Blog search engine Technorati made significant changes to its data architecture and user interface this evening. CEO Dave Sifry outlined the details on his personal blog. The changes, Sifry says, are largely in response to Technorati’s changing user base – more and more mainstream Internet users are using the service.
This is also a clear move by Technorati away from blog search, although many of the media search features have been around for a while. It may be an acknowledgment that they can’t beat Google Blogsearch over the long run, or it may be a strategy to go after a larger potential market for time sensitive content. Or both.
The most noticeable visual change is to the home page, which has been completely redesigned (see image above). Technorati has also eliminated search types (keyword search, tag search and blog directory search) in favor of a single search box. All search results are returned in the format technorati.com/tag/query (example) and show results from blogs, videos, photos and audio files all on the first result page. Users can drill down into vertical results via tabs. Users who want only blog search results can now go to search.technorati.com.
All signs are that Technorati is continuing to look for a replacement to Sifry, the founding CEO, and rumors that the company is looking for a buyer persist despite denials from the company.
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