You may have heard about the 2000 Bloggers project hosted by Tino Buntic. You may have even got your photo included among the 2000. And you may have pulled the links when Technorati complained about what was going on.
What Technorati (and to some extent Google) didn’t like was this as an attempt to game the system – loads of blogs , with little or nothing in common, all linking to each other and in process seeing a massive increase in their Technorati and Google rankings. Given that 2000 bloggers included photos and nothing else, what’s the difference between this and a sophisticated link farm? Better said on ‘I don’t deserve this Technorati rank and you don’t either‘.
If you’re one of the people nominated for the Irish Blog Awards You’ve probably seen a lot of incoming links from people who have taken the original IBA Nominee List (by Jason Roe) and posted it on their blogs. Over the past couple of days, I’ve seen about 20 links come my way via this method. Out of curiosity, I’d tend to visit people linking to me in this way.
Is this the same idea as 2000 bloggers, an attempt to game the Google / Technorati pagerank system? Will all 500 of us be blacklisted by Google? I don’t think so.
The difference between this and the 2000 Bloggers is:
- All the links have a connection (they’re Irish Bloggers, or bloggers with some connection to Ireland).
- More information is provided on the links – not just a photo , but what they blog about.
- There is a quality screening going on (i.e. you have to be nominated) not just first come first served.
Just to prove the point, the list of nominees is below. And if you haven’t voted already, drop over and vote for us (FirstPartners.net / Technology in Plain English).
Best Designed Blog
- 5 Pieces
- Ach go háirithe
- Beaut.ie
- BifSniff
- Clamnuts
- Creative Imagination – Ken McGuire
- ElBlogador.com – The Voice of Irish Nationalism
- From Ireland to Kansas City
- Fustar
- Ginger Pixel
- Inside the mind of an idiot
- IrishElection.com
- Jason Roe’s blog
- John Handerlaar’s Blog
- Kind I Like – Things that look like people
- Léigh ar mo T-léine é!
- Letter to America
- Magoo
- Nialler9
- Pretty Cunning
- RedFly Marketing
- Soundtracks for Them
- Spoilt.ie
- Stunned.org
- Team Geared Up
- The InFactah Blog
- The IQ Content Blog
- Twenty Major
- UnLaoised
Best Blog
- Alive in Limerick
- An Irish Craftworkers Good Life
- An SpailpÃn Fánach
- An tImeall
- Arse End of Ireland
- ArseBlog
- Backseat Drivers
- Barbara’s bleeuugh!
- Beaut.ie
- BifSniff
- Biz Growth News
- Blogorrah
- Bock the Robber
- ElBlogador.com- The Voice of Irish Nationalism
- Fustar
- Head Rambles
- I Take Photees
- Ireland 16 Days
- IrishElection.com
- Letter to America
- Manuel Stimulation
- Mcawilliams.com
- Mine’s A Jack Daniels
- Nialler9
- Pygment
- RedMum’s Blog
- Skinflicks
- Snackboxdiaries
- StigOnline
- The Cedar Lounge Revolution
- The Community At Large
- The InFactah Blog
- The Limerick Blogger
- Tir na Blog
- Twenty Major
- Womans Aid
Best Use of the Irish Language in a Blog
- Ach go háirithe
- An Saol
- An SpailpÃn Fánach
- Arm Rúnda na Gaeilge
- Blag Shomhairle
- Chetwynde Down
- Hilary NY
- Léigh ar mo T-léine é!
