Technorati‘s home page looks very different today and it’s thanks to the introduction of Technorati Topics. (On a sideline, the search is still pretty messed up, try running a lawyer search or blogger search and you’ll see what I mean). The new? functionality is described in more detail on the Technorati blog:
Each topic features blog posts from many of the best blogs out there to help you discover what’s going on. The posts are refreshed frequently to reflect breaking news, new opinions, and the latest from the Web. We’ve set out to help you find some great blog posts to read and we’ve organized them by easy to browse topics. We considered a number of factors to get the seed list of blogs including Technorati Authority, frequency of posting, use of relevant tags, links to related subject matter and general topicality.
I tried having a poke around, and my immediate reaction was mixed. It’s great having all the latest news pop up in front of you, but the posts scroll by too quickly for the casual reader. Also, the whole experience feels rather disjointed; though it’s nice to have the feeling that you’re being shown posts as soon as Technorati learns about them (which is not the case)
Blogosphere reactions are a bit mixed about this one. Most people seem to be welcoming the fact that Technorati is making changes, while others liken it to “moving deckchairs around on the Titanic“, some even going as far as calling the change “useless“. I, for one, welcome the change. It’s nice to see an organisation trying to improve it’s offerings, and I would like to see Technorati become more popular.
technorati has been really shaky the last month. I don’t know if they are having database issues, but authority changes are very slow to post. Have you noticed any problems?