Technorati Goes Shopping and Buys Blogcritics.org

By Marisa Peacock | Published Aug 29, 2008

Technorati, the blog search engine that showcases content from online newspapers and many other places announced that it has acquired Blogcritics.org.

With Technorati's ability to track the links between blogs, rapidly index tens of thousands of updates every hour, and monitor live communities and the conversations they foster, the acquisition of Blogcritics not only allows its bloggers access to a wider audience, but gives Technorati an opportunity to gain advertising revenue.

Blogcritics is an online magazine, known for creating an interactive community in which writers and readers from around the globe talk about stories, issues and products. According to their site, each week more than 250 new articles are added to an archive of over 70,000 pieces dating back to 2002, when Blogcritics was launched. In addition, they boast that overall comments to Blogcritics.org total more than 600,000.

More than 2,000 bloggers and authors are hosted by Blogcritics, which provides bloggers with an entry point to publish their content to a much broader audience than their own blogs afford. Technorati's plan to monetize Blogcritic's blogs aims to help advertisers “benefit by the ability to run more fully integrated programs across the site and its related blogs.”

This acquisition comes a few months after Blogcritics joined the Technorati Media advertising network, which was formally launched in June. It also provides Technorati with access to other Blogcritics properties like Desicritics.com, a South Asian blogger and author community and Glosslip.com, a celebrity and entertainment blog.

Though Technorati maintains that there are no plans to merge the two properties, it will be worth watching the shape these sites take from here on. Adding to the more than 175,000 new blogs that join the blogosphere, Blogcritics will be right at home in the hands of Technorati.