To recap, I initially took the list of Top 100 blogs listed by Technorati on May 19th, 2005 and started doing side by side comparisons. I initially looked at distribution of links among the top 100, then followed up with an analysis of Technorati against Google, this brought me to a subsequent chapter on Technorati against Google and Yahoo! (then comparing Google and Yahoo! to each other). All this created some fair amount of buzz in the search world, with people saying it was interesting to other saying I was way off the mark. Either way, it’s time to take a look at MSN, in order to complete this round-up.
So, to create some benchmarks, let’s start taking a look at distribution of Technorati links against MSN’s:
Technorati Top 100 | MSN Links | Technorati Links | Technorati/MSN Links |
---|---|---|---|
Boing Boing | 407172 | 22532 | 5.53378% |
InstaPundit | 241472 | 15190 | 6.29058% |
Daily Kos | 184666 | 15833 | 8.57386% |
Gizmodo | 252869 | 12278 | 4.85548% |
Fark | 352289 | 10216 | 2.89989% |
EnGadget | 198584 | 15051 | 7.57916% |
Davenetics | 3334 | 7571 | 227.08458% |
Eschaton | 138241 | 8713 | 6.30276% |
Dooce | 118385 | 6797 | 5.74144% |
Andrew Sullivan | 96315 | 7680 | 7.97384% |
The Best Page In The Universe | 92232 | 6333 | 6.86638% |
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall | 193438 | 7592 | 3.92477% |
lgf: anti-idiotarian | 6067 | 8275 | 136.39360% |
kottke.org | 159861 | 7278 | 4.55271% |
WIL WHEATON DOT NET | 148587 | 6314 | 4.24936% |
Metafilter | 136052 | 7591 | 5.57948% |
Doc Searls | 95781 | 5690 | 5.94064% |
(In)formacao e (In)utilidade | 3272 | 6040 | 184.59658% |
Wonkette | 96768 | 5877 | 6.07329% |
Scripting News | 183067 | 5728 | 3.12891% |
Power Line | 92069 | 7477 | 8.12108% |
Balmasque | 409 | 4544 | 1111.00244% |
Corante | 23107 | 7686 | 33.26265% |
A list Apart | 220584 | 5536 | 2.50970% |
Something Awful | 97908 | 4512 | 4.60841% |
Megatokyo | 112902 | 4154 | 3.67930% |
Michelle Malkin | 72190 | 6091 | 8.43746% |
Arts and Letters Daily | 94718 | 3983 | 4.20511% |
Gawker | 72773 | 4453 | 6.11903% |
Afterall it was the best I ever had | 922 | 3591 | 389.47939% |
The Volokh Conspiracy | 88818 | 5873 | 6.61240% |
Scobelizer | 68282 | 5524 | 8.08998% |
Jeffrey Zeldman | 149539 | 4134 | 2.76450% |
This Modern World | 79038 | 3913 | 4.95078% |
The Web Standards Project | 211917 | 3810 | 1.79787% |
Joel on Software | 133853 | 4514 | 3.37236% |
Media Matters for America | 64867 | 6809 | 10.49686% |
Television without pity | 46391 | 3859 | 8.31842% |
Kuro5hin | 130549 | 4208 | 3.22331% |
Lileks | 50706 | 3824 | 7.54151% |
Hugh Hewitt | 64118 | 4573 | 7.13216% |
Joel Veitch | 23302 | 3774 | 16.19603% |
Truthout | 42693 | 6528 | 15.29056% |
Baghdad Burning | 51647 | 3519 | 6.81356% |
Buzz machine | 72649 | 4145 | 5.70552% |
fleugel | 201995 | 3670 | 1.81688% |
Informed Comment | 62822 | 3905 | 6.21598% |
Doppler: redefining podcasting | 12512 | 3040 | 24.29668% |
geek and proud | 714 | 3166 | 443.41737% |
loadmemory (Asian site) | 198 | 3324 | 1678.78788% |
