Confession of a Technorati Junkie

(UPDATE SEPT. 28: Technorati is back online – whew!)

I’ve already admitted to being a Furl Junkie, although so far I seem to have escaped becoming a Blogaholic. Well, over the weekend I just realized I have fallen victim to another online addiction popular among bloggers: I’m definitely a Technorati junkie, too.

Technorati is a key tool for ego surfing. (Yes, I have an ego – imagine that!) Basically, it’s an easy way for bloggers to find out which other blogs are linking to them or talking about them.

When it works, it’s great. Technorati has had its functional bugs here and there, but the service is so useful I haven’t minded them much. Then, last Friday, disaster struck…

The physical world intervened unforgiveably on the blogosphere – Technorati’s main colocation center was felled by an electrical fire. Yesterday, Technorati founder David Sifry explained what happened. They’re working to recover from this situation.

In the meantime, I find myself still compulsively checking my Technorati watchlist for CONTENTIOUS a few times daily – even though I know it’s unlikely the service will be back up any sooner than the next few days. The withdrawal symptoms are intense.

Like many bloggers I feel an intense perpetual craving to know who’s linking to my blog, and Technorati casts a wider net than direct trackbacks. I hadn’t realized how integral Technorati had become to my “blogging sonar” until it was out for awhile. I feel so isolated! This is truly embarrassing….

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This entry was written by Amy Gahran and posted on September 27, 2004 at 10:24 am and filed under Resources, Voices: Blogs, etc.. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Comments are closed, but you can leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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3 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

So far, I completely fail to see the attraction of blogs. And it’s not as if I haven’t tried, I’ve checked out a few, and have installed a ‘feed reader’ on my pc at home. And I’ve even used it a bit. But to be honest, the whole thing leaves me cold. I’m a content editor for a government site (amongst other things) and contentious in particular is great. But, I can’t help thinking that blogs are only of interest / use to the people who write them. (I’d love someone to prove me wrong, by the way!) ‘Future of online journalism, or pointless vanity publishing - the latest incarnation of geocities’ , well time will tell.

[Reply]

1. Dave on September 28th, 2004 at 10:44 am
It is so true that a blogger tends to check out who’s linking to his/her blog and so on. I guess that every blogger has a feeling of being watched by someone else and of course, would like to find out exactly who.

[Reply]

2. Clair on September 28th, 2004 at 2:20 am
I have to confess that I too am a technorati junkie! I hope it is back online soon b/c I am going through withdrawals :%

[Reply]

3. Jason on September 28th, 2004 at 1:03 am