I was really looking forward to breaking into the top 10,000 in the Technorati ranking, and today I see in the site redesign they removed Rank entirely, in favor of the new Authority score. What’s really annoying though, is that in the write up about the redesign, there is no mention of Rank at all. No reasoning behind why they decided to do away with it… nothing. That’s a good example of terrible customer service. I assume they felt there was a good reason for dumping the Rank score, but instead of explaining it for the thousands of us who pay close attention to it so that we could understand their decision, they disappointed and dismayed us. The Authority score is fine, except that I have no sense of where the top is and thus have no good feel for where I stand in relation to the rest of the blogosphere.
Otherwise, the redesign is a good move and the search feature is simpler and faster. In fact, they’ve set up a subdomain dedicated to blogsearch at s.technorati.com.
So, what do you think? Am I the only one disappointed to see Rank go away entirely?
Tags: technorati rank
![[Post to Twitter]](http://randaclay.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
![[Post to Delicious]](http://randaclay.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-delicious.png){kind=icon}
![[Post to Digg]](http://randaclay.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-digg.png){kind=icon}
![[Post to StumbleUpon]](http://randaclay.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-su.png){kind=icon}
You (and others) make a great point. We’re looking into putting Rankings back in to the design now that the main launch is done. We’re going to be rolling out lots of tweaks and tunes and fixes over the next few days as we hear back from folks like you on stuff we missed…
Thanks again for the great post!
Dave
It’s good of you to respond David. Glad to hear Rank isn’t totally gone!
I guess this is the place to talk to the Technorati Gods
Randa, maybe it’s because it’s been manipulated by some bloggers and doesn’t really offer anything in terms of real value.
Also, that ticker has got to go, how annoying. It would be nice to have the option to turn it on/off. Or maybe have our favs in it.
Also, you have no follow on the ticker, sigh. Which makes it even more undreadable for those of us who have our pink linkers on.
Great post Randa
Thanks for the comment Lyndon. Yeah, I didn’t really care for the ticker thing. I think they idea is nice, but it’s not as useful as it could be. Seems the Authority score could be manipulated as easily as Rank, couldn’t it? They’re both about links, but at least with Rank you’re heading towards a finite mark – 0.
I enjoyed watching my rank go up each day, I think I got to 19k last time I looked. When we measure things it gives us the ability to improve.
It would be interesting to know the thought process behind the change.
I do understand why Technorati have reduced the focus on ranking, in favour of promoting authority status.
Having said that, the way it currently works is messed up. Basically, I can get a high authority score by posting single comments on hundreds of blogs. Regardless of how many times a blog links to me, it’s only counted once.
Not particularly conducive to building reader loyalty, is it?
In the short time I’ve been actively blogging, I’ve changed my whole outlook on things. I’ve stopped worrying about stuff like PR, Alexa, Technorati rank and that sort of thing – and decided to concentrate on improving my writing skills, offering more value to my readers, and generally getting to know the people who take time to visit my site…
But perhaps I’m just old-fashioned! ;¬)
Paul – I agree with you. People get too focused on ranking and traffic because of the ego boost, and forget the most important things. I got a bit too focused on the rank thing because I was excited to be hitting the 10,000 mark.
Of course you were! I would be too if my ranking was that high – I believe that mine’s around the 192,000 mark, so there’s quite a bit of difference! I’m not saying I don’t check my stats (Google Analytics is my friend!), but for me the visitor numbers, and the length that somebody stays on my site, have become more important than how popular the ’sphere says my blog is!
Perhaps I found it easier not to get involved in the Technorati ‘thing’ because I’m still green? ;¬)
Incidentally – and I don’t know how long this will work for… If you go to your WP Dashboard, and click the ‘more links’ link to take you to Technorati, then your blog’s rank will still be displayed… Just in case you want to see if you make the 10k mark! :0)
Thanks for letting me know that Paul! I’m almost there….
that is all that I use technorati for is the ranking! What are they thinking? BTW: found you via google search in what the heck was going on with the ranking gone!
Cool! Good to know I’m popping up in Google searches!
[...] Rank: ????????????? (Technorati removed their rank numbers) :: 279 blogs linking in :: “B” list [...]
Hi Randa,
I’m with you. I was a little disappointed to see the rank go, mainly because I don’t know how to judge the authority score.
Off topic, how does your NoNoFollow work in relation to the comments on individual posts?
Sorry if I missed your description.
David, I’m not sure exactly what information you’re looking for … I have the the plugin set to remove the nofollow tag from comments after they’ve been there at least 1 day, so I have time to moderate. If that doesn’t answer your question, what specifically were you asking about?
Ah, I see!
I wasn’t aware that your plugin allowed you to choose how long to wait before removal.
It’s just that I saw the first five comments here were ‘follow’ and after that they had the nice pink surround to signal ‘nofollow’.
The plugin I use simply removes them immediately and if they’re out of order I’ll go back and remove them later (but that very rarely happens thankfully).
I hear you on the ticker too. You’ll be seeing some changes on the ticker soon. The Ranking is back on the site now, go check it out.
Dave
Well done Mr Sifry!
See guys… That’s what you call a proper community-driven company! I wish some of the organisations I am forced to work with would respond that quickly (and positively) to my comments about their service! ;¬)
I think maybe a new post is in order about Technorati winning some awards at listening to their users. Thanks Dave, I am very impressed.
[...] I say that Technorati wasn’t winning any awards for customer service? I was wrong. Or, should I say, I was premature. I still think if you’re going to change [...]