Google Blog Search - What You Should Know

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 have 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 'silly' 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!





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The author is a self-admitted Google addict and user! You can find


his main Internet Marketing Site here:Free Marketing Tools


Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if


this resource box stays attached.