Thing 14: Technorati

My first thought when listening to the Podcast and hearing that Technorati was a way to search blogs for information was how authoritative information from blogs would be. While my first impression was "not very" authoritative, the more I thought about it, the information is not that different from much of what's out on the web. Also, I saw that there are authority ratings, which I guess are still fairly subjective and based on other user's responses or reactions to blogs and blog postings. I can relate this to my frequent use of TripAdvisor. Thru the years, I have come to trust certain TA members and immediately rule out others' opinions based on my history with them. In the end, it all boils down to how an individual trusts and views the information being presented to them.

I tried a few searches using Technorati. Some seemed very relevant, others not at all. Really not that different from a Google search-if the search terms meet a tag then it comes up as a source but often not at all in the context I had intended.

There is definitely a different result achieved in searching blogs vs. blog posts. I found the blog posts to be more relevant, but this is probably because the blog posts are more specific where the blogs themselves are very general, although there are blogs simply addressing one recurring topic or theme.