Technorati: tracker of the blogosphere, or its shaper?
Technorati calls itself “the world's leading authority on what's happening in the world of audience-generated media”, based on its tracking of millions of blogs in near real-time. Technorati’s current collaborations with a movie company, a PR firm and the Associated Press, however, beg the question: is Technorati merely tracking blogging activity, or is it shaping it.
Technorati has an 18-month cross-promotional deal with Paramount Classics. According to Sys-Con Media:
Paramount Classics Strikes Deal With Technorati to Embrace Bloggers, Build Buzz Around New Movies…By directly engaging the growing population of vocal and independent film mavens, Paramount Classics moves movie marketing beyond the usual print and broadcast promotional vehicles, and into the live marketplace.
Paramount Classics will create a page on each of its film sites with up- to-the moment blog posts about the film…Additionally, Paramount will place a range of ads on Technorati.com and select Technorati media partners that promote blogger conversation for each of its films over the eighteen months.
Technorati has inked a deal with the Associated Press to tie AP news stories to the blogosphere:
Technorati…will provide links to blogs that cite AP stories…Technorati will search blogs for postings that include links to AP stories. Links to those postings will be available along with the original AP stories on 440 member Web sites served by AP Hosted News, a service that uses AP servers to display AP content on member sites. There also will be a box featuring the "Top Five Most Blogged About" AP stories. Clicking on the links takes the reader to a Technorati page listing the relevant blogs. Revenue from ads on the page will be shared by Technorati and the AP, but the revenue is not expected to cover more than the cost of the project…Web sites that keep AP content on their own servers are not part of the program...Sites with AP hosted content also may opt out if they wish.
Earlier this week, Technorati announced a deal to collaborate with the Edelman PR firm to jointly develop international applications “to listen to and engage the blogosphere…to move away from one-way, command and control marketing towards the conversational era.”
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