Dealing with Some Criticisms on the Technorati Favorites Exchange Experiment
There has recently been some criticism about the Technorati Favorites exchanges that have been taking place around the web. Amit Agarwal from Digital Inspiration has a particularly curt analysis which suggests that reciprocal favoriting harms the credibility or legitimacy of the Technorati Top 100 and reduces its value for Technorati users.
Darren Rowse from Problogger has followed up Amit’s post with a more detailed argument that addresses similar issues. I disagree with the statements made by both parties for several reasons and I think that it is necessary to continue this discussion on Dosh Dosh, because after all, this is the origin and source for all the recent Technorati Favorites exchanges.
Debating about this topic is highly important because we are all Technorati users and therefore share the same social space. Offering useful input and feedback is one of best ways to improve Technorati’s user functionality and feature set.
This post aims to provide some background to the Technorati favorites exchanges that have taken place and will also serve to explain my thoughts on the issue.
To start things off, here is Digital Inspiration’s post on the topic:
By swapping Technorati votes, you not only get to displace the legitimate members of the Technorati list (like the ones mentioned above) but your site even derives some Google Juice (read, backlinks) similar to the 2000 Bloggers project. That makes this Technorati Exchange meme all the more popular.
Darren Rowse also wrote something similar in support of Amit’s initial post:
My other concern is that this practice is making the Top 100 list more and more laughable and useless - and that Technorati are likely to either change their TOS and ban people who do it or scrap the list altogether (probably not a bad thing).
Why invest so much time in a practice that could get you in trouble with one of the biggest blog related sites and that doesn’t actually convert to bringing in new traffic or increased profile?
In order to respond to their comments adequately, we need to put the entire Technorati Favorites Exchange in actual context.
Here is a brief timeline of the Technorati Favorites experiment as it occurred over the last few weeks or so. Some of more creative posts and contributions to the topic of Technorati Favorites are included below:
- 9th April 2007 - Started the Technorati Favorites Experiment on Dosh Dosh.
- 10th April 2007 - Gary Lee was inspired by the experiment and started a Technorati Link Train, which is currently what you see going around the blogosphere.
- 19th April 2007 - Engtech writes about Technorati Favoritism and has some good arguments on why reciprocal favoriting isn’t entirely about cheating system.
- 20th April 2007 - Andy Beard took a tip from Engtech’s post and suggested that automated Technorati Favoriting through uploads of OPML files should replace manual favoriting.
- 26th April 2007 - Nick Halstead decided to start Favorite.me a website, which regulates the exchange of Technorati favorites within a controlled environment.
- 27th April 2007 - Engtech created an Technorati Favorite Your Fans, an application which automatically favorites whoever favorites you in Technorati.
- 30th April 2007 - Andy Beard writes a pretty lengthy article, parts of which addresses the criticism of the Technorati Favorites Link meme.
As you can clearly see, the Technorati favorites experiment has resulted in some creative ideas and posts from various bloggers. Gary Lee’s link train also involved traditional blog interlinking and as a result, quickly gained traction in the blogosphere.
I’m not a big fan of automated favoriting via OPML but it can be useful when you want to favorite large numbers of blogs at once (E.G. blogs from your blog reader). My detailed comments on automated favoriting can be found at Andy Beard’s post itself.
Engtech’s web application is a very nifty tool which doesn’t have to be restricted to reciprocal favoriting or this experiment at all. One could be generous and favorite anyone who favorites you out of their own initiative as well.
Nick Halstead came up with a Web 2.0 style website which enforces reciprocal favoriting. It is a nice touch, but this somehow makes the task of favoriting other blogs more clinical, impersonal and perhaps too systematic.
I would much prefer favoriting to be done in a more ‘natural’ environment with less regulation but I think Nick’s project may appeal to bloggers who are frustrated with receiving less favorites than what they give out to others.
The Original Objective of the Technorati Favorites Experiment
It is very important to note that my original post in Technorati Favorites was entirely focused on measuring (in terms of visitor traffic) the value of being listed in the Technorati Top 100.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, I am not a Technorati purist although I have linked to them several times and actively promoted usage of their WTF platform. I’m actually more of a social media enthusiast interested in Technorati’s traffic generating potential.
I’ve decided to open the experiment up to regular readers of Dosh Dosh, because I thought it’ll be a good way to share some links and get the community here involved in a interactive project which encourages each blogger to visit the other’s blog.
I didn’t know the response to the experiment would be so favorable. Over 570 comments were left on the blog and 152 bloggers sent me links or emails to tell me that they were holding similar exchanges on their blogs.
I’ve had to remove some of the earlier comments in order to reduce the page load time and updating the page with links to new blogs became a daily routine for some time. Discovering several new blogs everyday was an interesting experience for me as well.
The entire favoriting arrangement was based on a reciprocal relationship between me and the readers of my blog. It wasn’t even a meme that was designed to be spread far and wide across the entire blogging community.
Thoughts on Criticisms Against Technorati Favorites Exchanges
Having successfully placed the argument in context, let’s take a look at the some of the key points I have against suggestions that reciprocal favoriting harms the overall value or worth of the Top 100 Most Favorited Blogs.
1. The Fallacy of Objective Value Standards
How do we measure the worth or value of the Top 100 most favorited? Wherein lies the foundation for its credibility? Who determines its worth for the individual blogger?
The answer to me is rather apparent: No individual blogger or not even Technorati itself can single-handedly determine what the value of the Top 100 Most Favorited should be, because its very ranking system itself depends on user-based actions and decisions.
On the other hand, the Technorati Top 100 is automated and regulated according to link count and so falls outside any blogger’s personal editorial preference.
Regardless of the Technorati user’s actions, his or her blog will still be ranked according to Technorati’s algorithm which bases its ranks according to the number of incoming links from other unique blogs.
The recent 2000 bloggers project was rejected by Technorati because it promoted automated & unnatural linking patterns, which disrupted Technorati’s machine-based ranking system.
