2 Days ago the whole Blogosphere was abuzz with news, information, and commentary on Technorati latest new feature called Technorati WTF. Then yesterday, all of a sudden the feature was no where to be found. Now, the feature is live again. WTF Technorati?
Although most Internet savvy people know the acronym to stand for “What The F-ck” (as used above) the Technorati version stands for “Where’s the fire”. The idea behind the product is to share what’s hot right now with other people, and these other people can then vote on what is most interesting to them. Sounds familiar? That’s because the new feature is essentially a re-branded version of Digg in Technorati’s clothing.
I have been playing with the feature for some time now but have yet to stumble upon any innovation. One has to wonder what Technorati was thinking when they decided to unveil a service that enters a marketplace already too crowded. With Digg.com the clear market leader, Netscape and Reddit fighting for second place, and a multitude of other very similar services nipping at their feet, what made them think there was room for one more?
As for the feature’s disappearing and reappearing act of the past two days, if done on purpose, was a brilliantly executed marketing ploy. They got the whole Blogosphere talking about a service without spending a dime marketing it.
Muhammad Saleem
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I don’t know about the market place being too crowded. Just because digg and reddit are currently the industry leaders, there is certainly room for improvement, as well as specialization. As you know, both digg and reddit tend to focus on certain subjects so if technorati manages to either be much more broad in spectrum or serve a different group of users, it will do just fine. Also, you never know when you’ll be able to knock off one of the top dogs until you try.
I think that it would have been better if WTF was really a pure copy of Digg embedded into Technorati. Actually, that would have been much better.
But the way it’s implemented now, there aren’t any benefits to actually participating. If you could get your blog post to get to the front page of Technorati, that would have meant something. But this weird combination of a blog/buzz/digg feature gives very little to the users.
When I first saw it, it looked interesting, but to be honest, I can’t stand browsing it. The whole site feels way to cluttered and confusing. Sure it’s a good idea, but it’s been done before — and better than this.