Evel Knievel has left the stadium

Just read this on Jalopnik.

Alas, Evel Knievel is gone. He definitely lit up the imagination of a pre-teen. Jumping buses, jumping sharks, jumping ridiculous distances, obstacles and natural phenomena.

Who amongst us would seek fame and accept such a personal, physical price. Very few, I expect.

Hope that last big jump landed.

EVEL KNIEVEL DAREDEVIL TRIBUTE 1938-2007

Technorati Tags: Fame,
Faith,
Glory,
Evel Knievel,
Robert Craig

American Pie

I don't blog often. I try to make each post something worth reading. This one brings together a visual interpretation of Don McLean's American Pie and the fact that I was turned onto this by my father-in-law.

Sent to me by a friend of mine..thought you might enjoy it.

Subject: FW: American Pie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ycgegp0KdE4

And I did.

Technorati Tags: American Pie

Customizing the Technorati Link Count Widget

Matt over at pixelspread talks about how to customize the look and feel of the Technorati Link Count widget. He does a nice job of making the result match the look and feel of his blog.




Oh, and since, at the time of this writing, no one had linked to the post, I thought I would to watch it change.

I use the widget on my posts. Most of them have no link love :(

Technorati Tags: Link Count Widget

Universal search comparison, explanation, and SEO challenges

It's a bit of a long read, but worth it if you want to understand the differences and similarities amongst Google Universal Search, Ask 3D, Yahoo!, and Microsoft Live.

Lee Odden of Online Marketing Blog writes about it.

Small Business Guide To Optimizing Universal Search

At the end, Lee talks about new challenges in SEO to help optimize for universal search. Particularly intereszting are the comments about embedding video and images about product launches with relevant text, descriptions, and keywords or tags to help bump the product into multiple universal search opportunities.

Technorati Tags: SEO,
Universal Search,
Marketing

Use Technorati, It’s A Real Lifesaver

Well, that's the conclusion by Michael Sotia in How Technorati Provides Useful Blog Content.

You should certainly claim your blog, upload your photo, so it will show up next to your posts in search results, mark your Favorite blogs and check out our widgets.

Thanks for the tips Michael.

Tags: Technorati

Pitzer College's YouTube Class

Ok, I graduated from Pitzer.


I can't tell if this is a great sign of the times or something I should be embarassed about. Well, I'm going to stick with my optimistic streak and say, "this is pretty darn cool".

Pitzer College's YouTube Class

YouTube 101
Midterm: Mentos+Coke vid
Final: LonelyGirl.

YouTube Studies

Tags: Pitzer

Introducing Technorati Topics

Technorati collects millions of blog posts every day — too many for the average human being to even try to track. As a Technorati power user, I've been fascinated by just how much I can find out using Technorati Search. If you're like me and you know how to construct just the right search, you can winnow the results to just what you are looking for.

That being said, I've read a lot of great feedback on Technorati, how we should organize the vastness of the blogosphere and help people find the good stuff and help great bloggers be found. In particular, I read a lot of blog posts asking us to build what bloggers want. Well, today we are releasing a major overhaul of the Technorati Home page and a completely new area of the site that emphasizes blogs, Technorati Topics. With Topics, we help you discover what bloggers are writing about in Entertainment, Technology, Politics, Sports, Business, and Life.

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 am very proud of what the team has put together over the summer. We continue to work on search, stability, and performance and we're listening to what you have to say about Technorati. I want you to know we really appreciate all that every blogger has to say. Today's release is just a first step. There is a lot more we have up our sleeves, so stay tuned for what's coming next and come back often.

I welcome your feedback and input, so, please, join the discussion about Technorati.

Technorati Tags: Technorati Topics

Another call out to Technorati - another chance to deliver

In Technorati - Why Crossing The Chasm Is Not Always a Good Idea, ExperienceCurve discusses how crossing the chasm may have its downside. Well, Techorati is still a young company. We have 30 great people, have accomplished much, are still alive today, and are ready to re-engage with the people that look to us to help make sense of the blogosphere.

As I said in my comments on the post above, "Personally, I'm bullish on Technorati :)". And why shouldn't I be. Great people have created incredible potential that Technorati now sits in the midst of. Our own employees, the bloggers who have stuck with us, and all of the blogosphere that continues to grow and react every day.

All I can say is, stay tuned, the best is yet to come.

Technorati Tags:
Technorati,
Feedback

iPhone fever and people blogging about 'em

Well, people seem to like blogging about the iPhone.

Posts that contain Iphone per day for the last 180 days.

Get your own chart!