This is probably also the reason why Wordpress theme designers, with the bulk of their links from built-in footer or meta links are also excluded from the Top 100 Most Linked blogs.
The credibility of the Top 100 Most Linked list thrives on its emphasis on legitimate link count, which is as objective a value standard as you can find.
In contrast to this, the Technorati Top 100 most favorited is determined by user voting and individual editorial capacity. No automated or impersonal ranking algorithm exists here: Technorati users will determine the value and credibility of the blogs they favorite and correspondingly, the ranking of the Top 100 Most Favorited list.
No one else is entirely responsible for this Most Favorited list. Not disgruntled A list bloggers in danger of losing their coveted spot in the Top 100, nor bitter pundits who are irritated that collective action and efforts by small-time bloggers can yield results that are superior to what they have achieved individually.
To insist that new blogs entering the Top 100 list will lower the credibility and value of the entire list automatically assumes the imposition of an objective value standard for the Top 100 Most Favorited.
One should not presume to understand or appreciate how millions of bloggers perceive the Technorati Top 100 Most Favorited. Nor should one assume that one’s vision of the Top 100 is a subjective value that is inherently shared by all bloggers in question.
2. A Democratic Technorati: Favoriting & Individual Choice
Technorati favorites are active, personal decisions made by Technorati users and imposed on specific blogs. Any Technorati favoriting (reciprocal or not) falls within the individual choice of a Technorati user.
Reciprocal favoriting does not mean that all editorial decisions are placed outside of the individual. There is still a personal decision made to favorite the blog in question and there is no evidence of virtual bullying involved to prove otherwise.
Is reciprocal favoriting really that different from unilateral favoriting? Both are user-generated actions performed to achieve a similar result. Both concern the Technorati user’s individual usage of his or her given account features.
Asking Technorati to create editorial barriers between users and their blogs by stepping in to moderate favoriting is not a helpful solution at all. In fact, if one is so inclined to preserve the credibility or value of the Top 100, the same democratic system of recognizing and accepting unique votes from individual users must still remain.
Technorati’s acceptance of user agency and basic voting powers is the fuel that drives their favorites ranking system as well as their WTF social voting and news platform. Calling for Technorati intervention is tunnel-vision thinking that only offers short-term solutions.
3. Embracing the Open Playing Field
In my earlier post, I suggested that the Top 100 is an open playing field and everyone has the choice or opportunity to request for favorites or hold simple schemes to improve their ranking positions on the list. There are currently no restrictions in Technorati’s TOS, which prevents or limits self-promotion when it comes to favoriting.
Technorati vote gathering can be likened to some sort of political campaigning: Every blogger has the power to aggressively push for more favoriting of their blogs through a variety of methods.
I’m also positively certain that some of the blogs on the Top 100 have the critical mass/readership to rapidly earn a large number of favorites in a short period of time. Most of them however have no interest whatsoever in Technorati’s Favorites feature.
They do have every right to self-promote the favorites feature and similarly, their readers have every right to decide if they want to participate in the suggested favoriting scheme or not.
Why chastise other bloggers when they actively gather favorite votes and as a result, promote a Technorati feature that is severely underused? Why even attack the concept of reciprocal favoriting when it is a valid option that is open to your A-list blog as well?
4. Are We Ignoring the Benefits for Technorati?
There are over 70 million blogs and only 184 is currently needed for a blog to break into the Top 100 Most Favorited list. What does this mean? Simply that the Technorati favorites feature is overwhelmingly neglected by many bloggers.
This is evidently a feature that Technorati wants to change. If you sign up for a new account now with Technorati, you’ll notice that one of the first things they prominently promote is their Technorati favorite buttons, which shows up on the screen right after you successfully claim a new blog.
The emphasis on building interaction between Technorati users through the Technorati Favorites feature is one that has always been mildly promoted by Technorati, largely because it is an effective branding/marketing tool. In fact, I would like to suggest that the entire Favorites experiment, which involved over 500 bloggers, has been enormously helpful for the Technorati brand so far.
The various applications/tools, opinions and links (which point to Technorati) that were spawned from the experiment is all fodder that markets and promotes the Technorati Favorites feature and I’m very sure that this doesn’t harm the Top 100 list but instead benefits it in the long run.
5. Seeing Technorati Favorites Primarily as a User Function
From a functional point of view, Technorati favorites allows one to bookmark the blogs they like and receive constant updates when new posts are made.
This also allows bloggers to search through all their favorite blogs for specific information that they need. The term ‘Technorati Favorites‘ could be changed to ‘Technorati Bookmarks‘ and it would still be appropriate, because the function still coheres with the referential label.
This is an important point to note because Technorati purists heavily emphasize on the semantic value of the term ‘favoriting’ and insist that it purely denotes natural popularity, i.e. the more favorites you have, you more likely you are to be popular or legitimate in the Technorati community.
In particular, Darren’s post explores how the Top 100 list loses its raison d’etre as more reciprocal favoriting takes place:
The Top 100 list could also be a potentially useful tool - but only if the favorites feature is used widely…and only if Technorati set some guidelines or terms of service in place to stop it being manipulated.
Otherwise the list will simply become a list of those who have managed to swap favors and in doing so it becomes a less useful resource for Technorati’s users. If this happens it becomes pretty useless and actually runs the risk of making Technorati less valuable to it’s readers.
It is important to remember that Technorati Favorites function as both a popularity contest as well as a bookmarking and search engine function. As Darren and Amit has agreed, the bookmarking feature is the primary and most important function of Technorati Favorites.
Technorati users actively participating in reciprocal exchanges do not affect the bookmarking feature for other users who don’t participate in such exchanges.
The primary function of Technorati favorites is preserved and untampered by mass reciprocal favoriting. You will still continue to see only posts from blogs you favor on the homepage, when you visit the Technorati website.
This function and its value for the individual user remains intact and only the secondary function of the Technorati Favorites (I.E. The Top 100 list) is affected. Therefore it is not entirely accurate to say Technorati will be made less valuable to it’s readers if there is reciprocal favoriting involved.
