Google is moving in so many directions,
it can be somewhat difficult to keep track of all the
services and tools offered by this premium search
engine. For the seasoned webmaster as well as the
ordinary surfer, keeping a clear picture of what Google
is 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 will see a smattering of
Google services and tools. Including Desktop 2, Print,
Maps, Google Earth... you can even search and browse
mail-order catalogs.
Now comes Blog Search - where Internet
users can now search blogs for their information. This
is a welcomed service, especially for bloggers. Google's
embracing of blogs started with the purchase of
Blogger.com and got sidetracked with the 'costly'
argument over which syndication standard to use. Most
favored RSS while Google promoted the Atom standard for
its blog feeds.
Blogs are online journals where ordinary
people give opinions, information and links on topics
that matter to them. These topics can be anything under
the sun: from politics to needlepoint to corporate blogs
to your local school's basketball team. Blogs give a
real insight into what ordinary surfers believe 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 the syndication standard that sends out
the blog's content in little snippets to all interested
parties. Subscribers to these blogs can read these
headlines in News Readers or Aggregators and then click
on the links to get more information. Keep in mind, the
original acronym for RSS is 'Rich Site Summary', but
that meaning has been somewhat replaced by the major
benefit of RSS which is 'Really Simple Syndication'.
Many browsers are now coming with an RSS
reader already built-in, such as the popular Mozilla's
Firefox browser. Microsoft's new Longhorn version of
Windows will have RSS built into its operating system.
Recently Google has embraced RSS in its
Desktop 2 program and in the XML powered Google
Sitemaps. Now comes Blog Search, a way to search all the
information in these blogs. In the past, most bloggers
have used the Technorati site to search blogs as well as
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 site www.blogsearch.google.com or
www.search.blogger.com You may also use the Navigational
Bar on any BlogSpot blog, plus you will also be able to
access it from your Blogger Dashboard. The Blogger
Navbar gives you the option of searching within the
current 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 becomes even more popular maybe this
error will be fixed.
2. Who's included? It should be
noted that Google will index all blogs using a site feed
(RSS or Atom) and you can get your Blog indexed just by
using an automatic pinging service offered by such sites
as www.weblogs.com
Please Note -- Your older posts may not
be present in search results, Google started indexing
feeds around June, 2005. Older posts 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 Google will restrict your
results -- link:, site:, intitle: plus new ones for Blog
Search -- inblogtitle:, inposttitle:, inpostauthor:, and
blogurl:
4. Can I subscribe to search results?
Yes, just use the News Aggregator of your choice and
subscribe to the feeds at the bottom of the results
page, then you can be automatically updated as new posts
come online.
5. Can I use Safesearch? Yes,
Google lets you filter out any 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. No doubt, this is not the end
of what Google has to offer to its loyal followers.
Persistent speculation and rumors abound, it just won't
go away, rumors that Google is NOT only designing its
own browser (it owns the domain gbrowser.com) but its
own operating 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 Google RSS Powered Operating System
on a Google designed ultra-portable notebook computer
with a wireless cell phone modem, accessible anywhere in
the world...
...wake me up when it arrives!
