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Google To Create "Blog" Search; Potentially Remove From Main
Skyshadow writes "Google, search engine of choice for pretty much everyone, has announced that it will begin a seperate index for blogs and remove them from the normal index, handling them instead in much the same way as their usenet archives. This will hopefully put an end to the recent difficulties locating primary source material among the mountains of blogs which are clogging the ratings system." There's been comments from elsewhere that says they won't be removing them - but that remains to be seen.
Is there any chance of having an RSS feature for journals, for everyone or even just subscribers?
I, for one, am sick of searching material only to find that the page is some asshat's blog. Nothing against blogs, but you never know where this material came from.
OTOH, what constitutes a 'blog'? Is Slashdot a blog? Is this a blog? The lines are constantly being blurred, and I'm not sure it'll be easy for google to make that distinction.
My journal has hot
Most of the useless information people put into blogs. Although, when you search for information, would you want to search 2 different locations? This is the whole claim to googles fame. I have found that many times people post how-to's in thier blogs along with other information.
If it ain't broke...don't fix it
-Rob
I wonder if this is also intended to stop Googlewashing? Google has a history of trying to 'play fair' - and the power of a few well connected blogs to basically 'take possession' of any term works against that philosophy.
One of the biggest newspapers in Norway, where I live, has recently said they believe blogs to be the new 'killer app' for delivering information on the net. The problem with that is that the treshold for publishing 'news' is so low, anybody can do it. This makes it very difficult for people to find the info they are looking for. At the same time there is no guaranty the info is useful or even correct. A good reputation will be more and more important for businesses and sites on the net.
/. would get though ;)
This move by google tells me newspapers in norway aren't the only ones seeing how influental blogs will/could become.This is a truly great step forward if Google could come up with a way of rating the different blogs. That way you could easily find serious tech-blogs.
Wonder what rating
Be like the twenty-second elephant with heated value in space-Bark!
As a previous poster briefly mentioned, what exactly is a blog? Would Slashdot forums be considered a blog? What about the myriad of ezboard message board forums out there, as well as other discussion websites? If the answer is no, it would be seemingly difficult and perhaps only of minor benefit to seperate just the true "blog" sites while ignoring the other sites.
And what about ebay? Quite often I am searching for info on an old piece of electronics I've picked up someplace, and I do a goole search, hoping to find information about the item. Well, all I get in return are ebay links to a similar item that was sold on ebay a few months ago. And even then, I click on the link, hoping to see what the item sold for (and thus get an appraisal), but the auction has been removed from the database due to it being several months old. Why index ebay pages? It's really frustrating.
Loomis
"The television is the retina of the mind's eye" - Videodrome
It's a reasonable solution, I think. Is it worth tainting the vast majority of the search results with useless blog entries just so that the (very) few blogs with good information will still show up?
This solves their problem with bloggers manipulating search results, yet still keeps the information available to those who want it. Granted, you have to know to look for it, but it seems to me like a fair trade-off.
I really don't mind finding blog links when I search for something, as they usually at least link to some relevant sources.
On the other hand, it is really a pain to search for help on something, and instead of getting a useful, authoritative document, I'll get a half-dozen archived unanswered mailing list posts from people with the same problem. I would much rather Google address this dilution from mailing lists.
The requested URL
I work at a company that has a blog-like recap of political news of interest for our clients and friends. If google tries to separate all sites with blog-like content, won't this naturally reduce my rank without actually increasing the source of information? Or am I missing something? How is google going to search for blog-like sites?
/. is a blog, no?
No. SlashDot aggregates news stories. It's the Web generation of what the BBS guys had in CompuServe Forums and GEnie Roundtables. The staff is paid to aggregate and thread stories that are of interest to a particular community. (Sometimes they aggregate the really, really good ones more than once.) Technically, SlashDot staff don't submit the stories, members of the community do. Bottom line: it's a professional operation. (g'head, g'head, make the jokes, it's Monday, get 'em outta yer system...)
Personally, I would use the litmus test of "professionalism" when doping out what is a blog versus what is "legitimate" content. If the "blogger" makes his living as a writer or journalist, then the blog is "supplemental online material." If the site is, as we referred to the vanity publishing phenomenon back in the early '90's, someone's "homepage," but with the added baggage of semi-regular diary entries, then it's a Blog.
Use of "blogging software" doesn't make someone a writer, or a journalist, and it certainly doesn't automatically grant its user something worth saying, or even something factual to say.
It's great to see Google realizing this and clamping down.