Introducing Authorati Channels

"Authorati Channels" makes its debut today. The first channel "Election 2008" focuses on blogs pertaining to the US Presidential Election 2008. Stay tuned for more channels coming soon.

If you would like to suggest a channel, please submit your choice by commenting on this post.

Authorati FeedFlare URL is now generic

You can now optimize your FeedBurner feed with a more generic Authorati FeedFlare URL. Previously you were required to embed your Authorati username into the URL :

http://www.authorati.com/?authorati_username(+flare)

Now you do not have to insert your Authorati username into the URL. The FeedFlare URL is just this:

http://www.authorati.com/?(+flare)

Authorati will auto-discover your AuthoratiPage based on your blog URL. You can read more about optimizing your feed with the Authorati FeedFlare here.

Authorati is now OpenID enabled

You can now sign into Authorati using your OpenID identity URL. If you do not already have one, you can get your OpenID here. Learn more about OpenID here.

Display your Authorati rating on your blog

You can now display your Authorati rating on your blog. You can find the required HTML snippet with instructions here.

Authorati FeedFlare makes it to the FeedBurner 101 List

You can now find the Authorati FeedFlare listed on the "101 FeedFlares for a Better Tomorrow" page on FeedBurner. Look under the category "Rate This Post".

Authorati FeedFlare now available in the FeedBurner public catalog

You can find the Authorati FeedFlare in the FeedBurner public catalog at:

http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/help/flarecatalog

Rate individual blog posts automatically with the Authorati FeedFlare

Now that you have registered your blog on Authorati you may be wondering how you can track ratings for individual blog posts rather than for the entire blog. When you set up the Authorati FeedFlare for your blog, each individual blog post will be tagged by a "Rate Me On Authorati" link with parameters identifying the blog post title and link. When a reader clicks on the FeedFlare link, Authorati will automatically resolve the blog post and the reader will now be rating the individual blog post rather than the blog itself.

What does this mean to you? Well, once you register your blog on Authorati, you do not have to ever bother to update Authorati with blog posts that you wish to track for rating. The Authorati FeedFlare automatically takes care of that for you.

Good Karma

John Unger on Authorati (Part II). Thanks John.

New categories on Authorati

Three new categories have been added: Religion, Entertainment, Video Blogs

Authorati Categories

Seems like I might have to add a new category for "Religion".

Optimize your blog feeds with the "Rate Me On Authorati" FeedFlare unit

You can now optimize your feed by including the "Rate Me On Authorati" feed flare unit in your blog feed. Your feed subscribers can now rate your blog directly from the feed. I have submitted the Feed Flare unit to be included in the public catalog at FeedBurner. But you don't have to wait until it appears in the catalog. Follow these steps to include the FeedFlare unit in your blog feed now:

1. Sign in to your FeedBurner account.
2. Select the relevant blog.
3. Click on the "Optimize" tab on the top.
4. Select "FeedFlare" from the list of services on the left.
5. Scroll down the list of FeedFlare units to the section "Personal Feed Flare".
6. In the textbox watermarked "(Enter or paste a Flare Unit URL)" enter the following URL:

http://www.authorati.com/?authorati_user_id(+flare)

In the above URL enter your authorati username in place of authorati_user_id .

For example if jdoe is your username on Authorati then your URL will be:

http://www.authorati.com/?jdoe(+flare)

7. Click on "Add New Flare".

8. You should now see a Flare unit called "Rate Me On Authorati" under "Personal Feed Flare".

9. Check the "Feed" or "Site" checkboxes depending on where you want the link to appear.

10. Click on "Save" at the bottom.

You are done. Now your subscribers will see the link "Rate Me On Authorati" in their feeds.

Blog content verification Implemented

Well, Authorati got it's first visit from an unwanted guest (an "Adult Rated" blogger) and hence a blog content verification process has been implemented. AuthoratiPages will be verified for the content of the blog before it appears on the site.

Our First Critique

John Unger has posted one of the first reviews of Authorati. You can read it here. I would like to thank him for his honest review and for fixing the Authorati badge HTML. The HTML is now also available for download on your AuthoratiPage.

Welcome to the Authorati blog

The last couple of days has seen a tremendous increase in interest in Authorati.com. It has been just a few weeks since the alpha launch and I feel encouraged by the response. I will be using this blog to update blog authors as I roll out new features on Authorati. This blog will also serve as a feedback forum about the site and help me fine tune Authorati as we move forward to the beta and later releases. Stay tuned and thanks to all the authors who have registered their blogs on Authorati.com.