Technorati...

Browsing through the Technorati site proved to be an interesting experience. Prior to actually browsing through the Top 100 blogs, it helped to know that they weren't given a spot due to actual popularity. Blogs of all sizes and shapes, themes and topics, were on the list. If the ranking was based on actual interest and popularity on the part of web users, I think that the blogs would be of a different vein perhaps (i.e. more focused on current events, entertainment, travel, or back-to-basics living, perhaps). I then took a peek at the leading "authority" blogs on a variety of more specific subjects, including travel. Ranking of authority is related to the linking behavior and desirability of information on the blog, among other things. I found myself becoming lost in the written word of a woman camped out on a Caribbean Beach, allegedly "monkey-watching". I also found it interesting to actually see how and why tagging is used by many blog authors. One blog in particular that I follow quite regularly (Rosy Revolver's "Newfangled Rhetoric") will often have a handful of tags at the end of the post; now I realize that these are included to--hopefully--increase the traffic to her sight, as it is a vehicle to advertise her one-woman jewelry business, among other things. All in all, technorati was enjoyable to explore, though I don't think I'd use it much on a regular basis.