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Google To Create "Blog" Search; Potentially Remove From Main

Posted by Hemos on from the about-freakin'-time dept.

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.

9 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. journals by asv108 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Will /. journals be included in this?

    Is there any chance of having an RSS feature for journals, for everyone or even just subscribers?

    1. Re:journals by jawtheshark · · Score: 5, Interesting

      No... Check robots.txt

      --
      Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
    2. Re:journals by cygnusx · · Score: 5, Interesting

      > Those text ads were quite tricky to filter out

      You're entitled to block them if you wish, of course, but if the ads don't consume too many bits, and bring the site-owner some moolah, and don't interfere with your browsing, how does blocking text ads help?

      Knee-jerk ad-blocking will only kill free content on the net, imho.

  2. Good to weed out.... by caffeinex36 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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

    1. Re:Good to weed out.... by Zathrus · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If you know how to do serious web searches via Google then you're already searching at least 2 locations - the main Google search and the Google Groups search. You may also search Google News separately (although the info from there is usually in the main search as well).

      I'm looking forward to this, since most of the stuff Google hits in blogs is completely and utterly irrelevant to what I'm actually trying to find. Google will probably just have another tab to click on, or perhaps a few top links to blog-specific searches if they think it's relevant (like they do with cross links to Google News searches currently). Perhaps even a configurable "Include Blogs" on the preferences page. Whatever, I don't care, just let me exclude the damn things.

      If I don't get what I'm looking for in regular search then may go search Blogs as well. After newsgroups.

  3. An end to 'Googlewashing'? by Snowhare · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  4. blogs by Blocked+By+Sand · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    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 /. would get though ;)

    --
    Be like the twenty-second elephant with heated value in space-Bark!
  5. is ./ a blog? ebay? by loomis · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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
  6. Re:blogs.google.com? by GT_Alias · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Which is why Google is not eliminating them entirely, just moving them over to their own search.

    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.