Technorati Tags: iPhone

Super Sonic Technorati - It's the SST

We just launched, not one, but two sites. This has been in the works for a while, but it has been absolutely amazing how the team has cranked, raised the bar, and changed direction only to make things even better. It's like you tell them, "We will now climb this mountain.", and they look at me and say, "No, we should MOVE this mountain! We should totally f***in' move it!". And then, they do.

AwesomRati!

Dave Sifry talks about it here and here.

The new Technorati site


.

And the Smokin' search.technorati.com or s.technorati.com if you want to save some typing. Get ready to be blown away.




Check out the speed, it's SuperSonicTechnorati



And you can always read what Scoble has to say :)

A bit of banter with Beth - back and forth

Beth has some nice things to say about the Technorati changes here -> Technorati’s Update: And They Know EVERYTHING About Me?.

And you have to check out the pretty shade of blue juxtaposed with the shiny green of her newly configured Technorati Authority widget.

Technorati Tags: AFrogToKiss

Technorati Authority and some cosmetic improvements

Some good feedback on our new Blog page and People pages. It's great to read good things and we have a lot more in store for May. Stay tuned. Also some comments about Technorati Authority.

Technorati Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has.

It is important to note that we measure the number of blogs, rather than the number of links. So, if I link to your blog many times, I still only count as +1 toward your authority. Of course, new links mean my +1 will last another 180 days.

Technorati Rank is calculated based on how far you are from the top as
expressed by the number of blogs linking to you. Since at the lower
end of the scale many blogs will have the same Technorati Authority, they will share the same Technorati Rank.

As of this writing, my blog has 16 inbound blogs, thus my Technorati Authority is 16. I'm sure there are many other blogs with 16 inbound blogs and we all have the same Technorati Rank.


Dorion
Authority: 16 · Rank: 305,316

so, I'm 305,316 steps from the top of the charts, based on 16 blogs pointing to me.



Technorati Displays New Authority Ranking by Ben Yoskovitz.

Technorati switches number of links for authority by FranticIndustries.

Technorati Establishes an ‘Authority’ Ranking System and Gets a New Look by doshdosh.

doshdosh also points out the Technorati WTF you can vote for, it you like.


Technorati Gains Authority Especially with the MyBlogLog Faithful by parislemon.

Technorati Tags: TechnoratiAuthority


Update:

I've posted the definitions to the Technorati Weblog under Technorati Authority and Rank.

New Technorati People / Profile pages

Marketing Pilgrim talks about some of our new pages. We've got a lot in store, but want to make things better as soon as they are ready.

Check out the new People pages, like mine.

You can also see the new and improved blog page.

Hope you like it and keep the feedback coming.

Technorati Tags: People,
Technorati Launches

Digg This: 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

AWESOME!

You gotta admit, he's trying to walk a fine line. +1 for the community.

Technorati Tags: Digg,
KevinRose,
DRM

Sometimes you just haveta

I just have to link to a blog that installs Technorati widgets, including the Authority Widget, when he doesn't even have any links.

Metricks World, gotta like the title.

Technorati Tags: Widget,
AuthorityWidget,
TechnoratiAuthorityWidget,
GottaLink

The funniest thing I've read - EVER!

OMFG! ROTFL! I think my stomach is going explode.

I stumbled onto it while checking my Twitter stream. Lucky for me, twitter has been so broken I still had twitters from 3 days ago at the top of my list.

Adam had twittered, "Lindsay just sent me this: http://www.thewvsr.com/adsv... -- what a hoot!"

I followed the link, oh ok, here it is. Interesting, but not funny. maybe a little scary.

I looked through all the pictures and, on a whim, clicked on one of the links at the bottom, Fast Food Reviews. Well, the first few got me into Jeff Kay's writing style. By the time I got to KFC, it was the sheer pleasure of laughter so hard it hurt. It hurt BAAAD.

I cruised around a few more, KFC Bowl, following on the KFC theme. Here's an excerpt:

"My stomach sank. It appeared to have already been eaten at least once. It looked like a pipin’ hot bowl of vomit.


But, of course, I ate it anyway. And it was good, really good."

Well, I think I'll spend some more quality time reading The West Virgina Surf Report. Thanks, Jeff.

Technorati Tags: WVSR,
The WVSR,
ROTFL,
Humor,
Humour,
KFC.

Doppleganger - Never thought it possible

Just found (maybe) someone, not only with my same name, but they live in SF. Weirdest of all, their last login date is my birthday ?!

Dorion Carroll, or is it?

Personal Bee to add new social media features to Technorati

Dave Sifry announces the acquisition of The Personal Bee by Technorati.

