Feedster Quietly Dies... So Which Blog Search Engine Do You Use?
Blog search engine Feedster has had the following notice on its frontpage for at least a few weeks now:
There is no sign of life on the site and the Feedster blog has already been killed off (the big 404 in the sky).
In terms of the blog search market in general, Feedster has been struggling for 3+ years now - this RWW post in July 2005 shows how Feedster was falling behind Technorati even then. Now Feedster seems to be, if not in the DeadPool, then at least in the PurgatoryPool. PubSub was another victim in this market.
Nowadays, the blog search market seems to be made up of 3 main players - Google Blog Search, Technorati and Bloglines/Ask.com - and a lot of smaller players such as Zuula and Blogdigger. Personally I still use Technorati a few times a week, and the search function of Google Reader. I also am a heavy user of Google's main search, which I find brings up good blog results (i.e. often I don't see the need for a specialist blog search engine). I did a quick poll of the other RWW writers. Josh said he still uses Technorati sometimes, but also Google Blog search. Marshall said that he uses Ask.com for minimizing spam, relies heavily on feeds with subscribers in Bloglines, and uses Technorati too. He finds that Google Blog Search is good for speed.
What blog search engine do you use - and why?
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no love for icerocket?
Posted by: chuckie balbuena | November 21, 2007 1:13 PM
I use Google Blog search, but not that often, since in most cases, I don't need to know what only blogs are saying about the search terms. So in other words, I don't use blog search very often.
Posted by: quirkyalone | November 21, 2007 1:16 PM
Hi,
I especially liked the Feedster possibility to seach in a group of sites / blogs specified in an OPML, which could be specified also by URL - no other has this facility.
For RSS and blogs search I use also Icerocket and BlogPulse ( conversation tracker is very interesting ).
Please note that PubSub is undergoing redevelopment at the moment.
Carmen
Posted by: Carmen Holotescu | November 21, 2007 1:47 PM
I use a combination of Google Blog Search and Technorati. I find that both are accurate and comprehensive. I like Google Blog Search for when I want something specific and Technorati for when I want to get a sense of blog discussion on a certain topic. In most of my searching, though, I am not looking for blog-specific results, so I just do general Google searches.
Posted by: John | November 21, 2007 1:53 PM
I use a combo of Technorati and Ask/Bloglines. Sometimes Google's blog search, but not often. I really like the way Technorati does its job.
Posted by: Keith Shepard | November 21, 2007 4:05 PM
I know, I know ... This is probably going to sound a bit self-serving, given the functionality we offer at Zuula . But I honestly believe most serious blog searches are worth doing at more than one blog search engine.
Blog search engines return very, very different results, and I think it's hard to point to one particular engine being consistently "better" than the rest.
For example, Google's blog search is amazingly up-to-date, fast, and comprehensive. But "comprehensive" also means ... spam ... and lots of it.
Technorati, in contrast, is not quite as up-to-date, and its responsiveness can make molasses seem like a bullet train. But it simply does an A-1 job of separating the wheat from the chaff.
Icerocket is also a legitimate player in this space, as is Sphere .
So, yes, any of the major blog search engines is probably fine for a quick, not-so-critical search now and then. But, if you want to be thorough, it's worth checking several different engines ... preferably using Zuula. ;-)
Posted by: Boris | November 21, 2007 4:07 PM
Sadly, I mostly use Google Blog search and sometimes Blogdigger, and never Technorati.
Posted by: Mark Evans | November 21, 2007 4:41 PM
I usually use Google search and sometimes Technorati when I want the blogosphere reactions on a particular event.
Google blogsearch does not come naturally to me at all..
Posted by: AJ | November 21, 2007 8:08 PM
I used Technorati, not too keen on Google blog search, i see a huge gap in results usually.
Posted by: Radu | November 21, 2007 9:20 PM
I use Readle :)
http://www.readle.net/
With Readle you never see spam blogs.
Posted by: stefan svartling | November 21, 2007 10:44 PM
Google Blog Search - because it indexes posts within seconds.
Posted by: Andy C | November 22, 2007 12:18 AM
Google blog search is good for speed. Technorati is good to check a popularity or links to other blogs as well as posts on blogs others than English. I want to point to Yandex blog search at http://blogsearch.yandex.ru that is both very fast and has popularity rankings. Unfortunately, it's only in Russian.
Posted by: Yakov | November 22, 2007 12:46 AM
I have to confess that I just tend to use "good old-fashioned google search" to look up things, and add the word "blog" to the search phrase if I'm specifically looking for stuff from blogs.
