What Happened:
If you have been a blogger for any length of time, you are quite aware of the powerhouse that Technorati used to be. Over time, Google Blog Search and others ate at their market share. Their blog ranking system slowly began to fade out as time went past, and new features never seemed to crop up. Technorati then launched an advertising network, of which TechGeist is a member. They are now making this their focus in the coming months, leaving their own niche open for their the taking, if anyone wants it.
PostRank is moving into their old blog ranking niche, but not in the way that you would expect. Instead, they are releasing two API’s for developers to use. These API’s replicate, or improve on, anything that Technorati has had in the past. You have already seen these API’s in use, just take a look at the AdAge150. In a blog post aimed squarely at Technorati, PostRank has made these tools open for people to use. The central Technorati system is now nearly moot.
There are two API’s, the Feed Engagement API, and the Metrics API. The Engagement API focuses on the the ranking of whole blogs, while the Metrics API focuses on individual posts. More information about each specific API can be found here.
What We Think:
Power to the people. PostRank gives powerful tools to more people, something that we always applaud. Of course, Technorati is still no slouch in traffic or reach, but it seems that the die has been cast.
