News out today that blog search engine Technorati has a radical new look to their site. It’s true. People are talking about it on their blogs today.

According to Technorati CEO Dave Sifry, “...the world has changed.” We’re not in Kansas anymore Toto.

I think this is a good move by Technorati in general business terms. They are a service that grew along with the rise of blogs, many of which were tech focused in the early days. Hench the word ‘tech’ in Technorati. The world of blogs has changed in the last few years. Now there are many daily news blogs, pop culture blogs, travel blogs, video blogs, etc. Blogging isn’t just about tech anymore.

Some feel that there is less of a need for dedicated blog search engines. A couple of years ago if you went to a regular search engine you were likely to find results from some kind of a traditional, static website. There was a gap in finding information published by people who were updating on a regular basis with not just facts, but opinions too. So Technorati jumped in and filled the void.

In 2007 Google has groomed their ever rising search tsunami to sweep blogs under their carpet as well. Where I used to leverage Technorati to find out, “who is talking about what today,” I now subscribe to Google Blog Search results. Even regular Google search results return blog entries.

My friend Neville Hobson wrote a post about Dolphin Music last year. Now that post shows up in Google search results for Dolphin Music. That post is now part of what I’ll call ‘the archived web’.

I think that the standard search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) are best used to serve the archived web. If you want to find out what people (and by people I don’t mean major news organizations) are talking about today, then you search blogs.

So there is definitely a continued need for Technorati in the world of the web. They just have to come to terms with the fact that they are no longer the only game in town anymore.

[tags]Social Media, Search, Blog Search, Technorati, Google[/tags]