Second choice is the search facility within Google Reader, which is obviously far more limited in scope, but that's the point... and I do subscribe to a reasonable number of blogs (this one included, obviously.)
Posted by: Mark Harrison | November 22, 2007 1:15 AM
I also use Technorati, sadly feedster interface I didnot like it. Technorati is very easy and help to intereact with other blog comfortably.
Posted by: Live7n | November 22, 2007 2:05 AM
What blog searcher do I use?
Sigh. --shakes head--.
It always annoys me when Google gives me numerous blogs
about how they difficult it is to find that printer driver
instead of the link to it.
Posted by: S T | November 22, 2007 4:48 AM
None actually. I always use either Yahoo! search or Google search. It never comes to my mind to use a specific blog search engine, I always find what I'm looking for though. :)
Posted by: Koen Van der Auwera | November 22, 2007 5:43 AM
It depends on what I am looking for. I usually search across different spheres and different engines. And if I am looking for inlinks Yahoo! provides me with better results than Google (Blog) Search or Technorati.
Richard: I agree with your statement "often I don't see the need for a specialist blog search engine." Google is actually dividing blogs in blog posts (dynamic content) and non-blog posts (static content) in their search results. This means that your about/author page on your blog will be indexed in the regular Google Search instead of in the Google Blog Search (at least according to my recent findings).
Posted by: Anne Helmond | November 22, 2007 6:42 AM
I use google blog search and google search to find information about what I am blogging about, I also use google news to see if there are dissenting opinions. I sometimes use technorati when and if I need a meme, and of course techmeme for the same thing, If I need a meme today to talk about. But mostly focused on google products, sad admission, but probably one that 57% of the rest of the internet world uses. r/d
Posted by: dan | November 22, 2007 7:03 AM
I mostly use google regular search, but when looking for new blog posts I usually turn to Google Blog search. Like Anne I also find Yahoo good for finding inlinks.
Posted by: Timo Paloheimo | November 22, 2007 8:12 AM
Technorati, then Ask/Bloglines, then google blog search.
What can I say I don't want to miss anything =p.
Posted by: Rick Calvert | November 22, 2007 8:42 AM
I use technorati... Am not a fan of Google blog search. I would like to add that we all need something more better. Technorati is great as it offers rankings and all. we need something even better that also eliminates splogs!!
Posted by: Virtaaj | November 22, 2007 9:53 AM
I'm not sure what the point is of "blog search"? I think that the death / demise of all of these companies emerges from trying to build a solution to a problem that simply doesn't exist. Furthermore, in solving the non-emergent problem, none of them has ever bothered to address how it is that one might generate revenue in that marketplace.
Frankly, I'm not surprised to see PubSub Concepts, Feedster, et al suffer their present fate, as they've never really reached escape velocity from servicing the conversation between a small market of rabid super-bloggers into servicing the needs of an identifiable, monetizable niche or the general public.
Lots of companies have taken the same types of technologies and been quite successful. There are examples of "Prospective Search" being used in Vendor Relationship Management, Securities Trading, and other markets. The difference is the application of a solution to a real problem, which creates an opportunity that is easily monetized.
Posted by: Ian Bell | November 22, 2007 12:13 PM
I have compared 3 alternative blog search engines on Compete.com. Looks like the blog search engine I often use (IceRocket.com) is the most popular one. And yes we can see that Feedster loosing its positions...
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/icerocket.com+feedster.com+www.blogdigger.com/?metric=uv
Posted by: Sergey Kapustin | November 22, 2007 9:02 PM
Things aren't looking any better for Feedster ... All I get now when I try to go to their home page is a timeout. No notice saying "we'll be back". Just nothing ... nada ... zilch.
Posted by: Boris | November 29, 2007 12:21 PM
Yes, why bother searching blogs? You probably need a search service that has it all, how? well, a relatively new search service is emerging and that is "RSS Feed Search".
RSS feeds create a sophisticated, well structured mirror of the entire web. RSS feed make it possible to build intelligent search algorithms using its well defined XML tags, it is efficient, date time aware and it comprises only of valuable data and tags. It might be a bold idea but as a search engine founder I like to crawl where the data is not where the junk HTML tags are saturating the web. In other words HTML is used to format the data for presentation layer not necessarily points to valuable/fresh data. Beside, new programming techniques such as AJAX make these conventional search engines completely vulnerable and their crawling technique fail over time.
Posted by: Babak | November 30, 2007 10:46 AM