I was hoping that the changing of the guard at Technorati would mean that the company would learn to become somewhat humble. Early signs say that isn’t the case. In a Wired interview, incoming CEO Richard Jalichandra did note that the company has some challenges ahead (in reality, the only challenge is to find a buyer, fast).
But he also describes Techmeme, which has a single employee, never raised capital and yet has beaten Technorati at everything it has chosen to do, merely as “a great little site.” He also says Techmeme is not nearly as embedded in the blog community as Technorati:
WN: What’s your take on TechMeme’s leaderboard?
RJ: It’s a great little site and there are a lot of cool things on there, but when I look at the assets we’re sitting on it’s clear that we’re doing something different. They don’t track 100 million blogs and they’re not nearly as embedded in blog community. There’s nothing wrong with that, but in terms of how deep we can go, I feel like we’re in a pretty good place.
Jalichandra may learn the hard way that belittling competitors doesn’t create loads of goodwill for his company. He would be far better off simply stating the truth: that Technorati managed to burn through $20 million in capital and has created little more than the second most popular blog search engine after Google blogsearch (and with how quickly Google is indexing blogs and other news sites, many loyal blog searchers simply search google.com today anyway). They missed huge opportunities - Techmeme (rapidly passionate readers), MyBlogLog (social network around blogs) and Sphere’s related search product (stole Technorati partners like WSJ and Washington Post) are all opportunities that Technorati just plain missed, and shouldn’t have. All of those “great little companies” could have added up to one big company, and Technorati could have been it.
So what is Jalichandra going to focus on as CEO (the real answer is selling the company, but he can’t say that). Here’s his answer:
WN: What can we expect to see from Technorati in the next year with you at the helm?
RJ: We’re really centered on trying to create a wholly unique media experience and improving our properties. Our big thing is going to be working on the advertising side of things to connect brands to the idea of global conversation that we strive for. Most of the opportunities and initiatives we’ve got coming up are going to address those two things.
He’s going to create a “wholly unique media experience,” improve their properties and focus on advertising. That could be inspiring, I guess, if I knew what the hell it meant. Sounds like big company marketing gibberish to me.
On a related note, here’s a juicy rumor that’s been floating around London this week at the Future of Web Apps Conference: In late 2005 Technorati may have turned down a $90 million acquisition offer, demanding $150 million instead. Needless to say, the potential acquiror came to its senses and declined.
Update: Jalichandra responds in the comments:
Mike,
Wow. You really jumped on that/me! First, I must state categorically that when I said that — and you obviously can’t hear the intonation — I stated my admiration for Techmeme genuinely, and in direct response to a question about Techmeme. I truly like the site, and I liked it before I joined Technorati. That said, I see how in print that my admiration gets taken out of context. All I was trying to point out is that our sites and businesses are different — not better or worse, but just different. Anyway, I’d love to meet you in person, so that you’d understand exactly my perspective, and realize I’m not the kind of guy who belittles anyone’s significant accomplishments. Please feel free to drop me a line. best, richard
My response.
See all
Post
WUME
As Marshall noted on Twitter - it wasn’t that great of an interview. Personally I would have rather heard, “we are going to fix the tracking, authority, and customer service issues we have first” - for example… I sent an email to them last week and their auto reply included the following:
“If you don’t hear back from anyone within a week, please accept our apologies for the delay as we may be experiencing a backlog in Support. Please feel free to send us a reminder of your ticket.”
If we don’t do our job, just keep tapping us to get us to move. Technorati’s authority ranking might actually be worse today than using Alexa to validate a site.
Allen - what does WUME mean? I’m obviously not with it.
“wholly unique media experience,”
you said it sounded like marketing lingo so I gave you the abbreviation they use in the pr firm
so attempts to create a wholly unique media experience are so common that the term has an acronym? God we need a downturn. If Kevin Rose ever says he wants to create a WUME, I’m quitting.
Ha ha, this thread is like one of those on a blog - a WUBE!
