Page:Untangling the Web.pdf/73

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DOCID: 4046925

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Keep in mind that Google Blog Search only indexes the site feed, not the full content at the website that originated the feed.

Google Blog Search indexes feeds dating back to January 2000. Also, one of the big advantages of the XML format is that it, unlike HTML, includes date/time data, which means you can use Google Blog Search to find information from a specific day or a range of dates. Google Blog Search will also enable users to search entire blogs or specific posts.

Some of the Google Search operators work in Google Blog Search and it has its own unique operators, too, as the About Google Blog Search page explains: All of the standard Google Search operators are supported in Blog Search. These include:

  • link: [very useful in finding who's linking to whom]
  • site:
  • intitle:

Additionally, Blog Search supports the following new operators of its own:

  • inblogtitle:
  • inposttitle:
  • inpostauthor:
  • blogurl:

For example, a search such as [mandolin inpostauthor:Graham] will show you posts about mandolins written by people named Graham. Note that you can also use the Advanced Search option to achieve the same effect.

In addition, you can restrict your results to anyone or any combination of 35 languages using the Advanced Search option. Google Blog Search will also give users the option of subscribing to the blogs in the news aggregator of your choice.

The main drawback of Google Blog Search seems to be that it indexes only the content of feeds and often what is syndicated in a newsfeed is very sparse. Technorati wins hands down on this point because it does do full text searching. Google may eventually decide it needs to do so as well. After all, this is a beta version.

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