Monday, November 16, 2009

Technorati top Religious Blogs (if anyone still cares?)

For some time now, Technorati has been a bit of a byword among blog ranking services: slow, erratic, past its best etc., with the only possible advantage being that it shows who's linked to your blog in the last 90 days or so (contrast with Alexa, which purports to show 'links in' but may as well show the recipe for Crab and Toenail soup for all the accuracy this has).

(Update: judging by the comments, the days of being a byword are far from over!)

In October '09, they did a big reorganisation: gone went the old 'authority' (= the total number of sites linking to you in the last 90 days), there's now a new ranking out of 1000, a bit like the cricket international player stats, based on number and relevance of links in.

Even cuter, you get a different 'authority' within any subcategories your blog falls into. I'm enjoying the moment of being in the top 35 'Religion' blogs, which probably won't last, as they continue to update the lists and include more of the many blogs which really should be in this category but haven't found their way there yet.

For the record, the current top 10*, which will certainly broaden my reading, is:
1. What does the prayer really say? Catholic priest, prolific - does he do this full time?
2. Tim Challies
3. Jesus Creed (Scot McKnight at Beliefnet)
4. Catholic Exchange which looks more like an online magazine than a blog, but plenty there.
5. Albert Mohler
6. The Catholic Key which has a fascinating post on the RC proposal to admit disaffected Anglicans. The gap between Rome's "Here is what you requested" and Anglicanism's "Is this what I was asking for?" is huge. The gap is between Rome's offer of an Anglican expression of Catholicism and Anglicanism's hope for a Catholic blessing of Anglicanism.
7. The Resurgence looks to be lots of good stuff there.
8. Against Heresies the spirit of Irenaeus (it was him, wasn't it?) lives on in Martin Downes blog. Lots of theology.
9. Pyromaniacs espresso evangelicalism. No, make that Turkish. Love the graphics.
10. TitusOneNine.

All US and Catholic blogs, as far as I can tell. I imagine there may be a lot of flux as things settle down.

*the listing seems to be quite dynamic - I drafted this on Sunday evening, and by Monday morning it had changed, so the top 10 might be quite different once you read this!

10 comments:

  1. Mouse still doesn't really trust Technorati. Since they changed the system Mouse has flat-lined on an authority of 1, and shows no incoming links at all. Mouse can't quite be bothered just yet to figure out what's wrong.

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  2. Pharyngula appears to be 20.

    Mouse, I think David is posting about it because his site is 33 in the list !

    Matt

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  3. surely not? I'm shocked you could think such a thing Matt!

    Pharyngula was top a few weeks ago.

    Mouse - it's nothing personal, lots of people are still complaining about this on the site, to which their answer is 'we're working as fast as we can'. I'm not sure what I've done to get my new 'authority' worked out before most other UK bloggers, but I'll enjoy it whilst it lasts!

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  4. Been checking on some poliblogs.

    Technorati is all over the place.

    FAIL.

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  5. I've been having the same kind of experience as Mouse on Technorati. The first week after their rejigger I checked out a few major blogs and they all showed as 1. So, I'm not quite sure what they're doing as fast as they can, but I'm somewhat losing faith in technorati....

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  6. I don't know if my opinion is worth anything, but I stopped worrying about Technorati 15 months ago :-) when they stopped checking my feed.

    I'll give them a new chance after the current disorganisation - in a couple of months.

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  7. It seems to be working better than before, so that it's finding updated posts quicker. My authority is in the 400s, which would put me at #239 in the religion list but I'm not listed in it!

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  8. Gary - your authority in 'religion' will be higher than your general authority, as and when they sort it out. Mine was like that for a few weeks too, they didn't seem to have anyone whose authority lay between 1 and 520!

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  9. I think it is important that Anglicans considering full union with the See of Peter spiritually prepare themselves by fully exploring the importance of the Eucharist. May I recommend Abbot Vonier's 'Key to the Doctrine of the Eucharist' for those interested. It is not by coincidence that the liberal MP, Augustine Barrell recognised that for Catholics "it's the mass that counts".

    Once living eucharistically becomes one's bedrock, other difficulties become insignificant. Unity with Christ Jesus in the Eucharist overcomes all disunity. As a Catholic, the generosity of Pope Benedict in allowing Anglican and Latin tradition to become one in the Eucharist fills me with great joy and reminds me of the writings of St. Augustine:

    "The Eucharist is our daily bread. But let us so receive it as to be thereby refreshed, not in body merely but in mind. For the power which we know to be therein is the power of unity whereby we are brought into union with His body and become his members. Let us be what we receive. For then it will be truly our daily bread."

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  10. I showed as 1 for a couple of weeks after they changed it. Now they say my blog isn't listed at all – so I have no confidence in their ratings at all, compared to my limited confidence in other versions.

    Nonetheless, congrats on your majestic rise :)

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