Does Technorati Work Any More?
If I ever need to know when I switched this blog over to its present-day domain name of 'blog.techstacks.com', Technorati has a great service for small-time bloggers like me called "Last Ping". Last Ping, gives you the number of days since you last pinged technorati telling their crawlers that you have published or posted something new on your blog.
As of the time of this writing, even though I ping technorati EVERY TIME I post something new or update something on the site, Last Ping is always there ready to let me know that it has been 185 days since my last ping (and counting!). 185 days ago is when I switched domain names from 'allsortsandnotions.blogspot.com' to 'blog.techstacks.com'.
It's almost cruel. It doesn't seem to matter where or how I ping. Ping from their "Ping Us" page: "Thanks for the ping! You last pinged us 185 days ago!" Ping through Ping-O-Matic? "Ping sent!" I've written this primitive groovy script below that pings using their XML-RPC API. "Thanks for the Ping!"
#!/usr/bin/env groovy
import groovy.net.xmlrpc.*
def server = new XMLRPCServerProxy("http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping")
def result = server.weblogUpdates.ping("blogging techstacks" , "http://blog.techstacks.com/")
if (result != null)
println "Thanks for the ping!"
And still, Last Ping is always there to remind me that all my subsequent ping attempts are really cute and funny. So, I have written a new script for other bloggers out there called "Last Ping" that logs into Technorati and reminds you how long it has been since your last worthy ping. Uses Perl and the WebService::Technorati module, (gosh--CPAN really does have everything). This script is a real time-saver! Below is the source code and it may soon wind up available for download on the Downloads page. Update: Technorati API calls began failing on October 25th, 2009, due to the launch of the 'new' Technorati, so this script has been removed from the Downloads page. Plug in your blog url and your technorati api key in the corresponding $url and $apikey variables and you too can see at a glance when your last 'real' ping was received. Output for me is as follows:
The last compelling thing I wrote was on: 2009-01-20 06:56:38 GMT
Perl and Groovy Source:
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use WebService::Technorati;
my $apikey = 'enter_your_API_KEY_here';
my $url = 'your_BLOG_URL_goes_here';
my $t = WebService::Technorati->new( key => $apikey );
my $q = $t->getBloginfoApiQuery($url);
$q->execute;
my $lastping = $q->getSubjectBlog();
print "The last compelling thing I wrote was on: " . $lastping->{lastupdate} . "\n";
I'm hoping that soon Technorati will build some web services out of their support site so that I can then script something that will track how long it has been since I opened my first and second cases with them about this particular issue and maybe even calculate the delta between the case open date and a response.
The groovy version of the script above is:
#!/usr/bin/env groovy
import groovyx.net.http.RESTClient
import groovy.util.slurpersupport.GPathResult
import static groovyx.net.http.ContentType.*
client = new RESTClient( 'http://api.technorati.com/bloginfo?key=INSERT_YOUR_API_KEY_HERE&url=INSERT_YOUR_URL_HERE' )
resp = client.get( contentType:XML, headers: [Accept: 'application/xml'] )
resp.data instanceof GPathResult
println "The last compelling thing I wrote was on: ${resp.data.document.result.weblog.lastupdate}"
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