Why WordPress moved from Technorati to Google BlogSearch?

Only a few people may have noticed this but since WordPress 2.3 came out, they switched the WP Dashboard Incoming Links from Technorati to Google BlogSearch. Why WordPress decided to make this move is yet unknown until this day.

So, can we assume that this switch was made because Google BlogSearch has become technically superior over Technorati? Hmm, let’s see:

• Technorati is slower in crawling blogs and is now only limited to the last 6 months. Technorati confirms the recent deletion of all archived index older than six months and reasoned that they are in the midst of some economization, performance fixes and retooling that have required taking some data offline.
• The blog search engine is still suffering from search overload once in a while. Having millions of WordPress Dashboards pull data from Technorati on a constant basis may have contributed to that so they thought it’s better to link to somewhere else.
• Technorati has had some significant shakeups lately which includes several layoffs and the resignation of CEO David Sifry. WordPress must have thought of bailing out way before things get any uglier.

On the other hand, Google BlogSearch ain’t any better as well according to bloggers wanting to switch back to Technorati:

• And others thought Technorati was slow in indexing blogs? Google BlogSearch seemed even slower. Just did a comparison as of this writing and recent index from Google BlogSearch is 16 hours ago while Technorati came by only 42 minutes ago (and previous to that, 2 hours, 6 hours and 8 hours ago). Does that mean Google BlogSearch only indexes a blog once a day?
• Google BlogSearch shows a whole lot of spam. Tons of them. I don’t want to see them scraper sites leeching off my content. IMO, Technorati is more experienced in filtering out spam blogs and scraper sites.
• I see my blog listed as blogs linking back to me. Google BlogSearch considers your own blog linking back to you whenever you link to another post in your blog. Those are link counts I don’t want to see. This sometimes happens with Technorati but generally, it’s not part of their search algorithm.

And we haven’t touched the fact that a lot of people love the Technorati Rank and it’s been used by tons of sites to rate blogs. Same goes with the valuation of ad rates and blog sales. Besides, I didn’t hear any petition from the WordPress community to make the switch. Now, people have been developing hacks and plugins just to get back that Technorati Inlinks in their WP Dashboard again.

So why the move? Here’s my rather odd take — WordPress may be sweetening itself for some possible ad deal with Google. Clearly, having that incoming links in the Dashboard is a free traffic magnet. That could get people to actually switch blog search engines as well in the long run. We all know where Mozilla got its $66.8PHP 3,920INR 5,661EUR 64CNY 486 million revenues in 2006 – Firefox search toolbar driving traffic to Google search. WordPress might be preparing for a similar arrangement in the future. But wait, there aren’t any ads on Google BlogSearch. Well, it’s just a matter of time.

What else could WordPress get in return? It’s a strategic business realignment. Having good relationship with Google could bring you tons of other business opportunities. One huge possibility is the adoption of Akismet into Blogger. And yes, Automattic is selling a $5PHP 293INR 424EUR 5CNY 36/month Pro-blogger API Key and a $50PHP 2,934INR 4,237EUR 48CNY 364/month Enterprise API Key.

These are just speculations but in the absence of an official statement regarding the switch, I am inclined to look for the motivation behind it — and one strong motivation that’s always at the top of any business is the revenue.