TailRank Update

I'm not sure what is more satisfying - the fact that TailRank just updated with a load of very cool, social media features, or that fact that I predicted it would using my proprietary 'important people don't blog when they are doing something very interesting' blog monitoring method.

I've not yet checked out all the updates, here is a summary of the details on Kevin's blog:

• Weblog Auto Configuration: previously, TailRank asked you to import an OPML file of blogs you visited. Now you can ask it simply to monitor which blogs you read and it does all that for you. Kevin has attacked a key barrier to unlocking some of the potential of TailRank, viz: the need to upload files that you may not even know how to create.
• Weblog Recommendations: one of the biggest gaps in the blog portal space - finding blogs, not just posts. This is based on the population of the data gathered above.
• Recommended Reading Lists: sounds similar to the above - not quite sure yet what the difference is.

Comments

[Kevin Burton]

Reading lists aren't really different. The only thing different is the OPML 2.0 feed which Winer wants to push for integration into aggregators. I wanted to get it out there to see if some people liked it and to see what kind of feedback I received.

Onward!

Kevin

[Ed Kohler]

Is it hard for the average blog user to find good blogs on topics that interest them? While this seems like a great solution, I didn't know there was a huge problem in this arena that needed to be solved.

[Matthew Hurst]

Ed - the specific task 'find me blogs on this topic' is not yet solved in any comprehensive manner. A search on Google's blogsearch provides 1 'related blog' for the search 'data visualization'. Sphere's 'related blogs' for the same search is slightly better: 2 blogs. I agree that one can come across good blogs via browsing or search, but trying to find a good blog specifically on a topic is not solved.

[Ed Kohler]

Good point, Matthew. Personally, I tend to look for posts on a topic that's immediately of interest to me, then move from posts to blogs based on the quality of writing I find on the sites I end up at.

I suppose I developed that tactic based on the lack of a good search solution to directly find authoritative blogs related to the topic that interest me?