OK, the traffic portion of the technoranki blog ranking project is basically done. Traffic is being logged and processed, so all that remains is for the results to be actually be incorporated into the final score, and this is a simple matter.
At the moment there is still only a small percentage of bloggers using the code. This is fine (there is no pressure to join the project!), but if you don’t join in then you stand to loose your existing position within the charts. I’ve not set a date for the switch over to the upgraded ranking method. While I’m keen to do this soon, I don’t want to do it while we’ve only got a small number of blogs participating.
So, if you want to take part, please get the code and install it into your blog template. I’m hoping to generate some interesting graphs and reports based on the data we collect too, so the more people that take part the better 
Technorati Tags: technoranki, blog ranks
February 3, 2006 at 10:48 pm
Hi Mark,
I installed the code yesterday and was wondering if you can tell if it is working? I, obviously, have no idea though it sits prettily in my header. Thanks for your help getting it.
Jake
February 4, 2006 at 1:16 am
Hi Jake, I’ve checked the logs and all looks good
February 5, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Mark, just wondered how long before the traffic via our blogs is used to calculate the Top of the Blogs list?
Cheers …
February 6, 2006 at 10:42 am
Not sure, Mr Piggy Bank. The usage levels are going up nicely, but as a percentage of out 3900 members it’s still quite small.
Technoranki will be opening up in the next couple of weeks to allow anyone to join, so that’ll probably be the best switch-over time. I’ll post something here when that happens.
February 6, 2006 at 12:30 pm
I’ve tried to add the code but nothing appears in the form below the two logo choices? Is there a known problem?
February 6, 2006 at 12:36 pm
About that problem… it’s a Safari Error. I am on a mac using Safari.. Opened Firefox and the code was displayed… just thought I’d let you know.
February 6, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Thanks Davidt, I think there may be problems with a Mac. I’m going to get one of those mac minis in a month or so, but in the mean time please bear with us.
If anyone else spots any problems with any part of this or the technoranki web sites, please do let me know. Thanks!
February 9, 2006 at 12:09 am
Have the code on my site, got a rating of 2. Is that good, or bad?
February 9, 2006 at 8:56 pm
Please! Make it live. It doesn’t matter that there’s not many people taking part at the moment. What really matters is that I get into the top 50. I’m in danger of losing my job because I spend my days surfing the net begging people to read my blog. If I get into the top 50 I won’t need to do that anymore. So pleeeeeeaaaase!
February 11, 2006 at 2:04 pm
What is the highest rating? I mean number.
February 11, 2006 at 3:51 pm
It will be going live soon – honest!
Sebastien, the highest rank is 10, and it goes down to 0.
February 11, 2006 at 9:53 pm
I concur with all those who are wishing the traffic rank to go live now.
Most people in the “top of the blogs” are the same people day in day out which I doubt would be the case if traffic was taken into account.
Let others be seen.
February 11, 2006 at 9:56 pm
P.S Those who haven’t bothered to display the rank logo within their blogs soon will if it’s traffic that will be keeping them in their respective positions on this site.
Bring it on!
February 13, 2006 at 11:34 pm
I’ve just added the code, but had to remove the ‘border=0′ from the img tag before adding alt text so it didn’t break my XHTML Strict validation. Just mentioning this because I understand technoranki will come sniffing for the code later, and I just hope it doesn’t expect an identical copy of the code we’re given.
February 14, 2006 at 11:03 am
Walker, thanks for pointing this out. I will have to change the bot code a little, but it’s a valid point you make (if you’ll pardon the pun…)
February 19, 2006 at 12:17 am
Is the code live now? My ranking has changed twice today.
February 19, 2006 at 1:40 am
JT, no, the traffic stuff isn’t live yet – not had enough time I’m afraid. Doesn’t look like I’ll have time tomorrow now either, but I’ll try and get it done soon.
Ranks are calculated once a day (in the early hours of the morning), but in order to minimise load on the server the actual tracking images that display rank are also only updated once a day. The update of these images is distributed randomly across the day, which means you could have one rank in the morning, and a different one in the afternoon.
February 20, 2006 at 7:52 pm
After the excitement of hitting #2 we’ve dropped to #4, what fun; is this down purely to live traffic fluctuations or is it because I removed the XHTML-breaking border="0" from the code (which Walker mentioned earlier)?
P.S. service suggestion: include a “high water mark”, enabling people to see what the highest charted position they’ve ever achieved was.
February 20, 2006 at 8:54 pm
Rich, it’s probably due to fluctuations throughout the day as we synchronize our database. Technoranki is a totally different site/database to BritBlog, and we have to get the latest scores/ranks for our member blogs gradually throughout the day.
These apparently odd fluctuations will stop as technoranki gets more blogs from a wider range of sources than just BritBlog.
By the way, thanks for the suggestion
February 22, 2006 at 2:59 am
P.P.S. I had to add “alt” text to the image too, accessibility guidelines are quite insistant on every image having a textual alternative.
P.P.P.S. How about storing the historical data in a DB table that records (once per time-period), the average position reached during that time period. You could then show how popularity changes over time, and also see how popularity and traffic can increase whilst overall rank can still decrease (due to increased membership of more popular blogs) – it’s sometthing I notice in technorati, when it very occasionally works.
February 22, 2006 at 2:40 pm
Rich,
There have been a couple of suggestions for improving the tracking code. I suggest we come up with a definative version of the code then update accordingly. The tracking agent won’t be able to deal with multiple variations of the code (it’s a pain, and not good for performance), so it would be good to nail this soon. We have to be fairly strict on the tracking code because we need to minimise any foul play from people…
Regarding the historical data, this is already in the pipeline! Thanks again, and keep the ideas coming in!