Bloggers don't have a reliable way to track links. We have links in the sidebar to Google Blog Search, IceRocket Blogs, the TTLB Ecosystem, and other services, but my favorite link tracker is Technorati. Still, Technorati is far from perfect.
I have complained about Technorati before, and this week my frustration was building again. The problem is twofold. First, why does our Technorati page say "687 links" to Conglomerate at the top, but "1,017 links from 252 sites" at the bottom? Second, our ranking and number of sites rarely changes, even when we attract lots of new links, as we did last week with Conglomerate Forum: Enron? The Technorati site purports to be updating, but I notice the updates only in the link count at the top. I even took the time last week to write Technorati. No response.
Fred Wilson made similar complaints in a post earlier today, and Technorati CEO Dave Sifray responded almost immediately. (He did that with my complaint last year. He is amazingly responsive. He even put his mobile number in the comment!) According to Dave, Technorati is "the middle of a huge upgrade to our link counts system," and he is confident that this will fix the problem. I hope so.
Here is the part of Dave's comment that baffled me:
To clear up a misunderstanding, however, I want to make it clear that "last updated" is not necesarily the last time we did a full count of your link counts. Please don't confuse your "last updated" time with the last time that we calculated your full link counts. I apologize that sometimes the link counts get "stuck" for a few days (or even weeks in the worst case) at a time, but I hope that we'll be able to win back your confidence when we roll out our improved link counter very shortly.
In the universe of blog maintenance issues, link counts are pretty far down the list. Nevertheless, it would be nice if someone could get it right.
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/38673/5072115
Links to weblogs that reference Technorati Links ... Again:
1. Posted by David Sifry on June 12, 2006 @ 1:00 | Permalink
We're on it. I apologize for the problems that you've been experiencing. You deserve better, and we're working hard to bring it to you. I hope to have something to announce about updated and consistent display of accurate link counts soon...
Dave
2. Posted by Gordon Smith on June 12, 2006 @ 7:33 | Permalink
Dave, I really hope that you nail this. Obviously, it's a sticky problem, and lots of people want the service. Good luck!
- dissertations on Lance's New
- fedgovernor on The Oil Mark
- Jake on The Oil Mark
- Cathy on The Oil Mark
- laborprof lpb on Bailout, Uni
- fedgovernor on The Oil Mark
- Brandon P. on BYU v. Utah
- David on What makes a
- Cathy on The Oil Mark
- Vic on Fleischer 1,
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
