Last week I had a bit of a rant about pleasing Technorati, and how I don't seem to be able to break out of the current 41000 rank, despite continually blogging and linking. It raised a bit of a hackle for Technorati high-flyer, RT at Untwisted Vortex, and he asked his fans to add fairness to the system by linking, in some way shape or form, to The (well-written) Pisstakers.

Hari came straight out and added me to his blog roll, thanks. He is a funny guy as well as a tech head, so it is all good, relevant linking. Could it be time to hang on, as I shoot up, up and away through Technorati?

Unfortunately, I think Technorati were watching and my ranking has dropped again!

Is it essential for bloggers to play the Technorati game?

According to Technorati rules, the more links to your site from other websites, the more authoritative and valuable the blog. And if the blogs linking in to you are authoritative, whoa, you are heading for gold. Maybe that applies if you are a Technorati believer and not a skeptic?

I am a skeptic. Remember, Technorati is not about traffic, but what other bloggers think of the relevancy and authority of sites. How ironic that blog value and relevancy is based on the reactions of bloggers, a mere 20% of internet users

It is a bollocks undemocratic system, not what the internet is supposed to be about. Whatever happened to democracy where the opinions of 80% of internet surfers should dictate what is and isn't worthwhile?

If Technorati want to be taken seriously, and not become a political blog Oscar / A-lister love-in / blogger backscratching / gamed award, they need to open up their parameters to embrace the whole internet user base.

Technorati teetering.

For now, I am a technorati pariah, but I will stick to my instincts and do what I think is the right way to build the value of a blog. Therefore, in the course of my writing I will continue to link to blogs that have something to add to a story, regardless of whether they are a friend, a day old, A-listers or the antithesis of the Pisstakers blog niche.

This tactic may not generate zillions of Technorati brownie points from other bloggers "focused" on their niche to the exclusion of all others, or from bloggers loathe to backlink to The Pisstakers, (yuk what a horrible name!) but that is OK.

In the long run, I predict that one day, a new world view of blog values will develop, and I don't think the current Technorati algorithm will have much of a say as to whether The Pisstakers brand is worth diddly or squat to advertisers and peers!!

And of course, until the world becomes a more egalitarian ranking place, I will still call by Technorati to see how I am faring, or not!