Surprise: chief executives out at Podtech, Technorati

The chief executives of PodTech, a tech-news company, and Technorati, a blog search engine, separately announced their departures today — neither move is unexpected from these formerly high-flying companies

Both launched a couple of years ago, when the promise of podcasting and blogging were exciting but not well understood. They both made big bets about the evolution of the web that have — from what we can tell — turned out to be off.

Podtech’s John Furrier says he is stepping down, to be replaced by chief operating officer James McCormick. Over the past two years, the Palo Alto company has gone from its namesake audio podcasts to focus mostly on video news and infomercials. Rumors of the company’s troubles have been swirling for months — ranging from internal disputes among staff members to questionable videos to a curiously small bit of additional funding last month. Still, it has the bubbly demi-celebrity Robert Scoble and a range of other attention-grabbing employees; Furrier says he will keep a position on the company’s board, and will also continue as an employee.

Technorati’s David Sifry blogged about his own departure here, noting that the San Francisco company is continuing a months-long search for his replacement, and that he will remain as the chair of the company’s board. Technorati has struggled to define itself as competitors including Google and Sphere have begun offering their own services for finding blog articles. Sifry says other executives at the company will take over his responsibilities as the search for a replacement continues — then casually notes that the company has also laid off eight other employees. Not a graceful end to not a graceful tenure.