Getting the blogroll links out of Technorati
Thu Sep 23 15:20:16 BST 2004 Permalink
Something that bugs me every time I use Technorati is the way
the listings get clogged up with blogroll links. I wouldn't mind
so much but they're usually the same links over and over again.
What i'd like is for those links to be displayed separately. I have in mind some kind of reverse blogroll box down the right hand side with the remaining entries listed pretty much as they are now.
I'm not sure what the best answer is to flagging blogroll links but a simple answer that occurs to me is to use a common CSS class name for example _linkdescriptor_blogroll. Any harvester which extracts a link with this class would know it's a blogroll link and could treat it differently.
I'd lead the way but I chopped my blogroll in the great purge. Maybe I should bring it back to try and bootstrap the idea. I could swap it for the calendar...
Update: In conversation Phil rebutted me saying it would be easier for Technorati to change their code to detect blogroll links than updating millions of weblogs. I guess he's right although I think the problem of reliably detecting a blogroll link may not be as simple as it sounds.
I also think there is a knowledge ownership perspective. As the blog holder I am the best person to decide how to mark up my information and links. And, by doing so, other applications than technorati can benefit (without having to duplicate Technorati's tricky heuristics for detecting every variation of a blogroll).
Although my way might be slower, I still think it could solve 80% of the problem in 6 months or so.
What i'd like is for those links to be displayed separately. I have in mind some kind of reverse blogroll box down the right hand side with the remaining entries listed pretty much as they are now.
I'm not sure what the best answer is to flagging blogroll links but a simple answer that occurs to me is to use a common CSS class name for example _linkdescriptor_blogroll. Any harvester which extracts a link with this class would know it's a blogroll link and could treat it differently.
I'd lead the way but I chopped my blogroll in the great purge. Maybe I should bring it back to try and bootstrap the idea. I could swap it for the calendar...
Update: In conversation Phil rebutted me saying it would be easier for Technorati to change their code to detect blogroll links than updating millions of weblogs. I guess he's right although I think the problem of reliably detecting a blogroll link may not be as simple as it sounds.
I also think there is a knowledge ownership perspective. As the blog holder I am the best person to decide how to mark up my information and links. And, by doing so, other applications than technorati can benefit (without having to duplicate Technorati's tricky heuristics for detecting every variation of a blogroll).
Although my way might be slower, I still think it could solve 80% of the problem in 6 months or so.