As I’ve mentioned in my first point, an assumption of an objective value for the Technorati Top 100 presumes that Technorati users perceive the Top 100 Most Favorites a similar way.
The value and usefulness of the Top 100 can definitely be determined for oneself but asserting that the Top 100 is useless for other users because blogs on the list practiced reciprocal favoriting is not a fair or logical argument.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, the usefulness of the Top 100 Most Favorited List is determined subjectively by the user in question as he or her actively relates to the specific blogs on the list, regardless of whether they got there through reciprocal favoriting or not.
It should not and cannot be determined externally by the Technorati police or other bloggers, no matter what good intentions they have for the user in question.
6. The Technorati Top 100 is not Inherently Legitimate
Let’s be clear on one thing here: Before the experiment started, the Technorati Top 100 was not a bastion of purity that was untouched by the foul hands of clever, scheming bloggers.
In actual fact, several blogs were in the Top 100 Most Favorited because they held similar reciprocal favoriting or contest schemes which enticed users to favorite their blogs.
There was no legitimacy conferred by natural voting here but only similar collective actions by blogs who were ‘clever’ or devious enough to get into the Top 100 list early on.
There is even a current example of a website in the Top 100, that is not even a blog. I’m referring to Profile Pit Stop, a MySpace resource site which is now at the No. 9 position on the Top 100 Most Favorited list.
The website has absolutely no blogs linking to it and its link count rank is upwards of 3 million. A quick check on the members which have favorited the blog shows that over 98% of it is made up of empty profiles which have no blogs under their name.
All of the profiles only have only Profile Pit Stop as their favorite and were created on the same day. Perhaps multiple accounts made by the same user? Very likely.
And this website is not the only example of how the original Top 100 most favorited is broken. Still think that the original Top 100 denotes natural popularity and has high standards of credibility?
One should not be so naive to think that the original Top 100 was ungamed and was therefore a valuable resource that is only now tarnished by so-called opportunists.
An additional point to note is that legitimacy really does lie in the eyes of the beholder. Associating new blogs that entered the Top 100 as spam or unworthy blogs is vastly arrogant and very presumptuous.
Each blog that has currently entered the Top 100 from the experiment has original content and its own body of readers, which hold it to be legitimate.
The assumption that the list of blogs in the pre-gamed Top 100 is naturally popular and therefore, naturally more legitimate than blogs outside of the Top 100 is an erroneous assertion, from my point of view.
7. The Top 100 Most Favorited List is Not Entirely Useless
I initially didn’t have this section of my post up but decided to write a quick note because I’ve only just noticed that Darren has made a post on the topic half way through.
Since Darren is explicitly talking about the traffic worth of the Top 100 list, I thought I would chime in with some comments.
Why invest so much time in a practice that could get you in trouble with one of the biggest blog related sites and that doesn’t actually convert to bringing in new traffic or increased profile?
My advice - put the energy into building a better blog, show people how to favorite you and let the list look after itself.
My personal experience differs greatly from Darren. While he hasn’t seen a single visitor from the Top 100 favorites page for this month, I’ve already seen 43 visitors from the Top 100 Most Favorited page in the past 7 days, along with at least 100 visitors from my blog profile and 50 visitors from the Technorati homepage.
As I’ve promised in my previous post, a detailed post with traffic details will be forthcoming. While this is hardly a dent in Problogger’s daily traffic ratio, these 200 highly targeted visitors are bloggers who may have an interest in your blog and shows that Technorati can be a useful way to gain referral traffic and build an audience passively.
Of course one needs to bear in mind that these stats come from a blog that is currently ranked number 8 on Top 100 list, the actual traffic may vary according to your position on the page itself.
Darren’s note on not wasting time on the Technorati Favorites but instead focusing on building a better blog is commendable advice. I do greatly admire Darren’s blog for getting in the Top 5 of the Most Favorited list, despite the lack of active promotion or reciprocal favoriting/contests on his end.
My point however is this; why are they mutually exclusive? It’s possible to invest time in Technorati while still putting energy into building a better blog. This is what I have personally been doing and I don’t think the quality of my posts have dropped just because I set up a Technorati Favorites Exchange on my blog a few weeks ago.
It is of course, important to view Technorati itself as just one referral source of traffic and one should always endeavor to develop quality content that appeals to your audience while gradually attracting search traffic in the long run.
8. Reciprocal Favoriting Will be Replaced by Natural Selection
All this talk I’ve read about Top 100 manipulation and gaming seems to dwell within an indefinite time frame. It is important to note that reciprocal favoriting will not go on forever.
As proven by virtually every great blog contest or meme in the history of blogging, all types of temporal schemes and link-based memes will eventually wear out and that is when natural selection will take over.
Whether a blog deserves to be in the Top 100 or not will be determined by time and the natural voting patterns of Technorati users, which is really how it should be.
I personally wouldn’t get too uptight about it nor would I suggest frantically emailing Dave Sifry, Technorati CEO and requesting him to clamp down on the rogue bloggers who are polluting the Top 100 Most Favorites list.
Instead, I would suggest exploring more ways of actively using or promoting the Technorati Favorites feature on your own blog. Perhaps you can also use the Technorati Favorites feature to favorite more of the blogs you like as well.
If one strongly believes that a certain blog belongs to the Top 100, one should also be confident that it will naturally gather a vast number of favorites which will help it to remain in the Top 100. This was certainly the case for blogs like Darren Rowse’s Problogger, TechCrunch and Boing Boing.
Final Thoughts and Recommendations
I would just like to say that this is my personal take on this topic and I do honestly respect anyone else’s view on this matter, even if it differs greatly from my own.
Diversity of opinion is inevitable when it comes to various social issues and my only goal in this post was to provide an alternative perspective to some arguments I did not agree with.
My thoughts on actions to take from here on are surprisingly simple: If you don’t like reciprocal favoriting, do not use it as a way to get more Technorati favorites.
Feel free to criticize other bloggers who are doing so, but please keep it civil and add to the discussion through good old fashion trackbacks and citation-style blogging.
