In Part II
of his recent State of the Blogosphere, David Sifry introduces a new Technorati
feature, the “Authority” filter. The
feature is really a construct for filtering blog search, which by default and
despite the author’s protests, offers a mechanism for blog evaluation and
ranking. Needless to say the blogosphere
is buzzing with commentary about it, from the factual presentation on
TechCrunch to Om Malik’s complaint that there’s so much chatter about it his
mind hurts. Brother, I feel your pain.
Steve Rubel
astutely notes that this “filter by authority” mechanism is really a popularity
filter, since it’s based solely on the number of inbound links. Despite ten-plus years and the work of some
very smart people, web measurement is still stuck in the mindset of old, mass
media metrics: eyeballs. All of the
valuations from Google to MySpace are based on that same premise. And while it’s made a pile of money for
certain folks, it genuinely misses the point.
The concept
of harnessing collective intelligence, one of the foundations of “Web 2.0” and
arguably the driving force behind the blogosphere, is a much bigger idea. It has more in common with the idea of
synthetic dialectic – of multiple opposing ideas coming together to form a
greater one – than it does with a simple traffic count.
In order for blog ranking to be meaningful it must in some way address the relevance and quality of content. If Technorati is correct, and there is a “Magic Middle” of 155,000 blogs who form the most influential and substantive work of the blogosphere, then that is where the measurement gurus should focus our attention. Sifry contends that this middle tier defines communities of interest. I think he’s right, and I hope that future Technorati reports offer a view into this rich network of conversations.
Technorati Tags:
Technorati, Blogs, authority, sotb2006, measurement, web 2.0
Comments