Photojunkie | 3721 | 2860 | 76.86106% |
Ross Rader | 4830 | 2976 | 61.61491% |
The Truth Laid Bear | 51806 | 4127 | 7.96626% |
Joi Ito | 62642 | 5165 | 8.24527% |
ScrappleFace | 49953 | 3480 | 6.96655% |
LexText | 1741 | 2671 | 153.41758% |
Google Blog | 42967 | 3688 | 8.58333% |
Xbox | 86021 | 4221 | 4.90694% |
My life in a Bush of Ghosts | 12 | 2519 | 20991.66667% |
Astronomy picture of the day | 33625 | 3498 | 10.40297% |
Crooked Timber | 60675 | 3617 | 5.96127% |
Vodka Pundit | 58205 | 3085 | 5.30023% |
Captain’s quarter | 45609 | 3671 | 8.04885% |
A small victory | 54767 | 3223 | 5.88493% |
Gato Fedorento | 2294 | 2574 | 112.20575% |
Mezzoblue | 99511 | 2952 | 2.96651% |
PostSecret | 30794 | 2707 | 8.79067% |
Samizdata.net | 1712 | 2872 | 167.75701% |
Lawrence Lessig | 81047 | 2949 | 3.63863% |
Counterpunch | 52642 | 3278 | 6.22697% |
Democractic Underground | 35595 | 3913 | 10.99312% |
Right Wing News | 61379 | 2967 | 4.83390% |
StopDesign | 86165 | 3037 | 3.52463% |
iBiblio | 32301 | 3105 | 9.61271% |
Samizdata.net (mistake?) | 61443 | 2743 | 4.46430% |
Abrupto | 2698 | 2935 | 108.78428% |
gene7299 (Asian MSNSpaces site) | 28 | 3215 | 11482.14286% |
Where is Raed? | 24848 | 2409 | 9.69495% |
B3TA: We love the web | 38386 | 2614 | 6.80977% |
Talkleft | 60169 | 2901 | 4.82142% |
Wizbang | 60259 | 3358 | 5.57261% |
m1net (MSN spaces site) | 22 | 3548 | 16127.27273% |
Hoder | 1620 | 5422 | 334.69136% |
CTRL+Alt+Del | 32277 | 2315 | 7.17229% |
Brad DeLong | 48403 | 2715 | 5.60916% |
Blogs for Bush | 50820 | 3560 | 7.00512% |
Neil Gaiman | 71916 | 2194 | 3.05078% |
Gothamist | 47848 | 2729 | 5.70348% |
Thought Mechanics | 60736 | 2197 | 3.61729% |
IMAO | 45822 | 2905 | 6.33975% |
Dan Gillmor (old weblog) | 36369 | 2600 | 7.14895% |
HINAGATA | 176519 | 2186 | 1.23839% |
Dean’s World | 53150 | 2985 | 5.61618% |
Defamer | 49132 | 2372 | 4.82781% |
USS Clueless | 64725 | 2570 | 3.97065% |
Dive into Mark | 54167 | 2540 | 4.68920% |
Pandagon | 51286 | 2822 | 5.50248% |
Blogging.la | 8495 | 3061 | 36.03296% |
Why are you worshipping the ground I blog on? | 3481 | 2238 | 64.29187% |
Daring Fireball | 52381 | 2573 | 4.91209% |
Of course, no big surprise here. This seems to be pretty consistent with what I had found in dealing with Google and Yahoo!, showing that Technorati does a good but not complete job at indexing link-backs. What’s interesting, however, is that Technorati seems to have a different pattern when dealing with MSN than it does with Yahoo or Google. Let me show you what I’m talking about. Following is the pattern of Technorati differential with MSN:

… and now is the differential between Technorati and Yahoo..

.. and finally the same graph between Technorati and Google

I’ve been trying to understand why this is and still have no clear answer, to be fully honest. Could be something, could be nothing. I’m not sure at this point and this is, in large part, one of the thing that was frustrating in working on this entry. I’m not sure there is something there, to be very honest.
