Technorati Establishes an ‘Authority’ Ranking System and Gets a New Look
Technorati appears to have made some new changes to their website by changing the style of several user pages and inserting a new ‘Authority’ rank which now determines a blog’s position within its Most Linked-to ranking system.
What’s equally important are the changes made to individual user and blog profile pages. There is the insertion of dedicated search engines which allow one to search within a blog, as well as a consolidation of WTF blurbs and user favorites within one page.
Here is a brief roundup of the changes made, along with some helpful screenshots.
New ‘Authority’ Rank and LinkCount Rank
The actual link count with number of blogs linking to your blog has disappeared, only to be replaced by several Rank and ‘Authority’ numbers. The ‘Authority‘ rank is now used to measure the position of a blog on Technorati’s Top 100 Most Linked-To list.
User Profile now One-paged
The Technorati User Profile page now includes WTF blurbs as well as a list of your favorites, all on one page. The original tabbed system has been removed.
Individual Blog Profile page - More Community-friendly?
Users who faved your blog are now known as fans, which is a rather appropriate term.
A search engine appears on the blog profile itself and allows you to search within it. The lower section of the page includes a short list of fresh ‘blog reactions‘ or new links that point to your site.
Revamped ‘Favorited By’ Section - Bigger Avatars
The avatars of each user are more prominent and the blog profile is placed on the left sidebar instead of it being placed right at the top. This allows you to more easily sort through the users who favorited your blog.
Technorati’s WTF section - Sexier Voting buttons
Everything else appears to be the same. But separating the voting buttons and keeping them on the left is a nice touch. There’s also an option to share the blurb by sending it to a friend via email.
Thanks to Ben Yoskovitz, for the tip on the changes made by Technorati. Wanna share the news with other bloggers? Vote for this story on Technorati!
What do y’all think of the new look?
Update: The Technorati Weblog has an explanation of how Technorati Authority and Rank works.
Man, I just hit Submit to post a similar article and yours pops up in my feed reader
Edit: I felt the urge to edit the article and add a link to this one
What does the Authority ranking means to bloggers?
I like the changes
Technorati’s growing up and I like the new stuff! Great overview here - thanks for the tour!
I believe authority just shows the number of blogs linking to that particular blog.
And I believe rank has completely disappeared now. If not, where is it located now? I can’t seem to find it. I did see it awhile ago beside “authority”.
“Authority is determined by the number of unique links to your blog or blog posts made within the last 180 days. So there it is determined by the number of links as well as their recency.�
Yeah, noticed when I visited them. I sort of like the change. I wonder though if they’ll change the algorithm for the authority and maybe start influencing it with traffic and some other parameters.
The team at Technorati has done a wonderful job of eliminating any “gaming” by altering the algorithm for popularity.
Great post, maki! You’re quickly becoming one of the top resources on Technorati info!
Keep it up.
I like what I see. One thing though - well I just hope it’s temporary - my latest post is at the bottom.
This is not a new feature. I have had the Authority displayed on my blog for more than 2 weeks. I used Douglas Karr’s Widget:- http://www.douglaskarr.com/pro.....ank-plugin
I like the new look even though I was surprised when I logged in last night and saw it for the first time. I’m not a huge fan of the term “authority”- it makes it sound as if some bloggers are better than others if their rank is high- which in my opinion isn’t true.
is it me or they just changed the name, from “1230 blogs link here” to “authority 1230″?
I definitely am not digging the authority.
What is the authority rank based on, any news on the algorithm used by technorati for this
There still is an overall rank. I think you have to hit the link to your individual blog url to see it. I was playing around with it last night.
It does not show a rank (like it used to) unless you have some links. No links = No Rank.
This change will benefit new bloggers, especially those who are looking for a quicker way to get themselves established in the blogosphere. It will be interesting to watch as the changes to individual blogs unfolds.
Yes I noticed this last night while I was on, I just refreshed and it was there. Quite a surprise!
I wonder if these are all the updates we’re going to see or if Technorati has more in store for us.
They’ve made a lot of changes in the code- the program from engtech that auto-added favorites no longer works. In fact, it can’t even find my blog. It does, however, tell you how many favorites you have added. I just can’t add through the program.
Your readers may be interested in this post on the Technorati Weblog, Technorati Authority and Rank.
Thanks for the great explanations and to your commentors for such kind words.
Yes, they have made a lot of changes but unfortunately they are all merely cosmetic.
When will they update their algorithms to make the search listings more relevant? When will they combat the link trains and favorite trains that exist to game the Technorati listings?
These are the issues that really need to be addressed.
- Martin Reed
Martin,
I’m not sure if you read my follow-up post on the Technorati Favorites Experiment. I’ll love to see what your thoughts on that are.
So much unnecessary vitriol by everyone against bloggers actively involved in promoting the severely underused Favorites feature.
Making someone a favorite is a personal choice that involves a user’s exercise of control over his or her Technorati account. The action taken should count as a valid vote, regardless if it is an reciprocal or unilateral. These and other points I’ve mention in my original post.
I don’t think the link trains are created just to ‘game’ Technorati. They hardly make a dent in the authority ranks, nor do they affect the Technorati’s usability or feature set for other bloggers.
If you really want go into that area, one could say that Technorati should ban blog-network blogs, blogs in some collaborative writing projects, as well some PPP bloggers because they involve massive reciprocal interlinking as well.
With little effort, my “numbers” have been steadily increasing ever since the new Technorati ranking system was put in place. I guess that is a good thing!