Don’t bash something if you’re not going to link to it (use NoFollows all you want) or are afraid to put your argument in a much needed context that will provide your readers with insight and knowledge on the issue itself.
Always remember that the aim is not merely to impose your opinion on a topic and cut off dissension when you receive it. Engaging in actual link-friendly conversations is important when one wants to make useful contributions towards future improvements in Technorati.
Updates and Additional Reading
Darren Rowse wrote a new post which reassesses the topic of favorites swapping. In his post are several links to other bloggers who have offered their opinions as well.
My hope was simply to bring a little perspective to the topic and encourage bloggers to keep some balance. Ultimately a blogger makes their own decision on how to build their blog and if they want to swap favorites as part of that strategy then knock yourself out - go for it.
The following posts were written by several bloggers in response to the statements made by both Darren and Amit.
Each of them provide important alternative opinions on the topic of Technorati or favorites exchanges and deserve to be read.
Ruffled Feathers on the Top 100 - Kevin Henney
The only victims I can really imagine here are the egos of the A-listers who’ve held those top positions for so long. Many have been displaced, and some of those who remain may feel their prestige is lessened by their new “lower-class” neighbors.
But it’s only egos at stake here. Those who have fallen off the list are not seeing a decrease in traffic, their PageRank isn’t falling, and 99.9% of their readers will never even notice (unless they choose to blog about it).
Responding to Technorati Faves Criticism - Gary Lee
I will continue to use this feature on Technorati and believe that it will continue to give me access and exposure to some sites that I probably will never have found for myself.
For those who question the integrity of this practice, I would just suggest that you first closely take a look at what you have been doing before overly criticizing the marketing practices of your peers.
Technorati Favorites Exchange Experiment: Whores, Prom, and Pig’s Blood - Elaine Vigneault
The reason Technorati has nothing to say about it is probably because they like it. With all of us linking to Technorati and promoting their service, there really isn’t a downside for them. (That is, until a critical mass of A-listers complain. Then Technorati will probably step in, just like they did with the 2000 Bloggers Project.
Are Bloggers Being Gamed? - Fixing the Technorati Favorites Feature - engtech
I disagree very strongly that the Technorati Top 100 Most Favorited list was some kind of legitimate list before the exchanges started. Out of 75.4 million blogs, there are 15 million active blogs. If you can get on a “top 100 blogs� list with the participation of less than 0.00001% of the potential votes then it isn’t a legitimate list to start with.
Reciprocal Favoriting Gives Benefits & Adds Value - Andy Beard
The A-Listers in general can’t see any value in the Technorati Favorite System, haven’t reviewed it in depth, and don’t use it extensively themselves, yet they frequently ask you to favorite them.
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Wow, this was a great analysis on the whole favourite issue on Technorati. I participated in it here on the blog and I don’t regret it. I felt like we, the readers of the blog, were achieving something by helping you reach those high positions on the Technorati list. In a wider perspective then I feel it is the services that should try to set up systems that avoid such gaming. So I don’t think it was wrong that I helped game Technorati but I also think that they should perhaps look into new methods of establishing authority and listing up blogs (not necessarily taking out the old methods, just experimenting with new ones).
Well said Maki, at the end of the day if I want to favourite 1 blog or 100 blogs and there are no limits to stop me doing that within technorati I cannot imagine how that could be perceived as gaming the system.
Why would they ban someone for using something that is by the looks of it not very much utilized. I am sure that plenty of Bloggers will have a lot to say on this subject and I look forward to reading the comments.
Rob
that’s a mouthful here. you can make a thesis out of that huh. i just had some minutes browsing the techno favorite link issue and there’s always a good and lesser-good side. it’s a double whammy affair. but for one, it has made a straightforward move of asking somebody to link you up which is more favorable than trying to make a sort of calculated risk of how to say to someone you need to be linked badly. in the evolution of species, only the best race survives.
Top post.
I too participated and as a result learned a whole lot about Technorati, “met” some very smart people and read a whole bunch of blogs I would not normally have seen.
Blogging for the fun of it !
I’m sure Technorati was aware of the experiment and have shown their displeasure by their actions.
Thanks Maki. Please let me know when your next initiative is planned. I’d love to take part.
Very well said, Maki. I don’t believe the experiment will tarnish the “clean” image of the Top 100. I can see those who participated and reached the Top 100 are deserving. Just like your blog! Congrats and keep it up!
Excellent post. As you know, I’ve had some concerns as well, that you kindly addressed on my blog. However, I was shocked I saw Amit refer to “the legitimate members of the Technorati list” because I respect his opinions quite a bit.
What exactly is legitimacy here? If I begged readers to favorite me in Technorati at the end of each post is that legitimate? If I asked all my friends to do it?
As I said before, one of the great aspects of your exchange is that it brought many bloggers together that previously didn’t know each other. This is a good thing and it is in the true spirit of social media.
The bottom line is that Technorati has not placed limitations on how people use their bookmarking system. I’m using their OPML import feature to collect and tag interesting bookmarks from a variety of sources. I’ve got almost 2000 favorites in the system right now and it has been very useful thusfar for me personally. Am I gaming the system?
But of course, to go back to my original concerns — my one problem with your exchange was in how it would be perceived. I think we’re seeing the fruit of that now and I’m glad that you’ve posted such a well-articulated response.
Go for it Maki! You know I love a bit of controversy! You could probably draw a parallel between those who know great SEO and those who don’t. Is it unfair that someone who has studied SEO gets to the top of the Google SERPs? Of course not. Does this make Google “laughable and useless”? No.
Those who disagree the strongest usually have the most to lose!
Kumiko
For thos at top, the stake is quite high. It may affect their credibility. But Since Technorati is democratic, then there’s no harm in doing that
Well done, Maki. The experiment is like an awareness campaign and many who have ignored technorati before this will start to think twice. And I believe that the whole episode benefit Technorati more that any one else. I am sure this experiment will go on for many months to come. Again, well done and you deserve to be in the top 100 by favouritism and by creativity.
