category or subcategory in question. Other unspecified data is said to also influence Topical Authority, much the same way apparently that it will influence overall authority. Without much of a definition describing what the “other associated data” is that will affect authority perhaps Technorati is trying to take a page from the Google playbook; namely the hiding from view exactly how rankings work so as to not encourage or allow manipulation that would otherwise come from knowing the formula.

So how does IPWatchdog.com stack up? Pretty good if I do say so myself. As you can see from the screenshots below, which were taken today, a blog will have an overall authority and it is possible for a blog to have different authority in several different categories.  Specifically, IPWatchdog.com is ranked #2271 overall, #248 in the Info Tech category, #689 in Technology, #4254 in US Politics and #7535 in Politics.

Share

Warning & Disclaimer: The pages, articles and comments on IPWatchdog.com do not constitute legal advice, nor do they create any attorney-client relationship. The articles published express the personal opinion and views of the author as of the time of publication and should not be attributed to the author’s employer, clients or the sponsors of IPWatchdog.com.

Join the Discussion

2 comments so far.

  • [Avatar for Mia Harris]
    Mia Harris
    May 20, 2010 04:06 pm

    Link popularity is very important if you want your website to rank high in any search engine.’.’

  • [Avatar for Richard]
    Richard
    November 1, 2009 06:32 pm

    And the new look is “broken” at least as far as many bloggers that have been there for years are concerned. I’m 1 of 9 (myself and 8 clients) who’s blog records have completely disappeared from Technorati, and there are a number of threads on their forum with others reporting the same issue. When the problem is reported, they say they will get back to you, but they never do. The threads in their forum go virtually unanswered. People are starting to walk away and not look back.

    Technorati is a good looking cardboard box with nothing inside. I wish them luck, but they are quickly squandering whatever good karma they had.