What’s Technorati?

There’s a lot of buzz today about Technorati’s new now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t Digg-like tool called WTF (Steve Rubel captured screen shots before the service was pulled down). You can get a variety of takes on WTF from folks such as Mathew Ingram and Mr. Arrington but what struck me about WTF (other than the, well, colourful name) is how yet another feature from Technorati fits into the greater strategic scheme of things.

I mean, Technorati’s raison d’etre is apparently to be the world’s leading blog search engine – and I think they’re still among the best despite competition from Google, Sphere, Feedster, etc.. But what puzzles me about Technorati’s direction is how its move into non-search services enhances the core search offering, which is struggling to keep up with the blogosphere’s growth. Sure, you don’t want to be a one-trick pony but lots of people will tell you Technorati has to do a better job at search before it branches off into other areas.

Technorati’s multi-faceted strategic direction struck a chord after reading a recent post by Mapping the Web that talked about companies trying to be “too many thing for too many people” by offering lots of features rather than one to three really good features.

“How often do you read a features set that is over a page long and you’re left wondering… “WTF does this thing actually do for me?” It’s a daunting reality. Now, isn’t it refreshing when you browse a feature set that is minimal (only in terms of size). You can paint a clear picture in your head as to what the system/site/software can accomplish for you.”

Maybe Technorati should take this advice to heart.

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