First of all Maki, it’s great to see you reach the 8th position of the Technorati Top 100 list. You have an extremely informative and useful blog and in my opinion deserve to be at that level or higher.
I won’t repeat your analysis of the various comments made about your experiment, you have expressed yourself quite well.
I will add to what others have said about the benefits of taking part. I have discovered some great blogs and great people who go out of their way to provide assistance to those who wish and are trying hard to improve their blogs. I feel as a new blogger I have benefited tremendously by taking part in your Technorati experiment.
I suppose for A-List bloggers to complain is to be expected. No one likes to be pushed off a mountain top that has taken a lot of effort to climb. However, I feel that they should follow their own advice.
The Internet is a fast moving, constantly evolving workplace. Resting on ones laurels will place you in a reverse mode very quickly. The A List bloggers have to constantly work to improve their blogs as well.
If they think that because they are on the A list or in the Top 100 today they are guaranteed their positions forever they are wrong. Out of 70,000,000 blogs there has to be a lot of talent. Some of that talent will work tirelessly to move ahead of current A listers as quickly as they can in as many rankings as they can.
In the end it is the world population of bloggers who will decide. Isn’t Democracy wonderful?
Thank you SO much, Dosh Dosh, for including me in your experiment. Your posting is so interesting to me, that a first read is not sufficient. It is GREAT that you are opening this information up to the “public” bloggers, like myself. The EFFORTS that you must have put into this posting are great.
Thanks again,
Dr. BK
I broke in to the Top-100. @71 as I am writing this.
I can’t understand why someone should have such major problem over something they majorly underrated till now and ‘don’t care about’!
Apart from ‘TFX’, I do blog. Come check that out.
Btw, You can still fav me. You can do it right now
If someone wants to add a bulk list of favourites and it isn’t against the TOS then I don’t see why anyone should be prompted to write an article speaking against it.
During the past year the same people who are claiming the experiment negates the credibility of the Top 100 have also claimed paid posts spammed the blogosphere, (meaning they were no longer the only bloggers being paid good money to blog), that any traffic exchange/link exchange was unethical as well since it did not force the blogger to write “real content and work hard for readership” and now, of course this little debate. It all comes down to the fact that these people want to remain in the top spots and not allow any other blogger the opportunity for exposure, because we all know these so-called top bloggers offer quality content all the time. A few of the blogs in the top 100 were there before this experiment and were put there by bored housewives. Is that legitimate? People need to remember- they aren’t the only bloggers in the world and they certainly didn’t invent the medium.
Well said Maki, I was going to write a long response myself on my blog, but you have said it all. I did notice someone from Technorati posted a comment on Probloggers post, I wonder what Technorati will actually now decide to do?
Can anyone taste sour grapes from the direction of the A-list?
Beth said most of it for me, but I’ll add that I think the Top100 is probably more relevant now than it was, and over time will increase further.
How many people are now more aware of Technorati in general, and favoriting in particular?
There’s been a great deal of whinging of late from the A-listers, and I think a lot of it’s insecurity-perhaps they should take their own advice and just concentrate on the quality of their blogs instead of bitching about us bloggers who get by on 20 visitors a day…..
Stick it to ‘em Maki
Now time for some fraud detection:-
http://technorati.com/faves/amitpagarwal?show=blogs
Amit has favorited himself.
It seems he don’t even believe in this system. He has only few favorites himself.
If you yourself don’t actively use something why promote that or even complain about it?
Now look at Darren..
way too much.. 
He has favorited his own 2 blogs and some dead blogs.
http://technorati.com/faves/darrenrowse?show=blogs
He loves himself
Now tell me who were gaming Technorati all these while.
If someone is to look for the top sites, they would only find flawed information. This train asks that you fave everyone on the list, regardless if you really think that person is your favorite.
I do understand that this was an experiment, but maybe it should have been carried out differently. It’s like looking for info on making juice, but finding sites that did a lot of black hat seo to get on the top, so the sites with really good info are buried.
Well, I stepped on the train, and stepped back off, my reasons are explained in my blog.
Rehuel,
What do you mean to say that “they would only find flawed information”? Which top sites are you currently referring to?
Just to clarify some things: I am not the originator of the link train. It is really a linking exercise that allows bloggers to gain both backlinks and faves simultaneously. I have nothing against that but I have not practiced it myself on this blog, nor promoted it.
Did you read through my entire post? We are not talking about site relevancy when we are talking about the Top 100. No site is more relevant than the other. Nor can one absolutely say that one site has more value than the other and hence belongs more on the list.
To say that for yourself personally would be valid but to impose that same opinion for everyone, regardless of their content preference.. extends it a little too far, IMO.
How would you have carried this out differently?
Quite simply, technorati favorites are almost useless except for exchanging links and such. There’s really no reason for someone to use them, other than:
1 - they’re a new user and technorati told them to
2 - they want to get someone’s attention and do so by adding them as a favorite
3 - they did a link exchange
If Technorati had a feed reader, this would be a different story. Then favorites could be fed into the reader and vice-versa. For this reason, the top 20 blogs listed in Bloglines is a much more valuable list than Technorati’s.
I support eliminating the Top 100 favorited altogether. I’d love to see both Top 100s go, as even the “most-linked” top 100 is often a measure of how popular a meme someone can write (outside of the top 5 or so that is).
Since I’m ranting, Technorati needs a major overhaul. I never use it for anything other than seeing who’s linked to me … it’s SO SLOW, and is always down. If Google added that feature to their excellent blog search, I’d never jump into Technorati again.
“The recent 2000 bloggers project was rejected by Technorati because it promoted automated & unnatural linking patterns, which disrupted Technorati’s machine-based ranking system.”
I disagree with you on this point.
First, the 2000 Bloggers Project has been accepted by Technorati ( http://technorati.com/blogs/http://www.2kbloggers.com ) and boasts a Technorati rank better than my personal blog.
