#14
Blogging is global. Blogosphere is huge. As of August 2007, Technorati, the leading search engine for searching blogs, indexes over 94 million weblogs. Perhaps it is the sheer enormity of this task that makes Technorati a very complex and clumsy site.
Search on Learning 2.0 brought the following results: keyword search: 6,872 blog posts; advanced search: 670 posts tagged, directory - 691 blogs registered with Technorati.
Translating these results into a meaningful statement is purely speculative: why are there so many blog posts and only a comparatively few posts tagged or blogs listed in the directory? Perhaps it is difficult to make Technorati a tool of choice and its visitors don't stay there long.
Two of the most popular blogs are Boing Boing and Paris Hilton. The tags at first glance are either generic or obscure: britney spears, iraq, google, wii, internet, blogging, apple, video, celebrities. Top searches: gmail imap, paris hilton, tante grrang, novo nordisk, oink, gaddis 17tahun, noelia, mujer boa, alina plugaru.
The main features of Technorati are the list of 100 most favourited, Popular blogs, Topics, Watchlist, Wif (where's the fire, what's hot and why).
The main entry for popular blogs does not carry any tags or descriptors and there is no way of knowing what the blog is about unless the name of blog gives away some clues. Only after I clicked on Boing Boing, I found out that it is a blog of cultural curiosities and interesting technologies, the most popular and awarded blog in the world. Another feature of Technorati, Topics, is tied up to the currency of blogs and the topics from newly indexed blogs appear on the screen in a sliding motion. The subject directory without such effect could be much more useful.
I claimed my blog and created a watchlist for "Leaning 2.0". A pleasant suprise was the fascinating Boing Boing, which makes me curious and I will visit Technorati in the future to discover more.
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