We've been working hard at Technorati on a number of things, making our Blog Search faster, more comprehensive, and easier to use, increasing all the great media available in our Tag pages, and now we'll have even more great things to incorporate as we continue to advance our offerings.

We've been working with the guys from the Bee for a bit now and they bring new perspective, ideas, energy, talent, and technology.

I'm really looking forward to great things in the weeks and months ahead.

Welcome, Personal Bee.

Technorati Tags: Personal Bee, Technorati Acquisition

Update: Computer World writes Blog search engine Technorati buys Personal Bee - Customized news and entertainment site to boost 'real-time Web' plans

April 06, 2007 - A visit from Justin

We had a few special guests at the Technorati Happy Hour today. We call it 4:15 Fridays.

I had a great time talking about stuff we can do for Music and Politics.

Most fun was I got to be on Justin.TV, proof is here. That's me talking to Michael. I'm not sure Justin is listening, but Michael and I had a great conversation.



Corey from IODA is in the background talking to Andrei and Stephen.

There is a bit about it at the blog.

Technorati Tags: Justin.TV, 4:15 Friday

Incidentally, I was having a burrito in South Park yesterday while Justin was being interviewed by NPR. Weird.

Technorati preparing for the next level

Dave Sifry, has posted several times this week sharing with the world just how far we have come in four years. I've been with Technorati for over 2 1/2 years and it's been a great ride so far with Dave providing awesome leadership, inspiration, and a technology foundtation we've been able to expand in many directions.

In Embracing Change, Dave talks about how he and the board have initiated the search for our next CEO. This person will have to be able to take us to the next level as a business. I am very proud of what we have accomplished. Traffic alone has grown almost 15X since I started. The number of employees hasn't even grown 3X. Talk about amazing things from amazing people.

The first 4 years have proven to me that Dave can get things started, grow them at a fantastic rate, and hire industry talent that gets things done. I love being counted in that group and thank Dave for helping me grow with Technorati.

In classic Sifry openness, he is sharing with all of you what he wants us to become and that, if there is someone out there who can grow us 15X or more again in the coming years, he wants that person on board yesterday.

Every day I think about how to make Technorati better, how to keep up our promise to Be of Service, how to scale the infrastructure and product. I also think about how to grow this business and continue to innovate. Dave has taught me that, not only is it ok to make mistakes, we should all be ready to make them - lots of them. You just have to fail fast and not make the same mistake twice. You have to be willing to trust in the people around you to either do the right thing or to make the wrong thing right quickly

Dave isn't going anywhere and I am stoked about where we are and where we are going. Onward to the next level!

Technorati Tags: Technorati, CEO, Technorati CEO, Goes to 11

Matt Sanchez and the sudden "spike"

It would seem that Matt Sanchez and this chart have something in common.

You can also see more about his relationship with Ann Coulter.

Technorati Tags:

Matt Sanchez, Ann Coulter

chart - courtesy of DJ

The WTF T-Shirts are in

Hooray! Just in time for SXSW. The WTF T-Shirts are in.

Technorati Tags: SXSW, Technorati, WTF, Dorion

Explode real time traffic stats

Explode gives you real time traffic reporting on how many times people are coming to your site.

Me like.



Technorati Tags: Explode, Stats

Explode - a new, open social network

Just signed up for Explode and have my very own URL, dorion.

The sign up process was pretty brutal. It should have been easy, but a number of things went wrong.

Explode sign-up seems simple enough, but it has a few catches.





Your name: is actually going to be your username. However, I entered my First Last name, which, with the space removal they snuck into the mix and grabbing the first letter of my last name, became the equivalent of, firstl. Now try to log in if you don't know that.

I check my email and find the message. Nicely addressed to me with my name as I entered it. No sign of the username they're hiding somewhere for me.



Now they sneak the username on me. They tell me I can change it, but, after a number of tries later on, I give up and regsiter again with "Your name" as "dorion".


Of course, they only let you register one account per email. It appears your email address is actually the unique identifier. So, I use a different email address and this one, of course, ends up having the spam filter trap the registration email. A few minutes later, I find the trapped email, deliver it, and I'm on my way.

I was able to configure the widget and get it on my blog. Not the prettiest thing in the world, but this is pretty raw stuff. It is a bit odd that every time I return to my home page it tells me about the widget, how to get the code and fill in my profile. I've done all that; why do they keep taunting me.



Well, I can already see some stats from my new widget on my blog. Sadly, all the traffic is me checking it out, but the data gets there pretty fast.

I'll have to check it out tomorrow to see what else I can discover.

