Scoble's Right: Technorati Isn't Scaling to Beat Google

I want to root for companies like Technorati, who have introduced new features and functionality for today's interactive, social Web. Technorati, when the site is up, is one of the best for tracking the popularity of topics and conversations, or to see which bloggers are among the most frequently linked to. But for months, the site has been riddled with slowness, server timeouts during searches or peak load, and most recently, has seen outage after outage. (The above image was posted on their site tonight, during some updates.)

In the past, Technorati CEO David Sifry has been open about the scalability problems. Just this last July, he commented on a previous note I made about the slowness, saying:

You make a great point, we've been working very hard on building out the scalability and reliability of the Technorati service... Making sure that regular users like you are getting what you need, every time, quickly, is intensly important, and I want to know if you or anyone you know is having problems, so we can address the issues immediately...

His openness and speaking directly to the blogging community is commendable. I love the personal touch. But the truth is that Technorati still isn't scaling, and as Robert Scoble has pointed out time and again, Google's Blog Search tool is getting increasingly better, closing the gap between it and the blog search pioneers, including Technorati.

Meanwhile, Steve Rubel of Micropersuasion found one likely reason Technorati isn't that focused on keeping their core search tool on top of its game. He discovered on Tuesday that Technorati is planning a Digg-like competitor called Technorati WTF, short for "Where's the Fire"? Yet, that site still isn't live, though it could be coming shortly, causing some of the recent downtime.

Just like I mentioned with YouTube recently, downtime is not an acceptable part of today's Web-driven world. If you can't deliver your core services, then why are you adding new features? Fix what is broken, and learn how to make updates without impacting the users. I haven't seen Google go down for maintenance, maybe ever. If they're up and you're down, where are the users going to go?

Previous Stories:
Silly YouTube - Where's The Redundancy?
Web 2.0 Companies Play With Error Messages

Windows Vista: Lipstick on a Pig

Noted Web pioneer Dave Winer chimes in on the hype around Microsoft's latest release to the Operating System formerly known as Longhorn...

"$500 million of marketing can't hide the fact that these days it's hard to find anyone who cares about Windows."
Via Scripting.com (Jan. 31, 2007)

New Apple Airport On Its Way Early

While it wasn't as exciting as learning my new AppleTV had shipped, or if I had somehow obtained early access to the iPhone, I received a pleasant message in my e-mail today, as Apple let me know they had received clearance to offer their newest 802.11n-capable Airport base stations, and they were set to ship immediately, a full two weeks ahead of schedule. Now, instead of expecting my new wireless experience in March, it's looking a lot more like I'll be zipping around wirelessly a lot more quickly come Valentine's Day or so.

Below is the text of the e-mail.

  To Our Valued Apple Customer:

  Apple today began shipping our new AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11n). We
  are delighted to tell you that we plan to ship your AirPort Extreme Base
  Station (802.11n) two weeks earlier than we had anticipated. We now plan to
  ship your product on or before Wednesday, February 14. No action on your part
  is required.

Silly Apple. Don't they know that the way to dominate the market is to announce delay after delay and increase anticipation?

Nail Clippers

Know how there is always something you forget on a trip that just annoys the heck out of you until the problem is solved? Whether it's toothpaste, socks or shaving cream, it always seems like there's just one thing that prevents me from having the perfect trip experience. This week, it was nail clippers. Yet, the uniqueness of New York bailed me out.

At events, the way you present yourself is critical - so making sure I didn't have long, dirty or jagged nails when shaking hands and greeting people was actually a pretty big deal. On Monday, it was already bugging the heck out of me, as my subconscious reminded me something was wrong with the world. But on Tuesday, the answer came in a very New York way.

Walking back from breakfast, I stopped at one of the sidewalk vendors who offers a plethora of quick-fix goods, from phone cards to gum and soda. After plunking down $2 or so to get some gum and a roll of Certs, I looked up to see nail clippers hanging from the ceiling. Perfection. For a single buck, I had the answer, and New York had come through again.

I love this city. Yet on Thursday, I head back to the West Coast, leaving the land of instant fulfillment and 27-degree weather behind. But boy, my nails do look good.