- MH Wombat
- nobyegarawn
- Roinnt Smaointe
- Seo Panu ag labhairt
- Smaointe Fánacha Aonghusa
Best Political Blog
- 1169 and Counting
- A Tangled Web
- An Caomhach
- An Saol
- An Spailpán Fánach
- Balrog
- Best of Both Worlds
- Bock the Robber
- Damien Blake
- Daniel K. Sullivan
- Dominic Hanngian’s blog
- ElBlogador.com- The Voice of Irish Nationalism
- Extra Extra
- Graham O’Maonaigh
- Green Ink
- Harry McGee’s blog
- ie-Politics by Gerry O’Quigley
- Ireland – The Voice Of The Nation
- IrishElection.com
- Maman Poulet
- Richard Delevan’s blog
- Seamus Ryan’s blog
- Semper Idem
- Sicilian Notes – Richard Waghorne
- Skinflicks
- Slugger O’Toole
- The Cedar Lounge Revolution
- The Dossing Times
- The Tuppenceworth Blog
- The United Irelander Blog
- The Young Unionists
Best Group Blog
- ArseBlog
- Backseat Drivers
- Balrog
- BifSniff
- Blather
- Blogorrah
- Howth Coastguard Blog
- In Fact Ah
- Ireland 16 Days
- IrishElection.com
- Links Heaven
- Old Rotten Hat
- One Breast Less
- Sligo Camera Club
- Sligo Rugby Football Club
- Team Geared Up
- The Cedar Lounge Revolution
- The Community At Large
- The Dublin Blog
- The Limerick Blogger
- Tuppenceworth
- UCD Science Librarians
- Womens Aid Blog
- Wow Blog
Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere
- Bernie Goldbach
- Cian and Simon for Irish Election
- Conn O Muineachain
- Donncha O’Caoimh
- Gavin Joyce for Kick.ie
- Macdara in the Leb
- Michele Neylon for IrishBlogs.info
- Rick O’Shea
- Sarah Carey
- Simon McGarr
- Tom Raftery
Best News/Current Affairs Blog
- Adam Maguire
- Alive in Limerick
- An Spailpán Fánach
- Best of Both Worlds
- Dublin Opinion
- IrishElection.com
- Public Inquiry
- Road Deaths.ie
- Sarah Carey
- Skinflicks
- Stephen Spillane
- The Limerick Blogger
- The NewsWire
- The Story
Most Humorous Post
- Ach go háirithe – Reasons Behind Australian Rough-House Tactics In International Rules Series (Exclusive)
- andcurve – Cock-blocking beats
- Arse End of Ireland – Berties Perspiration
- Arse End of Ireland – Won’t Somebody think of the children
- Backseat Drivers – Sex – Breakfast of Champions
- BifSniff – Dry White Seasoning
- BifSniff – Spyware
- Blogorrah – The Twink Tapes
- Blogorrah – Why can’t we all just get along?
- Captain Purplehead – Ah Tis All Too Much
- Chetwynde Downs – The Naile Raye Quintet
- Dublin Opinion – Property Market Causes Ireland to shit its brain
- Earth and Universe – Legend of Uncle Tom and the Bubble Car
- ElBlogador – DUP In Gay Marriage Shocker
- ElBlogador – These are a few of my favourite things
- Fustar – Dis-courtesy Call
- Fustar – Manky Toy Monday: League of the Transformable
- Gingerpixel – Garda Prank Call
- Green Ink – Beep Beep Beep
- Head Rambles – Giving Up Smoking
- Head Rambles – Translation Help Needed
- In Fact Ah – The Occasional Diary Entries of German Director Werner Herzog
- Irish KC – A Kansas City Phone Call To An Irish Mother
- Irish KC – Irish Conversations
- Kav’s Blog – Westside Story Bud
- Letter to America – Drama – Thy Name is Pong
- Life’s a bastard – Scientists – I’m against them
- Manuel Stimulation – From Bad to More Bad
- Manuel Stimulation – Victory to Moroccan Imperialism
- Old Bitter Balls – Or was this just a dream?
- Political Quote – PDs new Spin Doctor
- Pure Cork Boy – Music: The Roaring Forties
- RedMum – Guilty Pleasures
- Rick O’Shea – Ketchup… Catsup..
