Technorati Being Gamed

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Last year after I found a porn site that got on the 16th position of Technorati’s Top 100 Favorited list by creating many accounts and favoriting their site themselves, I did an experiment to warn Technorati that anyone can get into the Top 100 Favorited list. I wanted to warn Technorati by getting into the list myself with my Technorati Favorite Exchange idea. I even wrote on how to get into Technorati’s Top 100 Favorited blogs so that Technorati would do something about it.

But Technorati did not do anything about it, I guess they are not fast enough like the ReviewMe team who quickly prevented people from price gaming after reading my post.

Recently some bloggers started gaming Technorati to get in to the Top 100 Favorited list by doing the same Technorati Favorite exchange that I had done last year.

Some of the bloggers were successful in getting into the list, but with them getting in, many other bloggers including me were kicked out of the list.

I think these bloggers wanted to get into the list because they thought that the list would bring them traffic. This blog was in the list from December until recently, and I have not got a single visitor from the list (as far as I know).

I remember contacting Darren Rowse after I got into the list to let him know how easy it was to get into the list. Darren replied back saying that though he is in a high position on the list (currently 3rd), he has not got much traffic from it at all.

So what is the point in getting into the Top 100 Favorited list anyway? Does it increase profile? Does it give egos a boost?

Darren and Amit have written about the Technorati gaming too and like Amit I too feel that Technorati’s Top 100 Favorited list is not worth any more (until Technorati does something about it).

What do you think?

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25 responses so far, Leave a comment

  1. 1

    SEO blog

    May 2, 2007 at 10:18 pm

    John, I don’t think they are gaming Technorati in hopes of getting traffic. I think they are gaming it for either the link on the top 100 page (it’s a PR6 page) or to improve their prices on sites like ReviewMe and PayPerPost. At least those are the reasons I’d like to be on the list. ;)

  2. 2

    Madhur Kapoor

    May 2, 2007 at 10:43 pm

    John , as far as traffic is concerned , everyone will agree that Technorati hardly sends traffic to anyone . As far as the Top 100 list is concerned , many people feel that by getting there blog to the top , they will get traffic and thats why many are doing the sorts of exchange programs and some are doing it for Reviewme or PayperPost .

    Btw I noticed that Content Link ads are appearing in my site with a single underline .

  3. 3

    David Culpepper

    May 2, 2007 at 11:02 pm

    I don’t think it has much to do with Technorati at all. Maybe it’s an ego boost to those that make the top 100 list but I think it has more to do with the number of links to your site that is generated by participating in something like that.

  4. 4

    Vince Cordic

    May 2, 2007 at 11:09 pm

    I think most people are doing it for the authority factor rather than direct traffic. If you’re in the top 100 list you can brag about it so to speak.

    As SEO Blog pointed out, you can also charge more for reviews and text link ads. The PR6 link from an authority site doesn’t hurt either.

  5. 5

    Online Technology

    May 3, 2007 at 12:08 am

    This will always happen, Its a biased topic actually. If there is an option why not use it but then ethically its wrong.

    Here are my points which is similar thats done around blogsphere. I dont blame anybody but here how it goes:

    1. Don’t we encourage our friends to subscribe?
    2. Don’t we encourage our friends to put comments ?
    3. Don’t we encourage to promote topics on each other blogs ?
    4. Don’t we encourage link bating ?

    There are lot of similar things we do to promote our own blogs.If asking for Technorati Fav Exchange is wrong then everything i said above is wrong.

    No offenses but these are just my views and they are strong one’s.

  6. 6

    SEO blog

    May 3, 2007 at 12:27 am

    Online Tech has good points. Where we draw the line between legitimate self promotion and shady tricks is a fine one at best and often wavers for each individual.

  7. 7

    Vince Cordic

    May 3, 2007 at 12:46 am

    Indeed - good points. I’m impartial myself, neither for it or against it. If someone wants to run a Technorati fave exchange so be it. For the most part though their time is probably better spent working on something else.

