Like a lighthouse in the blogs, Technorati guides you through the sea of more than 50 million choices and gives you the tools to take you straight to the blogs you're looking for:

Define the Playing Field

Limit your results by specifying where you'd like to focus your search: in the text of blog posts, in the descriptive tags that bloggers give their posts, or in Technorati's unique blog directory. And Advanced Search provides even more tools.

Combine Forces

Smarten up your search by using suggested combinations of search terms.

Search with Authority

Blogs with "a lot of authority" are those which have been linked to the most. This is built on the idea that each time an individual links to a blog, it's a tiny testimony to the value of that site.

Sneak a Peek

Use the "Show Details" link at the bottom of each entry to preview each post.

It's Friday afternoon, too early to start drinking but too late to actually tackle any real work. Time for Technorati's Discover and Popular pages, the two most delicious time-disposals ever created.

By Popular Demand

Find out where the world's clicking this very minute with Technorati's Popular page, a survey of what users are focusing on this very minute. What news, gossip, or trends are getting the biggest blog play? Try the Top Tags. What dirt are people digging the most? Follow the Top Searches. Or just dip into the most linked-to blogs, books, movies, podcasts, or internet videos... who knows what you'll find?

Make a Discovery

Duck under one of the big, umbrella topicsNews, Entertainment, Life, Business, Sports, or Techon Technorati's Discover page, then rummage your way through a collection of top-linked blogs, each sorted into a tidy directory of subtopics.

Widen the Search

Sometimes the very best coverage of late-breaking news (the London tunnel bombings) or cultural event (Lindsay Lohan's latest bikini slip) comes directly from unknown but on-the-scene bloggers. So open the throttle on your search parameters, lower the Authority to "Any," and spend some time sifting through up-to-the-minute opinions and photos from small-time bloggers. What you find will be more personal and immediate, and far less sterile, than anything you'd encounter on the six o'clock news.

Technorati lets you gather all your beloved blogs into one cozy spot, which allows you see who has updated, with at-a-glance convenience.

Playing Favorites

To create your Favorites List, you can paste in the URLs of all your beloved blogs, one by one. Or, as you search and explore the Technorati site, keep your eyes peeled for the Heart icon, which lets you favorite a blog with just one click.

Hanging Tags

Keep your Favorites List neat and accessible by sorting your library of blogs into personalized subtopics, also known as Tags, such as "friends" or "gossip" or "poultry."

Keeping Tabs

The Watchlist page lets you store and monitor the topics that interest you most. You can even keep track of specific URLs. So if you, say, have an obsessive, egomaniacal interest in knowing who's linking to your site, your Watchlist makes it almost too easy.

Boosting Your Blogs

Claim your blog, then write a brief description, add some topical Tags, and a photo. Your blog will then be added to the ranks of Technorati, popping up whenever someone searches for the terms of your Tags.

So take a deep breath and help us blow out those birthday candles, then dig in and enjoy Technorati's celebratory remodel. And maybe, as you get down to finding exactly the stuff you need (as well as all the things you never knew you needed), hum a little "Happy Birthday Technorati."