Comparing the Search Engines
However, the picture gets more interesting when you get the three search engines side by side. Here’s a quick spreadsheet of the results:
Technorati Top 100 | Google Links | Yahoo Links | MSN Links | MSN Links/Google Links | MSN Links/Yahoo Links |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Boing Boing | 45200 | 1880000 | 407172 | 900.8230% | 21.6581% |
InstaPundit | 75000 | 2160000 | 241472 | 321.9627% | 11.1793% |
Daily Kos | 59800 | 1690000 | 184666 | 308.8060% | 10.9270% |
Gizmodo | 39300 | 1970000 | 252869 | 643.4326% | 12.8360% |
Fark | 43600 | 1420000 | 352289 | 808.0023% | 24.8091% |
EnGadget | 46800 | 2820000 | 198584 | 424.3248% | 7.0420% |
Davenetics | 1780 | 66400 | 3334 | 187.3034% | 5.0211% |
Eschaton | 62400 | 1400000 | 138241 | 221.5401% | 9.8744% |
Dooce | 23600 | 653000 | 118385 | 501.6314% | 18.1294% |
Andrew Sullivan | 41100 | 1260000 | 96315 | 234.3431% | 7.6440% |
The Best Page In The Universe | 656 | 62000 | 92232 | 14059.7561% | 148.7613% |
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall | 74600 | 563000 | 193438 | 259.3003% | 34.3584% |
lgf: anti-idiotarian | 14700 | 49300 | 6067 | 41.2721% | 12.3063% |
kottke.org | 32000 | 1200000 | 159861 | 499.5656% | 13.3218% |
WIL WHEATON DOT NET | 16900 | 564000 | 148587 | 879.2130% | 26.3452% |
Metafilter | 34500 | 1160000 | 136052 | 394.3536% | 11.7286% |
Doc Searls | 33600 | 1150000 | 95781 | 285.0625% | 8.3288% |
(In)formaco e (In)utilidade | 1780 | 110000 | 3272 | 183.8202% | 2.9745% |
Wonkette | 28800 | 1370000 | 96768 | 336.0000% | 7.0634% |
Scripting News | 39400 | 1470000 | 183067 | 464.6371% | 12.4535% |
Power Line | 7510 | 344000 | 92069 | 1225.9521% | 26.7642% |
Balmasque | 24 | 40500 | 409 | 1704.1667% | 1.0099% |
Corante | 6770 | 265000 | 23107 | 341.3146% | 8.7196% |
A list Apart | 21100 | 620000 | 220584 | 1045.4218% | 35.5781% |
Something Awful | 9020 | 372000 | 97908 | 1085.4545% | 26.3194% |
Megatokyo | 7310 | 361000 | 112902 | 1544.4870% | 31.2748% |
Michelle Malkin | 17300 | 537000 | 72190 | 417.2832% | 13.4432% |
Arts and Letters Daily | 23900 | 866000 | 94718 | 396.3096% | 10.9374% |
Gawker | 23500 | 1060000 | 72773 | 309.6723% | 6.8654% |
Afterall it was the best I ever had | 95 | 34900 | 922 | 970.5263% | 2.6418% |
The Volokh Conspiracy | 42000 | 1190000 | 88818 | 211.4714% | 7.4637% |
Scobelizer | 21800 | 937000 | 68282 | 313.2202% | 7.2873% |
Jeffrey Zeldman | 22500 | 528000 | 149539 | 664.6178% | 28.3218% |
This Modern World | 32100 | 813000 | 79038 | 246.2243% | 9.7218% |
The Web Standards Project | 1850 | 59800 | 211917 | 11454.9730% | 354.3763% |
Joel on Software | 22400 | 966000 | 133853 | 597.5580% | 13.8564% |
Media Matters for America | 24800 | 536000 | 64867 | 261.5605% | 12.1021% |
Television without pity | 13300 | 356000 | 46391 | 348.8045% | 13.0312% |
Kuro5hin | 17300 | 866000 | 130549 | 754.6185% | 15.0749% |
Lileks | Â | 39700 | 50706 | Â | 127.7229% |
Hugh Hewitt | 26700 | 929000 | 64118 | 240.1423% | 6.9018% |
Joel Veitch | 2830 | 135000 | 23302 | 823.3922% | 17.2607% |
Truthout | 8780 | 371000 | 42693 | 486.2528% | 11.5075% |
Baghdad Burning | 22700 | 552000 | 51647 | 227.5198% | 9.3563% |
Buzz machine | 30600 | 1010000 | 72649 | 237.4150% | 7.1930% |
fleugel | 1890 | 201000 | 201995 | 10687.5661% | 100.4950% |
Informed Comment | 27900 | 787000 | 62822 | 225.1685% | 7.9825% |
Doppler: redefining podcasting | 4420 | 607000 | 12512 | 283.0769% | 2.0613% |
geek and proud | 355 | 9110 | 714 | 201.1268% | 7.8375% |
loadmemory (Asian site) | 83 | 1550 | 198 | 238.5542% | 12.7742% |
Photojunkie | 1540 | 51200 | 3721 | 241.6234% | 7.2676% |
Ross Rader | 1070 | 48200 | 4830 | 451.4019% | 10.0207% |
The Truth Laid Bear | 23900 | 717000 | 51806 | 216.7615% | 7.2254% |
Joi Ito | 23400 | 1050000 | 62642 | 267.7009% | 5.9659% |
