Today, Google introduces Blog Search, thus ending a long running frustration of bloggers everywhere with Technorati.
Google reminds everyone why they are such a fabulous technology company — more than their sparse and clean interface, their products simply work better than everyone else’s — and often by orders of magnitude.
My first try with BlogSearch revealed 613 links in 0.08 seconds, some as recent as 37 minutes old. Technorati found 510 sites in about 30 seconds. Other competitors typically lag by days and sometimes weeks.
Its game over in the blog search space. I’m tempted to remove my Technorati bookmark. For everyone who has been frustrated with unavailable service, delayed links, and a myriad of other glitches, Google has delivered a knock out punch.
Its also a fascinating reminder how fast and comptitive the technology space is; While Technorati (probably should) get credit for identifying the blog search space, they moved way too slow to get their product offering up to speed. I’m guessing part of the reason for that is their ties to academia — they simply didn’t move fast enough.
Meanwhile, this is yet another reminder of why Google is the most important Internet company out there (not neccessarily stock, but company).
Now you understand why Gates and Ballmer are afraid of them. They damned well should be.
Google keeps raising the bar . . .
UPDATE September 14, 2005 4:57pm
Paul Kedrosky is less impressed than I.
Let me point out that BlogSearch for Paul’s blog (Infectious Greed) reveals "260 linking to http://paul.kedrosky.com/ (0.06 seconds)." Technorati, on the other hand, shows 186 sites — when its available.
So while Google shows a 20% improvement on links to the Big Picture, for Infectious Greed the Google advantage is 40%.
UPDATE II September 17, 2005 6:57am
This was picked up by Barron’s
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB112671948662440647.html
Google new Blog Search
Check it out.
Barry Ritholz has a good analysis:
My first try with BlogSearch revealed 613 links in 0.08 seconds, some as recent as 37 minutes old. Competitors typically lag by days and sometimes weeks.
Its game over in the blog search spac…
They may be an important tech company, I wish they’d update their main search engine. It seems like it hasn’t changed in the five years I’ve been using it. Still just simple keyword searching, with a very limited ability to sort hits or filter out irrelevant hits. Yet strangely, they don’t seem to feel much urgency in improving what amounts to their core application.
Google Blog Search: When to Use Full Feed vs. Excerpts
Is this the death knell for Technorati, et. al? asks Charlene about Googles entry to the Blog Search space.&nbs…
Not so fast. I tried to use Google’s new blog search engine to find my own blog that I kept during my trip to New Zealand. The search returned a big fat bagel. Nada. However, using Google’s regular search and the right terms, my blog is the first hit on the first page. They still have work to do.
Hal,
Did you use a regular “blogging” tool to write about your trip to new zealand? Or is it just regular webpage HTML? The google blog search may stick to what it recognizes as blog code, things like movabletype, blogger, and various custom made php/cgi/perl scripts that behave in a blog-like manner.
I don’t know the specs behind it, it was just a thought.
On a Google related note, my own blog is hosted by Google’s blogspot, and over the past couple of days I’ve been getting fake “anonymous” comments like this on my posts within a minute or two of posting:
“Your blog is great PC Slow? Getting popups? Try this: spyware scan How about this spyware scan”
Freakin disguised ads posing as comments. Don’t know if this a Google creation, but if it is they’re getting far more evil than microsoft.
Charles,
:-) Had you clicked on my name and gone to my blog, you would see the small “Powered By Blosxom” logo down at the bottom.
According to Anil at Six Apart http://www.sixapart.com/pronet/weblog/2005/09/google_launches.html Google is crawling XML feeds as opposed to to HTML. I’m sure there will be pluses in terms of utilizing the data and minuses for not indexing blogs that aren’t providing XML feeds. For a first step out of the gate, this is pretty amazing. I’m sure there’s going to be lots of fine tuning from here.
Royce writes:
“On a Google related note, my own blog is hosted by Google’s blogspot, and over the past couple of days I’ve been getting fake “anonymous” comments like this on my posts within a minute or two of posting: ”
Response
I was getting the same stuff on my blog. Here is what I did to try to stop it. After logging on to blogspot, I went to the “Setting”…”Comments” tabs. In “comments”, I clicked on “Yes” to 1) Show Comments in a popup window and “Yes” to 2) Show Word Verification for Comments. This seems to have cut down on spam (for now).
Nate:
Thanks for the info. I’m going to try that out.
Hal,
Simple explanation — Google doesn’t recognize your CGI page it as a Blog (http://www.dunhackin.org/cgi-bin/blog.cgi)
That’s likely because you are not using standard blogging software (typepad, blogger, radioland, etc)
I would have blosxom tell Google they need to recognize it as a blog
PS search for “Hal Goes Abroad” and its the first hit
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=%22Hal+Goes+Abroad%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
True Google is a terrifying Company and I reckon they are moving quickly but I still reckon that their technology is still not as good as the giant technology firms like Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, or IBM, which are all pioneers in their own respective fields so that I guess Google still needs to sharpen their technologicla prowness before they can be superb although I still think that Google is a very respectful company which has its ideals, dreams……
Steve,
You are wrong on so many levels I dont have the time to respond to it all — so in brief:
1) MSFT is already the evil empire — while Google is still only potentially evil;
2) Please specify what tech of IBM MSFT SUN or Oracle is superior. Allow 30 minutes for laughter to subside.
again, I am not discussing the stock here — just the tech and how its applied.
Barry,
Seeking Alpha has a nice piece on this topic right here:
http://www.seekingalpha.com/2005/09/google_blog_sea.html
Chris Locke writes about “Indigo Children,” a meme reported on by the New York Times. The Indigo idea sounds like it pushes a whole bunch of buttons all at once — New Age, angels, the paranormal, child-worship, ADD. If it had some anti-child-porn hysteria about it, it’d be perfect. As one of the people in the NYT article says, this is basically the same social world view as Harry Potter’s muggles v. wizards set up.
Anyway, it is a great example of what Chris has been talking about over at Mystic Bourgeoisie, America’s Toughest to Spell weblog
hey, i was at a party, and needed to wind down a bit ;) gimme a break. of course, here i am UP again at 9:40 so i don’t know. i would love to sleep. any suggestions?
hey, i was at a party, and needed to wind down a bit ;) gimme a break. of course, here i am UP again at 9:40 so i don’t know. i would love to sleep. any suggestions?
Game Over Still On In Blog Search
Time for a mea culpa: Last year, when Google entered the Blog Search Space, I wrote that it was Game Over for Technorati. I thought Google Blog Seach was going to eat their lunch, throw a ton of resources at blogs, and take over the space. I was wrong.
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