Mike,
Wow. You really jumped on that/me! First, I must state categorically that when I said that — and you obviously can’t hear the intonation — I stated my admiration for Techmeme genuinely, and in direct response to a question about Techmeme. I truly like the site, and I liked it before I joined Technorati. That said, I see how in print that my admiration gets taken out of context. All I was trying to point out is that our sites and businesses are different — not better or worse, but just different. Anyway, I’d love to meet you in person, so that you’d understand exactly my perspective, and realize I’m not the kind of guy who belittles anyone’s significant accomplishments. Please feel free to drop me a line. best, richard
I don’t think Richard really said anything wrong.
The bigger issue is that Technorati is, categorically, not a great little site. It’s a big, bloated mess that ceased to be functional for its core audience years ago.
By your own admission, it *is* a little site being run by one guy. Everything else he said in that quote seemed like a complement to me. Your personal opinion of Technorati seems to be coloring your comments to the negative without much to back it up.
Looks like a very harsh commentary. If taken out of context I can see that it can be construed as a negative comment against techmeme but reading the subsequent lines, I don’t think that was his intention. I agree with the rest of the commentary on not having a clear view of what he is going to focus on next for Technorati.
Richard,
I can’t argue over your intended meaning, just what I interpreted your response to mean. Techmeme may be “little” in terms of page views but it has major influence over what bloggers and mainstream journalists write about. Find me a technology writer who doesn’t visit it multiple times a day and I’d be very surprised.
I also think the doublespeak in the last paragraph isn’t the right approach. I’m betting it comes from media training at big companies (I know because I’ve been through media training multiple times), but it just doesn’t communicate anything at all. Technorati has a reputation for being overly secretive, so perhaps I’m more sensitive to it than I would be otherwise.
Dave Sifry invited me in to the Technorati offices a year ago, without saying what the meeting was about. I showed up with a student intern and a camera. They were not happy I didn’t come alone, asked us both to sign NDAs (we didn’t) and asked us not to take any pictures while we were there. That just isn’t a community-building way of doing things, and I hope you throw out all of those policies.
Anyway, if you really feel the way you do in your comment above, then Technorati hired the right guy and I apologize for my misinterpretation. Thanks for the comment.
Hmmm - if you look at our historical coverage of Technorati, it went from very positive to, over time, very negative. At some point the company just sort of derailed. Huge 180 degree strategic changes without any explanation. Key employees bailing out. SEO tricks that drove traffic way up, and they were boasting about it. So my opinion is colored by my experiencing all of that.
http://www.techcrunch.com/tag/technorati
Still, as I say above, perhaps I misinterpreted Richard’s comments. I am more than happy to give them the benefit of the doubt, and will gladly support them if they do a couple of things to earn that support.
Sorry Mike, I don’t see a problem with the interview. But to me, it seems you are starting to lose your objectivity in reporting some of these stories. Your personal affiliations and opinions are overly influencing what you say to the point that sometimes, what you have written is unfair or just plain wrong (I am remember the whole “red face racist” incident in particular). This seems to be more frequent these days.
I’m not suggesting you lose your opinion, after all this is what makes reporting interesting, but keeping it balanced. Btw, I love the site and I’m a long time reader.
“…here’s a juicy rumor that’s been floating around… In late 2005 Technorati may have turned down a $90 million acquisition offer, demanding $150 million instead…”
MA, why stop there?? I’m obviously not with it either. Who was the potential buyer? Go ahead, it’s okay. We won’t tell.
John - you really think the payperpost red face video was a reasonable thing to do? Perhaps we just have different opinons on things. I never strive to be balanced. I just strive to be correct. When it turns out that I’m wrong, I admit it (see my Ning R.I.P. follow ups).
MA is giving two big thumbs down to Technorati.
MA,
I have been following Tech Cruch for quite long. From what I read in the quotes, I too would like to voice the opinion that we should not dig too deep into what Richard’s statements.
