Taiwan Blogs at Technorati

The Technorati Blog Finder feature at first glance looks like it might be useful. If you need a blog about Taiwan or porcelain or fighter aircraft, why there's the ticket! A closer shows that it is rather strange: the blogs it recovers are blogs that tag "Taiwan" a lot. Hence, the one thing it doesn't list is Taiwan blogs.

Here is the list you get if you type "Taiwan" in the blog finder on November 21, 2005:

1. :zonble’s promptbook:

Photo of zonble
* By Weizhong Yang. Last updated 7 hours ago.
* Tagged Asia, Taipei, Taiwan, Traditional Chinese , More »
* 1,070 links from 537 sites

2. Japundit

The good, bad, beautiful, and ugly about Japan and other Asian countries.
Photo of JAPUNDIT
* By JAPUNDIT. Last updated 12 hours ago.
* Tagged Asia, China, Culture, East Asia, Engrish, Far East, Hello Kitty, Japan, Japanese, Kansai, Kanto, Korea, North Korea, Taiwan, Tokyo , More »
* 917 links from 286 sites

3. asiapundit
Photo of myrick
* By Chris Myrick. Last updated 9 hours ago.
* Tagged Asia, Asian, Cambodia, Censorship, China, Economy, Hello Kitty, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Media, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Weirdness , More »
* 927 links from 250 sites

4. 李怡志的個人網站 Richyli.com

richy is speaking
Photo of richy
* By richy li. Last updated 30 days ago.
* Tagged Fun, Internet, Journalism, Marketing, Media, PR, Richy, Taipei, Taiwan, Web2.0, 李怡志 , More »
* 531 links from 233 sites

5. 國生三年才開始
* By Ying-Chieh Liao. Last updated 9 hours ago.
* Tagged Asia, Chinese, Foods, InfoTech, IT, Lifeblog, Movies, News, Politics, Reading, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan-bloggers, Web, Yichi , More »
* 625 links from 201 sites

6. Gea Suan Lin’s BLOG
* By Gea-Suan Lin. Last updated 4 hours ago.
* Tagged Firefox, Mozilla, Security, Taiwan , More »
* 279 links from 117 sites

7. Richy's Blog（兼營圖表）
* Last updated 2 days ago.
* Tagged Fun, Journalism, Taipei, Taiwan , More »
* 240 links from 102 sites

8. The View from Taiwan
* Last updated 11 hours ago.
* Tagged Taiwan
* 263 links from 89 sites

9. 石墨工房 最近文章
Photo of fredjame
* By Fred Jame. Last updated 14 days ago.
* Tagged Apple, Blog Watch, Chinese, Mac, Taiwan, Translation, Writing , More »
* 174 links from 79 sites

10. Mutant Frog Travelogue

Current events and history blog with a focus on East Asia. By Roy, Adamu, Saru, and Joe.
Photo of joejones
* By Joe Jones. Last updated 1 day ago.
* Tagged Asia, China, Japan, Kyoto, Language, Law, News, Osaka, Photography, Politics, Taiwan, Tokyo, Translation, Travel , More »
* 287 links from 76 sites

11. Jas9 Taipei.
* Last updated 38 days ago.
* Tagged Advertising, Chinese, Design, Jas9, Literal, Marketing, Reviews, Taipei, Taiwan, 台北, 台灣, 文學, 桔絲9 , More »
* 171 links from 68 sites

12. Tech Babe Asia Asian Tech Show Booth Babes,...

The Tech Babe Asia team travels to technology trade shows throughout Asia with a single mission: to deliver via our blog photos of the finest booth babes or companions manning the stands to attract passers-by.
* By Tech Babe Asia. Last updated 34 days ago.
* Tagged Asia, Asian, Babes, Booth Babes, Campaign Girls, Companions, Gadgets, Girls, Japan, Japanese, Korea, Sexy, South Korea, Taiwan, Technology, Women , More »
* 107 links from 66 sites

13. hsuyo BLOG
* By David Hsu. Last updated 5 days ago.
* Tagged Blog, Chinese, Computer, Diary, Game, Internet, Media, Movie, Music, News, Nintendo, Photo, Photography, Playstation, Plugins, Taiwan, Travel, Weblog, Wordpress, Xbox , More »
* 400 links from 56 sites

14. yal's blog
* Last updated 30 days ago.
* Tagged Blog, CSS, Life, Taiwan, Tamsui, Yal, Yuanlin , More »
* 98 links from 53 sites

