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Google Blog Search - What You Should Know
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By Titus Hoskins
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Google is moving in so many directions, it can be somewhatdifficult to keep track of all the services and tools offered bythis premium search engine. For the seasoned webmaster as wellas the ordinary surfer, keeping a clear picture of what Googleis offering is sometimes a little overwhelming.
Recently, there has been a deluge of new products from Google.If you hit the 'more' button on the Google Home page, you willsee a smattering of Google services and tools. Including Desktop2, Print, Maps, Google Earth... you can even search and browsemail-order catalogs.
Now comes Blog Search - where Internet users can now searchblogs for their information. This is a welcomed service,especially for bloggers. Google's embracing of blogs startedwith the purchase of Blogger.com and got sidetracked with the'costly' argument over which syndication standard to use. Mostfavored RSS while Google promoted the Atom standard for its blogfeeds.
Blogs are online journals where ordinary people give opinions,information and links on topics that matter to them. Thesetopics can be anything under the sun: from politics toneedlepoint to corporate blogs to your local school's basketballteam. Blogs give a real insight into what ordinary surfersbelieve and feel about a subject.
It's an instant snapshot of our world in words and pictures -but mostly words.
Blogs are often associated with RSS because RSS is thesyndication standard that sends out the blog's content in littlesnippets to all interested parties. Subscribers to these blogscan read these headlines in News Readers or Aggregators and thenclick on the links to get more information. Keep in mind, theoriginal acronym for RSS is 'Rich Site Summary', but thatmeaning has been somewhat replaced by the major benefit of RSSwhich is 'Really Simple Syndication'.
Many browsers are now coming with an RSS reader alreadybuilt-in, such as the popular Mozilla's Firefox browser.Microsoft's new Longhorn version of Windows will have RSS builtinto its operating system.
Recently Google has embraced RSS in its Desktop 2 program and inthe XML powered Google Sitemaps. Now comes Blog Search, a way tosearch all the information in these blogs. In the past, mostbloggers have used the Technorati site to search blogs as wellas RSS search offered by MSN and Yahoo.
Some things you should know about Google Blog Search:
1. How to access it? You can use the blog Search sitewww.blogsearch.google.com or www.search.blogger.com You may alsouse the Navigational Bar on any BlogSpot blog, plus you willalso be able to access it from your Blogger Dashboard. TheBlogger Navbar gives you the option of searching within thecurrent blog or searching all blogs.
Major criticism - Google has not placed a link on its home(front) page of Google search - as blogs and blogging becomeseven more popular maybe this error will be fixed.
2. Who's included? It should be noted that Google willindex all blogs using a site feed (RSS or Atom) and you can getyour Blog indexed just by using an automatic pinging serviceoffered by such sites as www.weblogs.com
Please Note - Your older posts may not be present in searchresults, Google started indexing feeds around June, 2005. Olderposts may be included at a later date.
3. What search operators or query words are supported?You can use these standard Google Search modifiers and Googlewill restrict your results - link:, site:, intitle: plus newones for Blog Search - inblogtitle:, inposttitle:,inpostauthor:, and blogurl:
4. Can I subscribe to search results? Yes, just use theNews Aggregator of your choice and subscribe to the feeds at thebottom of the results page, then you can be automaticallyupdated as new posts come online.
5. Can I use Safesearch? Yes, Google lets you filter outany unwanted sites.
More information on Blog Search click here: http://www.google.com/help/about_blogsearch.html
Blog Search is a great extension to the Google Search Empire,it will give surfers access to a greater range of material. Nodoubt, this is not the end of what Google has to offer to itsloyal followers. Persistent speculation and rumors abound, itjust won't go away, rumors that Google is NOT only designing itsown browser (it owns the domain gbrowser.com) but its ownoperating system.
But why stop there - if you're dreaming of the perfect search -you must go further. Google must go further!
And since we're dreaming...
How about a Google delivered Instant Search embedded in a GoogleRSS Powered Operating System on a Google designed ultra-portablenotebook computer with a wireless cell phone modem, accessibleanywhere in the world...
...wake me up when it arrives!
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