- Rinceoir – Cry Havoc
- Skinflicks – Babys called Bad Bad thing
- Snackbox – AbuseOS from TwinkSoft
- Snackbox – The Story of Jimbob
- The Great Wee Azoo – Awfully awfully
- Twenty Major – Countdown to Next Election
- Twenty Major – Post Secret
- Wayne Ordinary American – Wayne loves you one and all
Best Newcomer
- 4Basra
- Alan in Belfast
- An Irish Craftworker’s Good Life
- An Saol
- Arse End of Ireland
- Beaut.ie
- Betty the Sheep
- Blogorrah
- Bock the Robber
- Dario Sanchez’s Angry Dome
- Elly Babes
- Fastlad
- Harry McGee
- Head Rambles
- Ireland 16 Days
- Ireland from a Polish perspective
- Kav’s Blog
- Lexferenda
- Linkmap
- Michael Flangan
- Notes on the Front
- Peppermint Tea
- Skinflicks
- Style Treaty
- The Cedar Lounge Revolution
- The Great Wee Azoo
- The Midnight Court
- The News Wire
- The Waiting Game
- What will you see next?
- Where’s the Salt?
- Womens Aid
Best Blog Post
- “Ach go háirithe – We love Irish we do
- An Cainteoir Dáchais – Ag táraÃocht na ndálseoirá i mBaile Átha Cliath
- andcurve – Cock-blocking beats
- Annie Rhiannon – Three years too late
- Arse End of Ireland – Where do you get your smoke from?
- Arse End of Ireland – The Bertles
- Balrog – McDowell should walk over Rape crisis
- Bifsniff – Should You Be Laughing At This?
- Blather.net Snackbox Diaries – Introducing AbuseOS from Twinksoft corp
- Blogorrah – Rochegate: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?
- Bock the Robber – Haughey
- Conor’s Bandon Blog – You may feel a small prick
- Cruiskeen Eile – Boys will be Boys
- Cruiskeen Eile – Phwoarr. How to Report on the Troubles While Getting
- David McWilliams – The Dundrum Paradox – Don’t be Paddy Last!
- Dervala.net – The Passion-Industrial Complex
- Earth and Universe – The day I quit as an Altar Boy. The Genesis of success!!??
- Earth and Universe – The legend of Uncle Tom and the Bubble Car
- ElBlogador – Bloody Sunday In Pictures
- ElBlogador – Peter Robinson
- “Empire State View – Barry Egan
- From Bath to Cork with baby Grace – After traffic in Cork
- Fústar – David Sque Interview Part 1.
- Fústar – Chess with balls
- Graham Ó Maonaigh – Ending Gun crime requires a ‘harm reduction’ approach
- iQblog – Irish kitchen sink usability
- Irelands Few – Corruption WithIn Unionism?
- IrishEyes – Richard Waghorne has a closed mind
- Letter to America – Drama – Thy Name is Pong
- Life is a Journal – Self Help and Personal Development for Lazy People
- Madspoon – Sheep 34 Banana
- Maman Poulet – Maman Poulet
- Minesajackdaniels’ Blog – Pompoms and bottle tops.
- Old Bitter Balls – Keeling Time
- Political Quote – Bertie Ahern does a ‘Nixon’ over money scandal
- Redfly Marketting – DMOZ Submission Guide
- Ricks Breakfast Blog – A Religious Experience…
- Ricks Breakfast Blog – Most Extraordinary Day of my Life
- Skin Flicks – The JC Skinner guide to drinking
- Stig Online – The most painful 12 miles of my life (and the other 14 were hardly easy)
- The Adventures of Truculent Horse – Culture Shock III – The Language Barrier
- The Dossing Times – The Riots and the consequences.
- The Dossing Times – Riots in Dublin
- The Great Wee Azoo – Awfully Awfully at Castleward Book Fair
- The Midnight Court – Paper Round Exclusive!
