The Blog 500 Challenge

Jason Calacanis is taking Technorati to task on the methodology it uses to create the Technorati 100.  In fact, he’s willing to put cold hard cash on the table for anyone willing to create a better list/ranking system.  Check out his post, it’s a good read and he makes some valid points, the best is this one:

[The Technorati 100] is based on the number of links for all time. This means if you have not been around for two or three years you’re not gonna make the list. It protects the old school folks and makes the list self-perpetuating. The “all time” setting is what causes the Technorati 100 to never change. I’d much rather see it be a trailing 90 days, or trailing six months. Heck, I’d settle for over the past year! Anything is better then just saying the Top 100 is based on who’s been around the longest.

I think the bigger problem with most ranking systems, whether it's Technorati's, Intelliseek's or anyone elses is that they tend to treat link metrics as the supreme indicator of popularity and authority and thus, influence -- but it's not a very comprehensive way to measure the tail.  I think link metrics should have a place in any ranking system, especially one that's geared toward blogs, but I'd like to see *someone* come out with a system that includes trust and relevancy metrics too.