Thing #11

Having established my Google Reader account, it was time to find more subscriptions.  Fortunately a few sites have taken it upon themselves to help we humble RSS users navigate the vast sea of the internet to find what we’re looking for.  First, Google Reader has a search function built into its RSS program, or offers several pre-made bundles for people who are interested in getting into a topic for the first time.  Alternatively, Google offers a website for searching blogs (google.com/blogsearch) which allows users to search by keyword.  A major advantage of this site is that it allows advanced searching in which you may exclude certain terms or limit to specific words.  However, the crowning jewel of this search engine is that the user can sort by creative usage rights, limiting results to free to use and share, to use, share and modify, and whether the results can be used commercially, which can be a major advantage for students and artists alike.

Technorati, another website which allows users to search for blogs and posts takes a slightly different approach.  Here users can begin searching from subject areas as opposed to bundles or keywords, which is a useful tool for those who are looking to find new topics or do not know what keywords to use to find what they need or are looking for information from a general field without specific guidelines. One can also search by keyword.  However this is not as efficient as Google and does not have nearly as many options for sorting the results.  The major advantage that Technorati offers over Google is that results are not only sorted by relevance to the keywords or in the subject but, by “authority” which is mostly a ranking of popularity of blogs and posts either by content area or several subjects.

Finally, Topix takes a different approach, offering local information in place of general blogs searches.  This is not as useful to someone looking to begin a search for specialized knowledge but, can be immensely useful for keeping a community connected with local events.

In terms of ease-of-use, Technorati is by far the best engine for me.  I do not have as much use for local news though, I can see the appeal, and the rating system makes it superior to Google’s immense database and sorting system.  Additionally the ability to start with a subject area which has top-rated blogs and posts readily available is more appealing to me than starting from scratch.