(UPDATE, May 4: Xu Jinglei has just been ranked the #1 popular blog by Technorati. See story.)
Why is the weblog of Xu Jinglei not listed in Technorati's top 100 blogs, wonders Shanghai-based blogger Sam Flemming this week.
Flemming wrote that Xu Jinglei has a wildly popular weblog with "well over 100,000 page views per article and at least 1,000 comments per article."
Flemming's question is part an ongoing debate on how reliable Technorati actually is in tracking weblogs. Non-English bloggers have accused the service of being US-centric, ignoring much of what is happening in the rest of the world.
In an effort to counter some of this critique, Technorati CEO Dave Sifry points at some significant changes in his regular update of the global blogosphere. In March, Japanese blogs seemed to be bigger than not only the English-language blogosphere, but also passing the Chinese in volume. The Japanese? How did that happen?
Ethan Zuckerman recalls a conversation he had with Isaac Mao who explained to him that the largest Chinese hosts of weblogs do not bother to send pings to Technorati, a requirement to get listed. "He pointed out that many Chinese geeks don't see the advantage of having their blogs indexed by an English-language, American-hosted service..."
Now where do the Japanese fit in? During the ongoing We Media conference in London, Kevin Marks of Technorati stopped by the very flaky chatroom and explained that Technorati is working closely with a Japanese partner who encourages Japanese bloggers to ping the Technorati service. At that point, an Indian participant actually had to be told what pinging is.
Since pinging is necessary to connect with Technorati, maybe that explains the service's apparent Western bias. If Technorati gets more partners in France, Korea, and China, then it could become a truly global service.