15. 異想天開

my personal blog
* By balduran. Last updated 20 days ago.
* Tagged Balduran, Blogger, Chinese, Chinesemusic, Computer, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Volunteer, 台灣 , More »
* 130 links from 52 sites

16. hsuyo BLOG
* By David Hsu. Last updated 38 days ago.
* Tagged Blog, Chinese, Computer And Internet, Diary, Games, Google, Life, Media, Music, News, Nintendo, Personal, Photography, Photos, Playstation, Plugin, Taiwan, Travel, Weblog, Wordpress , More »
* 102 links from 48 sites

17. Beasiswa Indonesia Scholarship

Informasi beasiswa untuk warga Indonesia dari yayasan beasiswa di Indonesia dan luar negeri, plus direktori situs beasiswa yg disusun para pemuda Indonesia yg peduli pada kemajuan generasi muda bangsa.
Photo of afatih
* By A.Fatih Syuhud. Last updated 7 days ago.
* Tagged Beasiswa, Beasiswa Indonesia, Beasiswa-australia, Beasiswa-dalam-negeri, Beasiswa-indonesia, Beasiswa-jepang, Beasiswa-luar- Negeri, Beasiswa-s1-s2-s3, India, Indonesia, Informasi-beasiswa, Inggris, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Scholarship, Singapore, Swiss, Taiwan, Thailand , More »
* 277 links from 47 sites

18. 傅瑞德繼續貼
Photo of fredjame
* By Fred Jame. Last updated 10 hours ago.
* Tagged Chinese, Diving, Internet Watch, Mac, Pet, Taiwan, Translation, Writing , More »
* 81 links from 43 sites

19. Suitcasing travel and fiction

Travel and fiction.
* By Daniel Wallace. Last updated 11 hours ago.
* Tagged Asia, China, Fiction, Hong Kong, Links, Musings, NaNoWriMo, Photos, Reviews, Taipei, Taiwan, Travel, Travelling, Writing , More »
* 165 links from 43 sites

20. : ephemeris :
* By freeleaf. Last updated 1 day ago.
* Tagged DaanForestPark, Linguistics, Reading, Seattle, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwanese, UW, WalkingInTaipei , More »
* 172 links from 43 sites

The first on is definitely a Taiwan blog. But I searched in English, not Chinese, the language of that blog. Asiapundit and Japundit are both excellent blogs, but neither is a Taiwan blog. Blog 4 is another Chinese blog from Taiwan, and in fact is the same as blog 7. Blog 5 is very much a Taiwan blog but is in Chinese. Blog 6, also in Chinese, may put "Taiwan" in the tags, but it only discusses computer technology and related items. Of the first 7 items, then, only 1, 4,5, and 7 can reasonably be called Taiwan blogs, and 4 and 7 are the same blog. Hence, in the first 7 items listed there are only three Taiwan blogs.

Number 8 brings up my blog, the first blog about Taiwan in the language I searched in. Blog 9 is a Taiwan blog in Chinese. Blog 10 brings up the excellent Mutant Frog, which is a blog that sometimes blogs on Taiwan, but is more focused on Japan. In other words, of this list of the first 10 blogs, only 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 can really be considered Taiwan blogs. Only four are in English, the language of my search, and only one of those four is a blog about Taiwan, mine.

Something's wrong.

It only gets worse in the back ten.

No 11, Jas9, blogs on everything but Taiwan. No. 12 has lots of gorgeous women, but is not a Taiwan blog. No. 13, hsuyo, is a Taiwanese located in the US and does not often blog on Taiwan affairs. No. 14 is a Taiwan blog that is technology-focused. No 15. is also a Taiwan blog. No. 16 is the same as No. 13. No. 17 is an indonesian blog that has nothing to do with Taiwan. No. 18 is a Taiwan blog. No. 19 is another English-language Taiwan blog. No. 20 is another Chinese-language blog on Taiwan.

In sum, of the first twenty, 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 15, 18, 19, and 20 can reasonably said to be blogs about Taiwan. One would expect that the opposite would obtain -- that more non-Taiwan blogs would crop up in the lower numbers, but the first thirty would be mostly about Taiwan. Actually, only about half are.

The next six blogs contain three repeats and two Chinese-language blogs. English-language blogs do not show up until we are down to # 29.

In short, if you look in Technorati, you find lots of blogs that have little or nothing to do with Taiwan, and quite a few repeats. I wrote them a long letter explaining this problem....and got back a curt "everything's OK" response. Hopefully they will fix this problem of repetition and non-topical blogs, and let you specify language and other items in the search. What Technorati really needs is a "blog profile" that lets bloggers use keywords or similar to define their blog's focus.

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