[barce]

In Technorati's defense, it's what allowed lots of savvy people to target the top 100 blogs and enjoy the network effect from doing that. A good example is Tim Ferriss' book, The 4 Hour Work Week. It was useful for figuring out which blogs one ought to be commenting on in order to create synergy with one's blog.

[ghaff]

With all due respect etc., I think you're sorta making the parent's point. Technorati (and related) was useful for the Xrati to create their commentariat bubble that was largely irrelevant to the world or even the tech-focused world as a whole. Not that such bubbles don't still exist to significant degrees with or without specific websites whether Technorati or HN.