Last year I kvetched about Technorati's blog directory for Taiwan, because its list of top blogs for Taiwan contained several blogs that weren't about Taiwan, and several others that were repeats. Metablogging myself: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.
I was checking from time to time in my neverending quest for Taiwan blogs, and for a while they had a bunch of blogs that were non-Taiwan, but often blogged on the island, like Asiapundit and ESWN. Recently, however, they seemed to have fixed the problem (mostly), and now almost every blog in the topmost ranks is actually about Taiwan. Here is the current top ten:
zonble
Photo of zonble
2 days ago
* http://zonble.twbbs.org
* 617 blogs link here
* Tags
music, wordpress, asia, taiwan, garage, chinese, blogger, taipei, traditional chinese, band,, chinese,, zonble,, zonble,,chinese,,garage,band,,taiwan , More ?
#
amarylliss。艾瑪[隨處走走] -
13 days ago
* http://www.wretch.cc/blog/amarylliss
* 213 blogs link here
* Tags
japan, travel, italy, paris, taiwan, bali, nikko, taitung, occitane , More ?
#
Refleksi dan Blog Tutorial by afatih
Photo of afatih
16 hours ago
Kolom Refleksi tips menulis dan tip kiat cara membuat blog atau Blog Tutorial
* http://kolom-mario.blogspot.com
* 203 blogs link here
* Tags
blog, weblog, blogs, philippines, indonesia, usa, thailand, uk, singapore, saudi arabia, taiwan, blogger, blog tutorial, budaya, refleksi, blogger indonesia, tips menulis, lowongan kerja, tutorial blog, membuat blog , More ?
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Mr. 6 - 趨勢．創業．投資．策進
14 hours ago
* http://mr6.cc
* 155 blogs link here
* Tags
china, 投資, taiwan, 趨勢, chinese, vc, web 2.0, entrepreneur, 創業, 台灣, 風險, 創投, 善搞, mr.6, mr. 6, 策進 , More ?
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The View from Taiwan
11 hours ago
* http://michaelturton.blogspot.com
* 146 blogs link here
* Tags
asia, china, us, us foreign policy, taiwan, taipei, kaohsiung, taichung, kmt, asian blogs, dpp, taiwan blogs, axis & allies , More ?
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酥餅的BLOG - Yam 樂多日誌
32 days ago
* http://blog.yam.com/subing
* 107 blogs link here
* Tags
food, politics, news, music, photo, 政治, camera, 音樂, 美食, taiwan, 攝影, hifi, wall street, 經濟, 台灣, 音響, 相機, 美國, 華爾街 , More ?
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Schee.info by Schee
Photo of Schee
14 hours ago
* http://blog.schee.info
* 107 blogs link here
* Tags
china, motorcycle, taiwan, chinese, taipei, schee , More ?
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到台?找我玩,同志!–台??中??地的玩耍邀?网站 by funck
Photo of funck
1 hour ago
到台?找我玩,同志!–台??中??地的玩耍邀?网站 / Come See Me In Taiwan, Comrade ! - Taiwan's ivitation for Mainland China
* http://www.comeseemeintaiwancomrade.com
* 90 blogs link here
* Tags
blog, internet, travel, china, 博客, 台?, 部落格, 旅游, taiwan, 台灣, 觀光, funck, 中國, 大陸, ?光, 百万网, 格子經濟, ?岸, 內地, 百萬網 , More ?
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fiLi’s world by filination
Photo of filination
7 hours ago
Discussing Asian culture and life from a western-Israeli perspective. Covering : Asia, Chinese, China, Taiwan.
* http://www.filination.com/blog
* 85 blogs link here
* Tags
culture, japan, israel, asia, asian, china, vietnam, taiwan, chinese, israeli, fareast, eastasia , More ?
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Doubting to shuo?: Chinese, Investing, EFL and Being a Geek in Taiwan
6 hours ago
* http://toshuo.com
* 66 blogs link here
* Tags
teaching, science, asia, investing, geekery, china, linguistics, taiwan, language learning, chinese, esl, taiwanese, teaching english, cultural observations, learning chinese, language teaching, l2 acquisition ,
The only blog that doesn't appear to belong there is Refleksi dan Blog Tutorial, an English/Bahasa blog that appears to blog on everything but Taiwan. Kudos to Technorati for finally getting the problem fixed.
[Taiwan] [Technorati] [tags]
what am I, chopped liver? I'm not anywhere on that list...
ReplyDeleteIf you're not in the Technorati system, I don't think they count you. The way they rank is actually absurd -- the top Chinese -language blogs get tens of thousands of hits a day. Schee, ranked below me there, gets 15,000 a day, I think he told me. Schee also said that if the rankings went by hits/day, the world's top blogs would almost all be Chinese.
ReplyDeleteMichael
Huh? I'm on the top blogs for the Taiwan tag? that doesn't make much sense.
ReplyDeleteThe Technorati system has some nice Blogsphere features, but also some serious defects, and this rankings show some of them.
With that said, the English blogsphere about Taiwan is still quite small, surprisingly.
Guys, from looking at the list, it seems that Technorati ranks you according to how many others link to your blog -- a number which might only be counting others with Technorati accounts. More info about the ranking methods can be found here.
ReplyDeleteTim Maddog
Yes, I know Technorati doesn't count the blogs correctly, Tim. Fili, it also surprises me that the Taiwan English blogosphere is so small. But actually, there are many English blogs that are hard to find -- livejournal and myspace blogs, particularly. Further, myspace links are a pain -- typical Microsoft bullshit -- and you have to be a member to comment -- a problem I am seeing more and more.
ReplyDeleteMore interesting is how few English bloggers actually blog on Taiwan in any serious way. Most of them either blog on the "things I did today" or else they blog on other things entirely, even though they are in Taiwan.
Michael
Technorati is a little slow and cumbersome, but I still think it is better than Google/Blogger's blog search.
ReplyDeleteI have found the best way to find Taiwan blogs is search for place names like Xindian, Banqiao, Danshui, etc. Also try various spellings of the names. General terms like Taiwan and Taipei turn up too many spam blogs.
Given the number of foreigners teaching English or studying Chinese here I am surprised there are so few people regularly blogging on these topics.
Even though I'm solidly in the "things I did today" category, I have a technorati membership and Taiwan tags, and 40-something links to my blog, yet it's not on that list. My Chinese-language blog is way, way down there, but none of my other ones are. Curious.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's how I find Taiwan blogs. I also agree with you about Google vs. Technorati.
ReplyDeleteThere are 50K Canadians and AMericans in Taiwan, but probably less than 500 actually blog.
Michael
Your blog is one of my favorites, Poagao, because the things you do are so interesting.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why lots of blogs aren't on there. The system Technorati uses is very strange. Lots of time they "lose" blogs -- the ping system breaks down or something, not sure what.
Michael