  8. 8

    Byte of Technology

    May 3, 2007 at 2:11 am

    Now-a-days, there are very less people who actually blog as a hobby or for passion for tech….all people are blogging for money and to increase that margin, people are gaming everything…today this and tomorrow another one is on the line…

  9. 9

    J.B.Slife

    May 3, 2007 at 1:09 pm

    I would think the list would be a plus for advertising prices on anyones blog. I personally never click on anything in technorati.

  10. 10

    Vivek

    May 3, 2007 at 2:13 pm

    Speaking in an in-duh-vidual tone :

    Technorati is so yesterday !!!!

    :)

  11. 11

    Nirmal

    May 3, 2007 at 2:57 pm

    I feel that Technorati fav program is not going to bring any traffic to blogs, it just make you one among the top 100 fav blogs.

  12. 12

    Spiderman sucks!

    May 3, 2007 at 4:50 pm

    that game devalued the top 100 list. I joined though but I realized that it is not worth it since the list is now in a constant change minute by minute.

  13. 13

    Philip Seyfi

    May 3, 2007 at 5:01 pm

    I’m pretty sure they are doing it to get better prices on ReviewMe etc… Not sure about the porn site through…

  14. 14

    subhash

    May 3, 2007 at 5:10 pm

    Folks can someone tell me why this stupid technorati is not indexing my blog..it shows it has been 133 days it has updated mine !!! google is indexing mine everyday and technorati is not….ny seo expert can u ans this ?

  15. 15

    subhash

    May 3, 2007 at 5:12 pm

    may b technorati is full of scammers now..still i wanna find y it stoppd indexing…i even claimed my blog

  16. 16

    Maki

    May 3, 2007 at 6:46 pm

    John,

    I’m surprised you didn’t link through to Darren’s followup post, which is far more balanced and offers a series of alternative opinions from the other side of the fence.

    Choosing to link through to only his first post and Amit’s post restricts the argument to the issue of ‘gaming’ and exchange-participant bashing… I did expect more objectivity from you.

    As you probably know, I wrote a lengthy piece about the same matter and I strongly encourage that anyone who frowns about reciprocal favoriting should read it and the comments section.

    In my opinion, to see the whole phenomenon as just ‘gaming’ Technorati as far too limited a perspective.

    It will be interesting to hear what you guys have to say after actually reading the piece. Here’s the link:

    Dealing with Some Criticisms on the Technorati Favorites Exchange Experiment

  17. 17

    David Bradley

    May 3, 2007 at 9:39 pm

    Gaming is a human trait. It was inevitable from the very lie told by one of our ancestors to grab a bigger share of the hunt to the black-hat aficionados who push the web to its limits to get that extra ounce of rank

    db

  18. 18

    Ronald

    May 3, 2007 at 11:16 pm

    : But Technocrati become the gateway to visitors to visit our blog or ? :)

  19. 19

    Nirmal

    May 3, 2007 at 11:30 pm

    ,
    Technorati might have brought traffic, but I was mentioning about the Technorati Fav game.

  20. 20

    Alex

    May 4, 2007 at 1:15 am

    I remember I started a technorati fav exchange after I saw it on your blog, I didn’t got my blog on top100 and no traffic also… useless in my opinion.

  21. 21

    Abdul Aziz

    May 5, 2007 at 12:26 am

    I too had gotten enticed by this scheme but thankfully dint fall for it

  22. 22

    The Thinking Blog

    May 5, 2007 at 1:38 am

    I don’t think Technorati will mind.. this “gaming” madness going on around the net allows people to discover and use “My Favorites” feature that few were using before!

  23. 23

    Jamdo

    May 30, 2007 at 9:54 am

    I am even starting to get emails from people asking me to favourite their blogs.

    Um… time to concentrate on a little good content, guys. ;)

  24. 24

    Webmaster Money

    July 30, 2007 at 5:33 pm

    Well interesting… I will try to put favourites link up and see :)

  25. 25

    http://business-india-news.blogspot.com

    October 9, 2007 at 7:50 pm

    i think these come out one or the other day. Also i have just started using technorati i am yet to explore it. But qwhy are many people here saying that its unworthy to bring traffic?

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