Searching Blog Entries
Just a quickie, because I'm short on time today, but I've been meaning to post something informational for the last few days. This will have to do for now.
You may already be familiar with these. They are search engines specifically designed to find keywords in many types of blogs. This is great for finding fan encounters, news, photographs, random sightings, etc. Google has recently begun including blog entries in its alerts, but it's far from exhaustive. Here are a few to try:
BlogSearchEngine - This is by far my favorite one. It is up-to-the-minute and seems to catch a lot of entries that the other ones don't. Like all of them, though, it doesn't have everything (you can find entries from my own LJ, for example, but not from this community. Yet), and the results may vary a bit from day to day. In other words, performing the search two days running may yield slightly different results. Oh -- and be sure scroll clear down to the bottom to start your search! The top search window is just a simple google, and the bottom one is The Real Deal.
Technorati - Not too bad, but not as many blog entries as BlogSearchEngine. Sometimes different ones, though, and maybe more "professional" blogs (like from newspapers and magazines).
Feedster - Much the same as Technorati, but not quite as current in the results.
I was thinking that there was another one, but I can't find it in my bookmarks (so I obviously haven't used it in some time, if I'm even remembering correctly).
EDIT: I remembered:
Blogpulse - Much the same as the above. I haven't used it in awhile, but it seems pretty up-to-the-minute.
Use words similar to those used for image searching: elijah, elijah wood, frodo, etc. Combinations of words can be used to winnow it down to specifics ("elijah gogol", for instance, if you want to find sightings of him at gigs. Of course, you'll inevitably get results with people talking about Everything Is Illuminated, but so many of these entries are positive that I have a hard time feeling annoyed).
EDITED 12/18/07: BlogSearchEngine has become all but useless due to a change in searching software, but Icerocket Blog Search is pretty good. Not quite as thorough, I don't think, but not bad.
A WARNING for this and all other types of searching: "Having your finger on the pulse" can have its consequences. It doesn't pay to be spoiler shy if you're going to dig down deep. Bobby, Happy Feet, Paris Je T'aime and even Day Zero hold very few surprises for me, because I've come across so many (and sometimes HUGE) spoilers in the form of both images and text.
You may already be familiar with these. They are search engines specifically designed to find keywords in many types of blogs. This is great for finding fan encounters, news, photographs, random sightings, etc. Google has recently begun including blog entries in its alerts, but it's far from exhaustive. Here are a few to try:
BlogSearchEngine - This is by far my favorite one. It is up-to-the-minute and seems to catch a lot of entries that the other ones don't. Like all of them, though, it doesn't have everything (you can find entries from my own LJ, for example, but not from this community. Yet), and the results may vary a bit from day to day. In other words, performing the search two days running may yield slightly different results. Oh -- and be sure scroll clear down to the bottom to start your search! The top search window is just a simple google, and the bottom one is The Real Deal.
Technorati - Not too bad, but not as many blog entries as BlogSearchEngine. Sometimes different ones, though, and maybe more "professional" blogs (like from newspapers and magazines).
Feedster - Much the same as Technorati, but not quite as current in the results.
I was thinking that there was another one, but I can't find it in my bookmarks (so I obviously haven't used it in some time, if I'm even remembering correctly).
EDIT: I remembered:
Blogpulse - Much the same as the above. I haven't used it in awhile, but it seems pretty up-to-the-minute.
Use words similar to those used for image searching: elijah, elijah wood, frodo, etc. Combinations of words can be used to winnow it down to specifics ("elijah gogol", for instance, if you want to find sightings of him at gigs. Of course, you'll inevitably get results with people talking about Everything Is Illuminated, but so many of these entries are positive that I have a hard time feeling annoyed).
EDITED 12/18/07: BlogSearchEngine has become all but useless due to a change in searching software, but Icerocket Blog Search is pretty good. Not quite as thorough, I don't think, but not bad.
A WARNING for this and all other types of searching: "Having your finger on the pulse" can have its consequences. It doesn't pay to be spoiler shy if you're going to dig down deep. Bobby, Happy Feet, Paris Je T'aime and even Day Zero hold very few surprises for me, because I've come across so many (and sometimes HUGE) spoilers in the form of both images and text.