Technorati Tags: Explode, eLGG.

Ready, set, go

Technorati Tags: Go

Tony vs Paul: Most amazing stop motion ever

Tony vs. Paul is awesome! Take the time to watch it and be amazed.

August says, "How do they do that?".

Technorati Tags: Tony vs Paul, Stop Motion, Tony Fiandaca, Paul Cummings

We're on fire, and I'm glad people get the joke

Yes, its is a TLA (Wikipedia), (Google define:), (UrbanDictionary) and, no, we didn't miss the point. I'm glad some people get the joke, but, more importantly, they like where we're going.

Thanks for the support.

Technorati Tags: WTF

Techorati's WTF Feature is a Great Idea

but don't take my word for it, Technology Evangelist says "Techorati's WTF Feature is a Great Idea"

Technorati Tags: WTF, Technorati-WTF

WTF w00t!

We just launched WTF (Where's the Fire). A great new feature that let's anyone help everyone else figure out Where's the Fire? for anything you know about.

We show a little fire icon next to Top Searches, in case you want to write a blurb about something that's super hot.

Here's how we talk about; hope you love it!

Where's the Fire? What's Hot and Why.

Ever wonder why something is sooooo popular? Or want the whole story without having to dig through a zillion blog posts looking for the hot video or juicy pictures? WTF tells what's hot — and why — and where the good stuff is. Vote for your favorite WTFs to help the community bubble up the best ones. Jump in!

Technorati Tags: WTF

Why didn't I think of this?

WebASS, the perfect combination.

Technorati Tags: WebASS

Now that's what I'm talkin' about

Technorati Holding Its Ground Against Google

Thanks, Ryan, I like those numbers.

Where I'm at

Behold ... Twitter.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Dorion

Liz is INSANE!

You said Neiman Marcus 3 times.

That's not why your are insane, though. No more shopping!?!? Are you out of your fucking mind? Well, yes, I guess that's what I'm saying.

Technorati Tags: LizDunn

Bill Katovsky kinda blows his own intro

<rant>

Over at the Huffington Post, Bill Katovsky opens with a little Technorati Top Search, end of year, foolery. You think he's going to play off the juxtaposition of Saddam and Britney, but No-o-o-o-o-o, he just takes several opportunities to dive head first into his own, narrow-minded, other people hatin', pile of manure.

Come on, comparing the Iraqi's initial attempts at the judiciary and executionary branches of government to Texas justice? The people of Iraq deserve better. They are conflicted, struggling, and, maybe it won't end well, but they don't deserve your comparison.

And, by the way, dude, what about Britney? If you wanted to talk about the top searches, you should have read my post first.

You never even go into the bizarre combination of people's morbid fascination with their, well, er, I guess, morbid fascination. Hang 'em or bang 'em? I don't know why people keep searching for Britney, but I'm sure they'll be doing it a lot more in '07 than searching for Saddam.

</rant>

Technorati Link Count Widget timing

In response to my last post, I decided to ping Technorati and see how quickly my link to Derek's post would show up in the Technorati index. That was, after all, part of his interest.



Well, this screenshot of a Tecnorati Cosmos search result shows that it was under 6 minutes. However, it took me a bit to run that search. So, seeing as I have a little advantage, I looked under the hood.

Post creating timestamp: 2007-01-02 10:31:23

Post indexing timestamp: 2007-01-02 10:32:12

Wow! that was fast! 49 seconds.

Technorati Tags: LinkCountWidget, Technorati, HiSpeed

Technorati Link Count Widget name

Derek, an interesting proposal. We thought long and hard about what to name the widget. Yes, it does count links. Bloggers who use Technorati are used to thinking of their link counts. Thus, we chose to name the widget for the target audience of bloggers.

However, the average blog reader may not understand what link counts are. Thus, Blog Reactions, which is what the posts that contain the links can be considered, is a better name for that group of readers.

So, we ended up with a "product name" that was aimed at the people who might see the value in installing the Link Count Widget and text that was aimed at the majority of people who might be enticed to click through and see the reactions to the post they were reading by other bloggers.

Technorati Tags: LinkCountWidget, Technorati

Hey this blogging thing is fun

I think I'll do a lot more of it in 2007. :)

Very cool OpenID use with commenting

I just posted a comment on a sad, but heart-felt post, footsteps, and livejournal asked me to authenticate. I selected OpenID and used my Technorati Profile. One click later on my "Authenticate your Identity" page and my comment had posted. You see, Technorati is an identity provider so every Technorati member has an open id.

Pretty cool. Amazingly simple.

Technorati Tags: OpenID