Second, what’s “natural” or “un-natural” linking patterns? Human generated links (as opposed to automated links) are natural, in my opinion, and reflect a popular activity. There is nothing inauthentic about the 2000 Bloggers Project. Real people apply to join, real people post blog articles, real people discuss the project. See http://www.2kbloggers.com for more.
The only problem with it is that big media companies like Technorati and Google hadn’t updated their algorithms to deal with the increase in bloggers and predict their blogging activities. The fact that such a small number as 2000 could upset the balance of Technorati shows you just how fragile their simplistic algorithm is.
The fact is, link counting isn’t adequate. In order for Technorati to keep up with the blogosphere, they’d better develop a better ranking system.
More to the point: Whoever says “don’t post this” or “don’t post that” is a CENSOR. Anyone criticizing the favorite me meme by arguing that we shouldn’t link to who we want in our blogs or that we shouldn’t spread lists or write what we want in our blogs is a CENSOR.
Elaine Vigneault,
I wasn’t referring to the current incarnation of the 2KBloggers project. I do agree that it is a commendable website with real contributions by a good variety of users. I really have nothing against it.
I was referring to Tino Buntic’s link-based photo-collage version. If I am not wrong, Technorati did pull the plug on it by not counting all the links.
I personally do not have anything against Tino’s project as well and I actually liked the idea.
I’m just writing from the perspective of Technorati.. who probably did see the 2000 bloggers project as ‘unnatural’, though my use of the word could be debated
Thanks a lot for your comments on the Favorites meme. I do agree that bloggers should reserve some right to blog what they want.
Maki,
My thought is that if it’s not against Technorati’s TOS, then it’s fine by them. I didn’t participate in the mass exchanges, because I use Technorati to track my favorite blogs, and it would really mess with my user experience to trade massive amounts of links. That said, I traded with your blog, because I read it on a regular basis.
Have you also noticed how Darren uses ‘StumbleUpon’ on just about everything he writes? (If it’s not Darren, it’s someone using his photo with a penchant for his writing, so he ought to get SU to put a stop to it)
I don’t care particularly, but is that not gaming the SU system? Systems are there to be used…
I agree with Chris- why would the systems exist if they were not being used? The main issue the “elite” have is the fact they feel threatened by those of us who do not have high ranking blogs. How did they get to the top? They certainly didn’t sit back and let things “happen,” they wrote content readers wanted and I’m sure if we were to look back at their first blog posts, we’d see them asking to be linked to, or asking for comments etc. The top blogs are no more special than our own. We all have something to contribute. What I find funny is that no one had a problem with this experiment until a few well known bloggers started complaining about it. If you don’t agree with adding favorites, feeds or backlinks-then don’t. It’s that simple.
Chris,
I think Darren doesn’t use StumbleUpon for all the posts his writes, or at least not on some of them I’ve seen. Consistent self-stumbling does seem a little one-sided but as you’ve said, it might not be Darren himself who’s doing it.
Beth,
I’ve noticed that as well. Only one or two bloggers did actually voice out against the experiment before it was slammed by several well known bloggers.
I see a lot of protest now from other bloggers who seem to be coming out in droves to diss everyone who has participated in the Technorati favorite exchanges.
I only wish I could get all these bloggers out there to read my post here because I would love to actually hear what they’ll say after going through it.
Engaging them in discussion and letting them know there’s an alternative view point is very important. Most of them seem to be only aware of Darren and Amit’s article at the moment.
Maki, they are one and the same. Tino stopped it when Technorati whined. I took it over and created a new blog for it.
I agree most with your statement, “One should not presume to understand or appreciate how 70 million bloggers perceive the Technorati Top 100 Most Favorited. Nor should one assume that one’s vision of the Top 100 is a subjective value that is inherently shared by all bloggers in question.”
What’s also interesting is that Technorati allows you to favorite websites that aren’t blogs. Does this mean they’re expanding?
Also, you can tag your favorites. So you can tag some “reciprocal” and others “must-read.” This makes using the system more valuable. I have over 2000 blogs in my favorites lists. I have tagged them appropriately to make the list more functional.
Also - 70 million blogs does not equal 70 million bloggers. A large percentage of these are blog networks and/or splogs that are automatically generated. Many of these are also dead blogs (e.g. blogger sites setup simply so someone could comment on a friend’s site).
In February 2006, the # of bloggers who updated their site weekly was around 2.6 Million. So it’s unlikely we’re over 5 Million now.
Just a thought
Elaine,
Thanks for the tip. I also have a fair number of favorites (1200+) in Technorati. Tagging them would make them more manageable though I’ll usually only use Technorati’s Favorites search engine to look for specific content.
Anita,
You have a good point there.. I’ve amended the copy in my post to reflect that.. thanks!
Elaine: I thought of that last night and started tagging the blogs I actually READ on a DAILY basis.
Maki: I may not have a huge readerbase, but I’ll point people in the direction of this blog and encourage them to get the word out about this post.
Anita: I noticed quite a few blogs that participated in this experiment which hadn’t been updated in days or weeks. Needless to say I’ve been going through and deleting those. Unless you update your blog AT LEAST weekly-what’s the point?
Hi Maki,
I’m glad you acknowledge that at least a few smaller blogs made their feelings known before the big boys who had the position to lose became outraged. You’ve read my feelings on the matter and I’m glad that you have written this post to try and clear things up.
However, to try and claim an action isn’t bad because everyone else is doing it is a bit misleading. Pointing out the myspace layouts site at number 9 was an interesting point (I was wondering what it was doing there), but it doesn’t mean you should take an imperfect system and attempt to skew it more.
Plus, the early signs show that the experiment will prove reasonably negative results anyway.
However, a few good things have come from this:
A few people will have enjoyed the ego afforded by joining the top 100, many others will be happy that they have a few people favouriting them now (I decried the whole idea and have made 27 favourites at the last count!). Hopefully the whole thing will bring some more focus to the Technorati favourites function and people will start to use it as it was intended; a way of tracking your favourite blogs and a way to boost those that are considered favourite by a number of people. Finally, the meme has brought more people and blogs together.