- the torture garden – the best songs of 2006
- Twenty Major – A thousand words
- Twenty Major – Countdown to the next election
- Ulster Young Unionist Council – Ignoring the Big Issues
- Young Unionists – In defence of the Act of Settlement
Best Arts and Culture Blog
- Alan in Belfast
- BifSniff
- Blather.net
- Contemporary Arts Review
- Dead Beat
- Empirestate View
- Fustar
- Georgiasam
- Green Ink
- In Fact Ah
- KC Irish Fest
- Letter to America
- Maguires Movies
- PaddyC Movie Reviews
- Poet Bloggs
- Sinead Gleeson
- Soundtracks for Them
- Stunned
- The Cat Flap
- The Dreaming Arm
- The Harlot’s Progress
- The Torture Garden
Best Personal Blog
- Annie Rhiannon
- Barbara’s bleeuugh!
- Conor O’Neill
- Dec’s Rambling
- FatMammyCat
- From Bath to Cork with Baby Grace
- Gerry Gainford
- GingerPixel
- Hangar Queen
- Head Rambles
- Kav’s Blog
- Mine’s a Jack Daniels
- RedMum
- The Newbrowne Blog
- The Rambling Man
- The Waiting Game
- Una Rocks
- Wayne Ordinary American
- Winds and Breezes
Best Sport & Recreation Blog
- ArseBlog
- Billy Lyons
- Fustar’s World Cup
- In Fact Ah
- Irish Go blog
- Laois Talk
- Liverpool Access
- On the Ditch
- PaddyC Movie Reviews
- Piranha Triathlon Club
- Rebel BMX
- Sligo Rugby Football Clun
- SportCrazy.net
- Team Geared Up
- The Kop Blog
- Tom’s Sporting Almanac
- Wiffy Blog
Best Photo Blog
- Caitriona.net
- Capture Capture
- Dancing Shades of Light
- Derek Knight Photography
- Donal’s blog
- Focus Pocus
- Gingerpixel
- Glassey Alley
- Headphoneland
- How your mama now?
- I Take Photees
- Iced Coffee
- I’m never gonna dance again
- In Photos
- Ireland from a Polish perspective
- Kind I Like
- Léigh ar mo T-léine é
- Letter to America
- Mcawilliams
- North Atlantic Skyline
- PAD – Photo a Day
- Photographe à Dublin
- Pygment
- RedMum
- Rymus.net
- Seth Wheeler
- Snoother
- This is Diopter
Best Specialist Blog
- 4Basra
- An Irish Craftworker’s Good Life
- Ask Direct
- Ball*istic
- Beaut.ie
- Bibliocook
- Burma Review
- Clear of Cloud
- Clerical Whispers
- Graham O’Maonaigh
- Green Ink
- Howth Coastguard
- Ice Cream Ireland
- Ireland 16 Days
- Irish Go blog
- Irish KC
- KC Irish Fest
- Lean Healthcare Services Blog
- Lexferenda
- McGarr Solicitors
- Munster Pubs
- Myers Watch
- One Breast Less
- PR Matters
- Random Grub
- Siopa Eile
- SSIA Watch
- The Good Life
- The Waiting Game
- Wearie
- Whois Ireland
- World Debate Website
Best Music Blog
- Cumann Carad na Gaeilge
- Faoi dhein an dorais
- House is a Feeling
- In Fact Ah
- Kilkenny Music Blog
- Magoo
- Mp3Hugger
- Nialler9
- Sinead Gleeson
- Soundtracks for Them
- Spudshow
- The Torture Garden
- Una Rocks
- Wearie
Best Podcaster
- 2 Irish Geeks and a TV
- An Lionra
- An Saol
- ArseBlog
- Cumann Carad na Gaeilge
- Doop Podcasting
- EdgeCast
- Faoi dhein an dorais
- Kevin Kelly
- Letter to America
- Okey Doke Football
- Oldbones
- Open Source Podcast
- Podcasting.ie
- Podleaders
- Richard Delevan
- The Persuaders
- Twenty Major
- Wargeek.net
Best Podcast
- An Lionra – 06 12 06
- Arseblog – Episode 1
- Arseblog – Episode 10
- Arseblog – Episode 12
- Cumann Carad na Gaeilge – Podchraoladh Caoga a Naoi
- IT@Cork – Eddie Hobbs
- Letter to America – Chapter 29 – The Lift 2.0
- Letter to America – Chapter 43 – The Date – Part 1
- Letter to America – The Irish Blog Awards Podcast
- Oldbones – The Favour
- Podleaders – Dan Bricklin
- Twenty Major – Pizza Delivery
- Twenty Major – Scientology
I doubt they’ll be banned, and in my case, ocaoimh.ie is already banned/filtered, and inphotos.org will be soon once they notice it’s a default link in the new WP!
