blog tech: Technorati makes moves to releasing original content

Technorati, the well-known blog search engine, has had a bit of an identity crisis over the past few years, and now it seems as though that may go even further as it prepares to start releasing original content.

A few years ago Technorati was the king of the blogosphere with its popular blog search engine and ranking system that told you the relvancy of each site by stating its “authority”. As Google’s blog search improved, though, Technorati seemed to become less and less relevant to what was happening in the blogosphere, and people started to seem to care less about how their authority stood up on the site.

While the site seemed to continue to dwindle in importance, and was plagued by down time and bugs, the company decided to launch an advertising platform for bloggers with the promise that it would help them sell inventory no matter what size their site was. Well, it became obvious rather quickly that the only ad inventory being sold was remainders, and that led to an unending deluge of ‘lose weight now’-style ads that were making sites next to no money and, quite frankly, were not the most visually appealing ads.

Now it appears that Technorati is ready to try another tactic to bring people into the site once again: original content. According to TheNextWeb, Technorati has put out a call for bloggers to start submitting information about themselves, and what they would like to write about, for a new venture starting in October. Here is the invitation that went out to some writers:

Technorati is entering into the next phase of our evolution: original content.

Beginning in October, Technorati will feature original content on the site written by bloggers just like you! This is an amazing opportunity to give your writing vast exposure, become known as an expert in your field/s of interest, and to join a vibrant writer community.

Get in on the ground floor by signing up via the Technorati Contact Page.
Select the “New: Technorati Writer Signup” option from the “Message Type” drop-down box. You will receive information and writing instructions as we get closer to launch date.

We very much look forward to working with you!

When people visit the contact page, this is what they see:

If you are interested in publishing your articles on any of Technorati’s channels, please include a link to your blog (or your writing samples) in the URL field. In the message, be sure to mention your areas of interest and any other nuggets about yourself you want to share. In the coming weeks you will receive additional information from Technorati’s editors.

When we visited the page at 12:30 CST today, the message is now gone, but it is unlikely that this means anything that significant.

So what is Technorati planning exactly? Will this be something like About.com? Mahalo.com? AssociatedContent.com? Who knows. At this point it’s anyones guess, but the big question is how this will factor into the site’s existing business structure. Will it give up on search in lieu of going to all original content?

Only time will tell where exactly this is going.