Let’s hope this blows over with just the positive effects remaining. As you say, reciprocal favouriting will be replaced by natural selection eventually.
Keep thinking Maki.. what a response!
My opinion on this is that such “games” drive an algorithm to work better. If this blog didn’t come up with it, then certainly an another would have. In the end, this is a favor done to Technorati!
On the other hand, I favorite blogs on Technorati because I can see the latest posts there just like a secondary feed reader. Even if they were not on my reading list before!
Phil,
Thanks for dropping by. I’ve never claimed that an action isn’t bad because everyone else is doing it.
That section of the post was particularly written in response to Amit’s post on the topic when he suggested that “by swapping Technorati votes, you not only get to displace the legitimate members of the Technorati list..”
I wrote that the Top 100 is not inherently legitimate because I meant to show that the initial Top 100 were not completely made up of blogs there naturally favorited and hence, legitimate in the first place.
I can clearly point out a few more examples but the goal of this exercise is not to name and shame but to adjust incorrect perceptions of the original Top 100.
I actually don’t think that one is skewing the system through reciprocal favoriting. I think that one is skewing the system even more when one enforces an objective value standard on all bloggers and impose editorial barriers which restrict user agency and choice.
These points are explained in more detail in my post above. My gut feeling is that only positive effects will remain and reciprocal favoriting will eventually die out.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, I wrote this post to address arguments that I did not agree with, also particularly to counter the various opinions which placed the 400+ bloggers who took part in the exchange, in a bad light.
An alternative perspective is very important, not only for us.. but also for Technorati.
I understand that your point in that section was that the top 100 wasn’t pure in the first place, but in the context are you not trying to back up your own gaming of the system?
The other problem is with your claim that the imposition of an objective standard restricts choice and skews the system more. I think there is a subjective definition for favourite, however I am disinclined to believe that anyone could define favourite as something from a list that someone else suggested to them. If the top 100 favourited blogs on Technorati were to be truly devoid of this pigeonholing then you would have to name something with no meaning. For example, the Technorati list, on which you could list any blog you wanted for whatever reason, be it that you enjoy it, hate it, they “listed” you or any multitude of reasons. The word favourite skews the top 100 favourited to be those blogs that are the most people’s favourites until you try to remove this meaning, what else would be the point in the name?
What’s done is done now though and I am interested in reading your write up on the results for you.
Phil,
There is a difference between backing up one’s argument and refuting criticisms made by others. A celebrity publicly responding to untrue claims made by other is a refutation and is not made to back up any other argument.
My point in that section was exactly the same. It was placed among other arguments because it was pertinent. Taken contextually, you could easily read it as either evidence which supports my ‘gaming of the system’ or you could see it as refutation of a specific point. The choice is yours. I have disclosed my motivations and you can take it either way.
I’ve mentioned it before but I’ll say it again here. There are two types of favorites. One is the primary function of favoriting or bookmarking the blogs you love within the Technorati system. No one can alter or affect this function. This falls within the purely subjective realm of favoriting. One has perfect and complete editorial control of what one perceives on Technorati when one logs in.
The top 100 is the secondary function that comes from the Technorati Favorites feature. This is the public favorite list which is a RESULT of the individual or private favoriting.
These two functions are structurally connected by individual user choice and are determined by actual personal usage of the Technorati Favorites function. The credibility or value of the entire list is determined by a multitude of users, not just the ones participating in the experiment or the ones criticizing it.
Any value judgment doesn’t just belong to the realm of individual bloggers who decide that the list doesn’t work for them anymore because too many crappy or spammy blogs (even if there are even any from the experiment)suddenly showed up in the Top 100.
It’s far too autocratic for my liking because it also disregards how other people perceive the Top 100. Could one even spare a second to think that there might be users who are A-OK with the change or might even embrace the entry of new and interesting blogs?
All this talk about the Top 100 losing value is really unfounded in the long run. In any case, the ball is in Technorati’s court now .. and what they do will partially depend on both sides of the argument presented.
Thanks for taking the time to comment and share your thoughts, Phil. Much appreciated. -)
Good post.
The fact that Technorati encourage the use of their ‘favorites’ button completely negates any claim they can make against someone finding ways to encourage bloggers to add them to their favorites.
@Maki
When I say “flawed information” I mean that these sites were not favorited because people like what they have to say. They were favorited, because people asked them to. When I would look through a list of Top 100 faved sites, I would expect to find sites of which people are really happy with the information presented and therefore added it to their favorites, just like I do with my bookmarks.
So my comment is not about relevancy, it’s about personal preference. I expect to see how many folks personally think te site is worth reading, so I would take that in consideration when visiting the site.
Let it be very clear Maki: I’m not attacking you, the originator nor the participants. I’m only giving my thought on how this can influence the way we look for reliable information.
This experiment was to see the results of getting in the Top 100 Faved. This should have been 1 person’s experiment (or a group). That one person should have reported the results back to the community. This approach however proposed that a lot do the same thing. If the one person alone did it for research, I’m sure it would have been applauded by the whole blogosphere. But now the list is “flooded” with people who got there because of a meme, not because people personally really think they deserve it. So that list is not a reliable source of information anymore. It’s been contaminated, “flawed” as others would describe it.
Once again: I’m not attacking anyone with my comments. I’m only trying to explain my point of view.
PS: I don’t see nothing wrong with people faving their own blog. It would be a shame if your own blogs is not one of your favorites!
Very informative, I think the favorite exchanges are a great way to help promote for Technorati rather then abuse. Unfortunately many have failed to see that and obviously being one of the first providing that information draws controvercy just like everything else.
Reheul
Thanks for clarifying your position. Your comment reflects your personal take on the current state of the Top 100 list and I do respect that. Your opinion does determine how you use the Technorati Favorites function as well as the value you get out of it. Taking your opinion one step further, it is valid and correct to say that the Top 100 is “flawed” or contaminated.
