Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Technorati is broken

Notice the line of words and/or phrases at the bottom of each Orange Crate Art post? Those words and/or phrases are Technorati tags, meant to help readers interested in a subject find relevant content online. Technorati, a free web service, is also meant to help bloggers keep track of links to their blogs. In some circles, link count— one's Technorati number or (ahem) "authority" — is a matter of great anxiety.

I've sometimes used tags for comic effect — here, for instance, and here. I've tagged mostly in earnest. But after two-and-a-half years, I've come to the conclusion that tagging is not worth the effort and that Technorati is broken. My posts sometimes register, sometimes fail to. My tags sometimes bring up my posts, sometimes fail to. Links to Orange Crate Art often go uncounted. Technical support is spotty. And Technorati tags bring in few if any visitors. (How do I know that? Through the free and hugely reliable web service StatCounter.)

So Technorati itself will be the subject of my last tag.

[Update: "Notice the line of words and/or phrases at the bottom of each Orange Crate Art post?" No, you don't, as I've been removing them.]

Related post
Two tales of tech support

comments: 2

FRANKYE said...

Michael, saw your name on feedblitz and wondered what part of the USA you are from. I went to school in Maryland with a guy named Michael Leddy. Is that you?

Michael Leddy said...

Frankye, I'm from "the garden spot of the world, Brooklyn, U.S.A." (as Ed Norton called it). I hope you find your Michael Leddy.