I can tell you that if everyone does publish the exact same list we will soon look like a link farm. Whether justified or not, it would give the wrong signal to the SEs. I doubt it would result in any penalty, but it wont help either.
Interesting to see if it has a positive effect on the ole Google Pagerank on the next refresh…
Ken
Very unlikely to have much affect. the fact that the page contains 500 links means that the pagerank will be divided between all of those links.
An if all 500 sites published the links we would be flagged for sure.
Rgds
Richard
Donncha: Until now I was thinking that it was a masterstroke of SEO to get involved with WordPress 🙂
Richard: Don’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved. I’m sure Google will handle it well, but what about Technorati? Was reading between the lines about the 2000 bloggers story, and I’m not sure how sophisticated their rating mechanism is. There again, I don’t think they are as important as they were 12 months back (or could just wishful thinking, due to the problems I’ve had with them).
Ken: I had intended to do a version of this around our pints competition, but it seemed quite lame compared to Richards / Eoghans offers.
Me, I’m off to look at another 20 blogs ….
Paul
@Donncha – that’s fairly normal for Google. They often turn off the juice from very obvious sites like WordPress default install. BTW you’re not banned or filtered. Just not receiving any benefit from the default links. Try searching Google with either the ‘site:ocaoimh.ie’ operator or try searching for ‘ocaoimh.ie’ (both without the quotes). You come back #1 for a search on your domain, which is a dead giveaway for a ban/penalty.
@Paul – I’m not sure whether Technorati filter manually. It would all boil down to a the concept of intent – were the linking sites trying to affect the rankings? In this case definitely not. Even if it was flagged, as soon as someone checks the links they’ll see the reason. *fingers crossed* (my technorati rank has jumped about 30000 places in the last week or two :mrgreen:)
Richard – I’m confused, shouldn’t Google return hits from my blog using the site: operator anyway? Doing a similar search using site:blacknight.ie brings up the blacknight.ie site only..
I should have mentioned, it’s Technorati who have banned or filtered all the default WP install links.. Sorry. I must ask Matt about that, he can probably find out a bit more about it.
Donncha – if you were under a 30/60/90 day penalty your site would actually be pulled from the index.
There are other penalties, and basically if you don’t come back #1 for the search ‘yourdomain.com’ (no www) you should be worried.
It’s ridiculous if Technorati can be gamed as easily as that!
Most search engines take into account how many links there are on a page. With 2000+ links on one page there isn’t much chance of getting click-throughs. And therefore the value of such a link is pretty darn low.
Certainly this has been the case for me. I’m one of the 2000 bloggers. I’ve seen the links building up day by day. But apart from a click or two from the original site, I haven’t had any click-throughs.
Maybe it’s my photo. Not female and not sexy enough! 🙂
Personally I thought it was quite a good idea though. The links are all related – they are all bloggers. I like the idea of creating the book cover with the images too.
But come on technorati, get with the program!
Thomas,
Like they say on their own blog , Technorati is a startup with only 40 people, so I wouldn’t expect them to be of a Google level of quality when it comes to the algorithms.
Paul
Yeah I accept that to some degree. But number of links on a page is basic stuff.
They won’t be banned, but I’d be careful about posting so many links in one post … it’s a good way to get temporarily throttled by Google (unless you don’t get many hits from Google, in which case it probably doesn’t matter much to you).
BTW – nice blog! Just stumbled on it while looking for Feedburner icons.
I’ve found a very helpful website, Kiwirant, where technology matters and indexing are discussed by experts. You may find it interesting.