The instructions for this exercise were to "Take a look at Technorati and try doing a keyword search for “Learning 2.0” in Blog posts, in tags, and in the Blog Directory. Are the results different?"
If I understood what I read about "refreshed Technorati" correctly, things have been streamlined so users don't have to know the difference between a keyword search, tag searches, and a blog directory search. Still, if a user wants to do a more sophisticated search, the "Advanced Search" option makes that possible.
In Advanced Search mode, I could search by keyword, Website URL, or Tag. Within the basic keyword search, the options included All of the Words, the Exact Phrase, At Least One of the Words, and None of the Words, and were also tied to search within specific places (All Blogs, My Favorites, Blogs About, and This Blog URL). Another link (search.technorati.com) was also available for limiting searches to blog posts.
I tried a few strategies in Advanced Search using the "Learning 2.0" term. In the blog directory, I got 9,478 hits. With All Words, I got 9,519 hits and with Exact Phrase, I got 895 hits. Searching "Learning 2.0" as a tag resulted in 1,142 hits. I also did some of the same searches just a minute or two later to see if the results would be different. It was no surprise to find that they were. Things change rapidly in the blogsphere!
Part two of the Technorati discovery exercises was to Explore popular blog, searches and tags. Is anything interesting or surprising in your results?
I did the exercise the day after the Democratic National Convention ended. I expected to see a lot about politics and that was true. Among the things "percolating in blogs now" were Barack Obama, John McCain, politics, and the Democratic National Convention. The top searches included some suprising (at least to me) terms: taskbar, news, environment, Jennifer Garner, men, cheat-codes, google, Paris Hilton, Jennifer Aniston, Vanessa Minnillo, Arab, Olympics, Kerry Howley, noelia, and IBM. I decided to check out "cheat-codes" because I wasn't sure what that meant. Now I know! Cheat codes are something gamers use to help them unlock the secrets to playing games.
As I explored the popular blogs, searches, and tags, I noticed that you can find the "Top 100 Blogs by fans" as well as the "Top 100 Blogs by authority." Top Videos, Top Movies, and Top News lists were also available.
Technorati is a good way to take the pulse of popular culture.
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