Against The Grain: Blogging By Taking An Alternate Position

March 10th, 2007 · 8 Comments

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I was reading a really great article by Alex Iskold of Read/Write Web about why Technorati is more than just a blog search engine. In his article, Alex alluded to Emre Sokullu’s piece on Technorati’s exit strategies now that it had fallen behind Google Blog Search on traffic. It is useful to bear in mind that Emre’s piece is not the only one that discusses threats against Technorati from Google and examining exit options. For example, the business magazine Inc. discussed the same topic in its most recent March issue.

In summary, Alex’s article takes an alternate position and argues that while Google Blog Search may have surpassed Technorati in terms of search volume, the depth of Technorati’s information allows us to not only search for blogs, but also allows us to study and determine the popularity of blog topics, the competition within topics, and the relationship of popularity and competition to links received from other blogs. In examining that information, Alex argues, one is able to find out not only what the popular topics are but also why they are popular.

What really interests me about Alex’s article is not so much the position he takes but, rather, how he goes about defending his position that Technorati is more than just a blog search engine and that, in many ways, it offers services/features that Google Blog Search doesn’t have. Instead of merely listing out the distinguishing features of Technorati versus Google Blog Search, the article goes in-depth to support its argument by examining the topics, linking patterns, and Alexa traffic of the top 20 as well as the top 100 blogs on Technorati’s Popular 100 list.

Alex’s article is an interesting case study on how to blog against the grain and take an alternate position. There are nicely formatted tables and graphs to help the reader visualize the interrelationships between popularity, competition, and topic. After reading the article, this reader really does feel that, at least for now, Technorati offers a whole lot more information and granularity than Google Blog Search.

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8 responses so far ↓

1 Robert Irizarry // Mar 10, 2007 at 3:00 pm

Interesting take on the Technorati vs. Google Blog Search discussion. Although I see the differences, whether or not these are relevant to the individual blogger depends on the subject of their blog. Technology and politics are very well represented at Technorati and it appears to appeals to readers of these categories more than anything else. I wonder how more niche subjects do.
2 collis // Mar 10, 2007 at 3:42 pm

Sounds like it’d be worth reading!
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