by Teresa Valdez Klein on June 2, 2006
One of the key things that I look for in a search engine is the ability to turn a search into an RSS feed. It’s unfortunate that Google still doesn’t offer such a service, but I was very happy to see that Ask.com’s new blog search does.
As Search Engine Journal observes, it was no surprise to see Ask launch a blog/RSS search after its acquisition of Bloglines. I know I’m certainly not surprised, but I am impressed with the clean interface and the sorting capabilities.
The one big drawback from a research standpoint is that you can’t search for a website and see who is linking to it. At least not with the same kind of reliability that Technorati offers. I’d like to see them roll out this feature in the near future.
by Teresa Valdez Klein on June 1, 2006
They say that one of the signs of blog addiction is recreational stat checking. That is, you check your blog’s traffic stats as a way to relieve stress or as a special treat in the middle of a busy workday. So, Hi. My name is Teresa. I’m a blog addict.
But I digress. We actually encourage our clients to check their stats frequently, and to keep track of what search terms from Google and other search engines are bringing them traffic. Unfortunately, Google’s customizable home page makes that a challenge. It seems that whenever anyone surfs in to my Typepad blog from a search that they conducted using those personalized pages - I have no way of telling what search term they used to get there.
I wonder if Google has intentionally made this the case or whether it’s just an unintended side effect. In any case, it makes it very difficult to determine what exactly my readers - and potential readers - are interested in hearing about.
As more people begin using personalized search pages like the one Google provides, we may need to start finding new metrics for what our readers are interested in. Polling them is a perennial favorite, and I think it would be exciting to design a Movable Type or Wordpress plugin that would allow readers to rate posts by how interesting or helpful they found them.