But that is just my opinion, of course.
I believe this post is a repeat, or may be I read it on some other site.
http://vidsonly.blogspot.com
Making a big story out of a small comment has already happened several times in Techcrunch, but I must say that it brings up interesting discussions such as the one above.
Technically, Techmeme is little, in terms of it having only four “pages”: the front page, the river, the archives, and now the leaderboard. That’s not a criticism by any means.
This company is a dog and there is absolutely no business model. And this guy is not equipped to build a business. He has zero track record. This was always a bubble company.
Mike, I thought the “red face” video by payperpost was incredibly stupid, in fact so stupid it speaks for itself. The part I didn’t agree with was the fact that you went so far as to suggest they were acting in a racist manner by linking an article that was not directly related to the incident to reinforce your statement. I know you were careful with your words and did not go so far as to “call” them racist, but you certainly insinuated it (I’m sure you were a great lawyer). But this is where I feel you crossed a line by going just a little too far with pushing the hot buttons. It just felt like a cheap shot, and claims of racism are not something to be thrown around lightly. For the record, I don’t even like those guys or their business.
I like it too!
We agreed? WOW!
Michael, given the amount of coverage you’ve been giving TechMeme, along with some bullish comments about it over it’s rivals… I hope you don’t mind me asking whether I can confirm you hold no financial interest (or otherwise) in the company?
I know that Gabe, who’s a mutual friend, was previously a tenant/similar of yours at the ‘TechCrunch Ranch’ which is why I ask. It would be really useful, I think, just to get your position confirmed.
Thanks
Simon, I presume you’re referring to Technorati, not to TechMeme or TechCrunch?
sick-em michael
@Ben Metcalfe,
since he said “which has a single employee, never raised capital”, I highly doubt, that he has some sort of financial interest in the company.
Besides that, I’m not a huge fan of Technorati either, but that’s mostly because they are not indexing my site correctly
Ben - all of my ownership positions are listed on our about page. As much as I would like to own part of (or all of) Techmeme, I have no financial interest in the company. I think Gabe kicks ass though, and he has occasionally dogsat for Laguna, but not recently.
My problem with technorati is innovation. They had a nice service that fulfilled a need when blogs were first getting popular, since they were the first good service they became popular. Then, they never really changed anything except the occasional page layout, but nothing that adds value.
Like you said, the main reason their service is lacking is because anyone can just do a regular google search and expect to see blog posts on the first page. This dilutes the need for specialized blog search tools and unless they add more services/features their site will suffer. Everyone knows this and that is why they are not being bought.
@Michael
Hey, thanks for confirming. I won’t hold dog sitting as a benefit in kind!
J
Richard did nothing to belittle Techmeme and he only is kissing up to you now because of your influence.
John is 100% right about you often appearing to lose your objectivity. It actually seems like several posts on this site are editorial opinions rather than good objective journalism.
What is this site intended to be? A good place to get well founded articles on Web technology companies or a place for you and your other writers to air your opinions?
How about setting expectations for your readers and your company!
fred - I addressed this in #14 above.
It actually seems like several posts on this site are editorial opinions rather than good objective journalism.
What is this site intended to be? A good place to get well founded articles on Web technology companies or a place for you and your other writers to air your opinions?
well, it’s a blog. it’s a mixture of opinion and fact. If I get the facts wrong I correct them. Opinions are, well, opinions. If the site doesn’t resonate with you, there are lots and lots of other places to go.
WRT whether or not Richard belittled techmeme, you are absolutely entitled to your opinion. You should go write a blog with those opinions.
Andrew, Tech Meme and Technorati have weak business models. Tech Crunch is just an overblown message board.
This is why I do interviews by email
Still, I agree with Mike that Technorati lost it. I even remember telling people about Technorati when I first got interested in blogging. What happened?
Word got out that Google gave better rank to blogs, remember that SEO contest for the gibberish word? The guy that won simply used a blog. So blogs ranked better in the main SERPs, and they added the blog search. Plus now you got Techmeme, Digg, and I’m sure even Netscape’s front page distracted people from Technorati.