ScrappleFace | 31100 | 807000 | 49953 | 160.6206% | 6.1900% |
LexText | 1970 | 31200 | 1741 | 88.3756% | 5.5801% |
Google Blog | 46 | 297000 | 42967 | 93406.5217% | 14.4670% |
Xbox | 6600 | 237000 | 86021 | 1303.3485% | 36.2958% |
My life in a Bush of Ghosts | 6 | 903 | 12 | 200.0000% | 1.3289% |
Astronomy picture of the day | 5020 | 113000 | 33625 | 669.8207% | 29.7566% |
Crooked Timber | 3560 | 67500 | 60675 | 1704.3539% | 89.8889% |
Vodka Pundit | 4520 | 169000 | 58205 | 1287.7212% | 34.4408% |
Captain’s quarter | 27100 | 730000 | 45609 | 168.2989% | 6.2478% |
A small victory | 16700 | 460000 | 54767 | 327.9461% | 11.9059% |
Gato Fedorento | 1630 | 126000 | 2294 | 140.7362% | 1.8206% |
Mezzoblue | 12000 | 278000 | 99511 | 829.2583% | 35.7953% |
PostSecret | 5790 | 202000 | 30794 | 531.8480% | 15.2446% |
Samizdata.net | 1050 | 18000 | 1712 | 163.0476% | 9.5111% |
Lawrence Lessig | 30600 | 959000 | 81047 | 264.8595% | 8.4512% |
Counterpunch | 11700 | 295000 | 52642 | 449.9316% | 17.8447% |
Democractic Underground | 14900 | 417000 | 35595 | 238.8926% | 8.5360% |
Right Wing News | 27900 | 794000 | 61379 | 219.9964% | 7.7304% |
StopDesign | 10200 | 255000 | 86165 | 844.7549% | 33.7902% |
iBiblio | 9730 | 197000 | 32301 | 331.9733% | 16.3964% |
Samizdata.net (mistake?) | 25500 | 697000 | 61443 | 240.9529% | 8.8154% |
Abrupto | 550 | 44700 | 2698 | 490.5455% | 6.0358% |
gene7299 (Asian MSNSpaces site) | 58 | 764 | 28 | 48.2759% | 3.6649% |
Where is Raed? | 10100 | 232000 | 24848 | 246.0198% | 10.7103% |
B3TA: We love the web | 12000 | 839000 | 38386 | 319.8833% | 4.5752% |
Talkleft | 7170 | 221000 | 60169 | 839.1771% | 27.2258% |
Wizbang | 21000 | 634000 | 60259 | 286.9476% | 9.5046% |
m1net (MSN spaces site) | 104 | 579 | 22 | 21.1538% | 3.7997% |
Hoder | 1480 | 20900 | 1620 | 109.4595% | 7.7512% |
CTRL+Alt+Del | 2310 | 171000 | 32277 | 1397.2727% | 18.8754% |
Brad DeLong | 30100 | 882000 | 48403 | 160.8073% | 5.4879% |
Blogs for Bush | 16200 | 824000 | 50820 | 313.7037% | 6.1675% |
Neil Gaiman | 13700 | 319000 | 71916 | 524.9343% | 22.5442% |
Gothamist | 15200 | 491000 | 47848 | 314.7895% | 9.7450% |
Thought Mechanics | 4400 | 190000 | 60736 | 1380.3636% | 31.9663% |
IMAO | 23800 | 407000 | 45822 | 192.5294% | 11.2585% |
Dan Gillmor (old weblog) | 10800 | 298000 | 36369 | 336.7500% | 12.2044% |
HINAGATA | 10100 | 21100 | 176519 | 1747.7129% | 836.5829% |
Dean’s World | 30600 | 784000 | 53150 | 173.6928% | 6.7793% |
Defamer | 9310 | 725000 | 49132 | 527.7336% | 6.7768% |
USS Clueless | 8470 | 264000 | 64725 | 764.1677% | 24.5170% |
Dive into Mark | 14600 | 235000 | 54167 | 371.0068% | 23.0498% |
Pandagon | 27300 | 743000 | 51286 | 187.8608% | 6.9026% |
Blogging.la | 3200 | 67700 | 8495 | 265.4688% | 12.5480% |
Why are you worshipping the ground I blog on? | 1430 | 85000 | 3481 | 243.4266% | 4.0953% |
Daring Fireball | 12000 | 221000 | 52381 | 436.5083% | 23.7018% |
The most interesting thing here is that MSN seems to prove the assertion I had made regarding Google not providing as many links as Yahoo does. The same seems to be true between MSN and Google. There were, however, a few surprises here, as far as I’m concerned:
- Sites located in the United States seem to fair better, on MSN, than other sites. Google and Yahoo seem to have a stronger indexing presence outside the US than MSN does.
- MSN spaces sites are not getting particularly great representation in MSN search, compared to its competitors. I was surprised by this since they are part of the same service
Conclusions and more!
So there you have, no great insight here apart from the fact that this linking stuff is interesting and that even small scale analysis can bring up some interesting trends. As I mentioned before, I am not an expert on this and thought to put together the numbers and start an analysis. Enjoy!