// you’re reading...

Other

Tech link train wreck – final stop

Train wreck

The newest meme spreading through the blogosphere, is the so called “tech link train”, with a very obvious purpose of gaming both Technorati and Google ranking systems. Links are the currency of the internets – Technorati increases your rank for new links from blogs, while Google increases your rank for links from pages of similar topics. Combo points for accumulating backlinks from blogs that write on similar topics.

The target topic is science and technology. Not only does Computer Science fit the criterion, but Richard Curry of tek-works has put me on top of his list. Thank you Richard.

Now I could just carry on, inject my own blog into the lengthy link load, and send out 5 more of such “trains” into the wild. I will get free links, and so will everyone in the train’s path before me. Though I don’t deserve such links, and nether do others. Not because they are bad blogs, in fact many are high ranking A-listers, but because this pyramid scheme generates a lot of highly sought after resource, without providing much value in return. It doesn’t seem fair.

The entire thing reminds me of the 2000 Bloggers project, and Technorati’s response from a month ago:

To dissuade chain posts from submerging your voice in their dilutative effects, we’ve updated our indexing systems on an experimental basis to filter out links of this nature.

So instead I would like to mention a few interesting blogs, that I have personally came across recently.

  • Inkblot Earth – being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are aesthetics, ultra-science and artificial intelligence.
  • Bill2me dot Com – blog dedicated to the developing news that keeps casual gamers & gadgeteers in the loop.
  • Standardzilla – a website documenting the current state of usability, web standards, accessibility and unobtrusive search engine optimisation techniques in the online industry.
  • Steve Healy Games – Steve Healy’s rambling on about video game development and motivation.
  • AVINASH & Web 2.0 – an Information Technology blog on website design, programming, and related topics.

Kudos.

Read more



Discussion

  1. Posted by Avinash | March 13, 2007, 4:35 am

    Thanks, Tony! :)

    I’m glad to know that you liked my blog. I already subscribed to your RSS feed and now going to add your link in my blogroll so that I can frequently visit this blog.

    - Avi

    Reply to comment

  2. Posted by hthth | March 13, 2007, 10:10 pm

    Hi Tony,
    Thanks for reading, and the link.

    Even though I agree with your arguments regarding memes in general, I consider this one a bit different (see explanation in my post). So I took the liberty of actually keeping the train going, and hope you’ll forgive.

    I like your blog as well, by the way — this is definitely not my last visit.

    Reply to comment

  3. Posted by Tony2Nice | March 13, 2007, 10:19 pm

    Hey Tony, love your name. I s’pose the site’s pretty good too. ;)

    Reply to comment

  4. Posted by Richard Curry | March 14, 2007, 12:10 am

    Thanks for pointing to the info from Technorati, I hadn’t seen that. This is why we love (tech) blogs, we learn something everyday!

    Reply to comment

  5. Posted by Tony | March 14, 2007, 12:54 am

    @Avinash – blogroll? awesomeness, thx!

    @hthth – I forgive you this time. Actually you are right in your opinion of the positive aspects, I just wanted to go with a more personal choice.

    @Tony2Nice – I like your name too ;) Love your blog’s design by the way.

    @Richard – you’re right, we blog to teach and learn :)

    Reply to comment

  6. Posted by Avinash | March 14, 2007, 2:48 am

    My pleasure, Tony! :)

    Reply to comment

  7. Posted by Tech Link Train Meme | Steve Healy Games | March 16, 2007, 1:54 am

    [...] I was recently tagged by Tony over at CompSci.ca/blog. [...]

  8. Posted by Tech Train: Tracking a Meme Through Space and Time « Neomeme | March 20, 2007, 2:29 am

    [...] 4. Computer Science Canada – By Tony Targonski, a student at the University of Waterloo(Canada) studying computer science. [...]

Post a comment

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>