Google Blog Search continuing to perform badly
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m once again using blog search engine Technorati just as often as I use Google Blog Search. I have to because for many types of searches Google continues to deliver mountains of irrelevant results.
Back in December I interviewed representatives from both Google and Technorati for a PBS article about the blog search engine wars. I asked the Google spokesperson about its problems with indexing irrelevant sidebar content on blogs, and he assured me that Google would be working on this problem in the new year.
But that still doesn’t answer the question: Why do you need to index sidebar information in the first place? When I’m doing a blog search, I am almost always looking for content that shows up in the body of a post. I am never looking for something in the blog roll, or on the side feeds, or even stuff in the comments section. What on earth convinced Google that its users were looking for this stuff? These are the problems that plagued Technorati two years ago — problems that have been largely fixed, though not completely — so why is Google repeating the mistake?
Google Blog Search was almost perfect before they went and changed it. I had almost no complaints. Now they’ve gone and ruined a great product and are being stubborn by blowing off all the criticism.
I don’t want to rag on GBS, there are a lot of things they do really well. Technorati is specifically trying to provide services for bloggers and their readers. Yes, there have been some ill-conceived initiatives there but I think the back-end changes afoot will stableize the system and the ad platform will amount to better blog services.
thanks,
-Ian
Technorati
Actually, I’m glad GBS searches sidebars. When people get their blog backgrounds from one of the sites that offers them for free (i.e. The Cutest Blog on the Block, PYZAM, The Background Fairy), there is either a link embedded in the background itself or the blogger takes that link out and credits them in the sidebar. Now if I want to preview how a background will look on my blog, I will do a search for the providor (i.e. PYZAM) and eventually find a blog that is already using it.
First, I’m thinking about writing a rant about Google search (which generally sucks).
One thing neither service does well is track reader comments. I’ve commented thousands of times (like blogs like this one) and almost never get captured by either search engine. I’ve commented about 20 times on your blog (?) and my name shows up neither on google or technorati if I enter “robert nagle” and “bloggasm” What’s up with that?
Oops, take that back. I just realized that you need to push “more results from Bloggasm” to see comments. I am totally wrong.
One thing I’ve started to do is to to create a monthly google doc consisting of every comment I ever make anywhere with URL. If Google won’t spider my comments, I guess I need to!
One other thing. I have an author pseudonym, and for various reasons it isn’t tracked very well on google. But I frequently comment on well known blogs (alas even onthis one) with this pseudonym. No mentions on technorati and a fraction of mentions on GBS. The irony is that I use this phrase more often than anybody else more than anyone on the web and in a prominent place on each page of my pseudonym site. (Most of these mentions were on static pages, and I’ll be shifting to a CMS in the next month–see if that makes any difference).