It is important to note that this is one subjective opinion out of many. I’ve mentioned before that the actual value of the Top 100 is determined by a great variety of users and each of them interpret and therefore use the Top 100 or Favorites function differently.
A quote from my post above:
Thanks for contributing to the discussion, Reheul.
Excellent article Maki, well done! You do raise some very valid and good points.
My personal take however, differs. From a Technorati-user perspective I believe there comes a point where you have so my blogs in your favourites that it ceases to become useful. A few dozen favourites and you can look at your homepage and get a decent snapshot of recent activity. Many hundreds of favourites and it becomes a lucky dip.
From a marketing-your-blog point of view, and a point I think you would agree, is that being in the top 10 or so favourited is probably pretty good for you. Anything less becomes rapidly less useful. I have no figures to back this up, but it would strike me making pretty obvious sense? Being the 98th most favourited cant be anywhere near as good as being the 8th most favourited.
Therefore, the pyramid scheme is fundamentally floored. The early adopters (that would be you) stand to reap exponential benefits from the scheme, whereas anyone who was more than, say the 20th person to join the scheme, is wasting their time. That would be most people.
And finally these things shouldn’t be reciprocal. A favourite is an entirely personal thing. Just because I favourite a site, doesn’t mean that they should favourite me in return - and visa versa. Sometimes there will be a natural aligning of reciprocal interests, but most of the time it just doesn’t work like that.
BTW - love your Springer-esque final thoughts
nice post and it was intresting.
Well Maki, I guess those who critics are jealous with this great project. This project helps other bloggers too. Not being spam or scam other blog.
Hi,
I noticed that none of the bloggers you mentioned in your Technorati Exchange post have got your linkback on Technorati. Could you please explain that?
Aaron,
Thanks for your comments.
Well, there are various types of Technorati users. Those who actually use the Favorites function as a bookmarking tool and others who don’t use it at all. How you choose to approach or view the bookmarking function of Technorati Favorites is entirely personal and valid.
My article was directed primarily at various opinions about how the secondary function of Technorati favorites, i.e. the Top 100 should operate. This is social space we all inhabit and discussions of it are important.
If you read my timeline, you should know that the exchange started as a reciprocal arrangement between me and my readers. That is all. The link train or pyramid style meme was not started by me and had a life of its own. Nor did I encourage or promote it on this blog.
Whether it is fundamentally flawed or not is fodder for another discussion on memes and their linking architecture.
This structure or style of the meme is irrelevant to me or this article, which mainly addresses opinions which attack the Technorati Exchanges that has been going on.
In any case, if anyone REALLY wants to get to the top of the list, they can start their own link meme or offer attractive prizes (Marketing Pilgrim just started a contest for its readers to trade favorites in return for a Wii game set). The endless variety of options are available to everyone. No perpetual pyramid boss here to knock down.
If you think that favoriting shouldn’t be reciprocal, that’s fine. This is your way of interacting with the Technorati favorites function and I respect that.
I’ve written a humongous amount of text in both the article and the comments and I think I have asserted my point enough.
As I’ve said, the ball is in Technorati’s court. They will ultimately determine how they want to deal with what’s been going on. We’ve all offered our opinions and my primary intention was to balance the argument by providing an alternative perspective.
Commy,
I’m not quite sure what you mean. Which bloggers are you referring to and are you referring to links in this post or my previous post?
I am on your site.
Compare Fav Exchange Experiments with SEO and you get the point.
It is also very interesting that only the so called A-Bloggers complain about this funny strategy to get some buzz.
It is a matter of time. The Technorati Top 100 stagnates. Where is the fresh blood?
The Top 100 should be resetted every 3 months or so to be more accurate about the current trends in the blogosphere.
Regards,
René @ ProBloggerWorld.de
It is quite strange that Darren reacted this way….. Hmm I probably should read his post to understand better. Nevertheless I do recall him promoting heavily and teaching his audience how to use BlogCarnival.com… Depends for what angle you look at BlogCarnival it is possible to construe it as site that helps you to “game” search engines.
Maki, as usual well thought post.
In my point of view, this case don’t have right or wrong, good or bad, depend on the person thought, social culture, this will put everything in it. For example, when we working, why some people work for 20 years just get a manager position, but another young guy just work for 2 year then get the manager position, why? This is because of the young guy have good talent on communication skill better than old guy. Not only that, young guy also have a good relationship with other workers then make him famous and accepted by majority, but except those old guy. The old guy, work with patient, talent and honest, but he don’t really like networking, that’s why he get 20 years to be a manager. Do you get the morale of this story?
Hi Maki,
I am referring to your backlinks promised in the Technorati Exchanges post. You have published list of all bloggers in the post itself but they have not got a backlink from your blog as seen on Technorati.
Thanx for replying
Commy,
I was not aware that they were not been counted as backlinks.. I’ll ping Technorati again and hopefully they’ll pick them up.
Thanks for letting me know about it.
I find that this exchange is very useful for me. After I favourited some blogs, I actually realised that they are posting very good information especially in helping me to become a better blogger. Some of the information are very much relevant to my blog that I have included them in my posting..
That’s how I find Dosh Dosh…
Once I read the statement that ‘favorite’ was a misnomer, functionally they are ‘bookmarks’ — then that is all I had to read. The same comparison can be made between IE and Mozilla to that regard.
As such, it is not a voting system at all, pure and simple. Whether it is a blog trying to get you to favorite them or a website with the ‘bookmark this page now’ angle — and some promote toolbars that will switch your homepage as well.
But the real value that I think everyone is overlooking, is not the Top 100 List, but the fact that you now have your blog in 100’s of Technorati user’s profiles. You will probably garner more traffic from that than the list itself. Plus when the A-list repopulates the list, you still will have those sustained favorites.
One downside is that a majority of the users here do not use the favorites for browsing feeds. Most of us, like myself, use online or desktop aggregators for that purpose.
In that light, if this experiment has shed light on how favorites could be used for a better purpose than just the list … then that is a good thing. Technorati and the community has gained.
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