Then Technorati came out with a “cool” rounded-corners homepage with reading recommendations, I didn’t like the recommendations. And no matter how many times you try, you will never be my “homepage”. Like most sane people I prefer a blank screen when I open my browser.
They had a feature that showed who was linking to your blog, which was cool at first, until the Wordpress dashboard (by default) listed recent inbound links.
public function techcrunchpost($author = ‘Michael Arrington’)
{
$this->post->get_inflammatory_opinion($author);
$this->comments->glib_damage_control();
$this->post->do_body_update(false);
}
yongfook: indent those curly braces NOW, mister! You just opened up a world of pain.
Looks like that WP dashboard list is pulled from Technorati, I never noticed until just now
Wow, finally a CEO that is willing to say what he wants
Am I the only one who wonders if technorati actually works?? Richard, if you’re reading this thread, note that the consistent take among people I know is that the fundamental tech is not being maintained; too many times sites come up with no link, with links that stop at 48 hours old etc. etc. Does Technorati Mobile work yet?
If I had been handed the problem, I’d say that job #1 is to make the core site functionality - function. We need a good blog indexing tool that isn’t Google, and we need the link and network maps that something like Technorati can provide. I wish them well,and hope they can get their heads screwed on and deliver.
Marc D.
MA … opinions are good. Keep them coming. As you said, after all it is a blog. I support you even when I do not agree.
Sorry .. no comments on either of these companies from me
Thx for the dogsitting disclosure statement, which I assume has been signed by you, Gabe, and Laguna the Wonder Dog. I’m a huge fan of Techmeme, but I bet Gabe would agree that the scale vs Technorati makes these projects very different. That’s part of the appeal of TechMeme - it’s created a very web savvy tech community.
*
The smart buyer might buy both and find a way to bundle these services, using TechMeme’s clever algorithm to rank *all* the technoratic blogs in various ways.
*
Mike maybe that’s part of what you can do with the $100,000,000.00 that Bill Blodget’s going to pony up for TechCrunch….
Dude… you sound like a jilted lover…
“Dave Sifry invited me in to the Technorati offices a year ago, without saying what the meeting was about. I showed up with a student intern and a camera. They were not happy I didn’t come alone, asked us both to sign NDAs (we didn’t) and asked us not to take any pictures while we were there.”
… and you sound like a guy who holds a healthy grudge. Is this really the best / healthiest way to wield the power of the pen?
You guys are #1 on the linked list, no wonder you think that.
Guys, you’re not going to believe this. I just heard that Hulu is offering their employees free bagels for breakfast. Will their blatant ripoffs of Google never cease?! Michael, I’m sure you are as outraged as I am.
“We’re really centered on trying to create a wholly unique media experience and improving our properties. Our big thing is going to be working on the advertising side of things to connect brands to the idea of global conversation that we strive for.”
Ye Gads…..
I have always found Technorati to be worthless. The search results are a joke.
That would be in the US/UK, in the rest of the world (at least Spanish), TechMeme has no presence.
We novices are very happy with technorati since we will never be featured on techmeme
Come to think of it there are plenty of “bloggers/people” searching for really novice stuff so there must be novice blogs to cater them right ?
Tech For Novices
Mike - I didn’t read any “belittling” going on here. I’m with others above who think your bias for a friend is showing here. Techmeme for all its strengths doesn’t compete against Technorati — at least in scope. Technorati is much more broad. Perhaps that is its weakness because it tries to be the google of feeds and consistently fails due to scaling woes mostly.
This takes nothing away from Techmeme, but I think even Gabe would be hardpressed to seriously compare the two services. That’s not belittling, that’s a fact.
And please start using a different picture of Richard Jalichandra. Dude looks like he spent too much time baking at a tanning salon with one of those fake yuppie tans.
Techmeme rocks all the way.