BlogCatalog

Blog searching is still a hit and miss experience, I've found. I'm still looking for one blog search engine that I can rely on most of the time, like I can with Google and the web. With blogs, I need to use an assortment of searches, including Google, IceRocket, and Technorati.

One more blog search I found is BlogCatalog. BlogCatalog's home page displays a directory of topics if you prefer to find a blog by category, or you can perform a text search to find a blog you're looking for. BlogCatalog also features a Popular Blogs section, where you can see the most highly rated and most visited blogs in each section.

The main drawback with BlogCatalog (as with most blog search engines I've looked at) is a lack of coverage. The site only knows about a small percentage of the blogs that are out there, so it can only be yet another tool in my arsenal of blog searches.

The Insider's Guide to Buying Cars

If you're in the market to buy a car, consider The Insider's Guide to Buying Cars. The site references several other sites and articles that have useful car-related info, such as hybrid cars, car ratings, and tips when buying a new car.

Science Blog

The Science Blog looks more like a regular web site or portal, but since it calls itself a science blog, I'll include it here. The site contains a wide collection of articles from different bloggers on various scientific topics, including astronomy, biology, physics, and electronics. You can look for articles based on topic or search using keywords. There is also a discussion forum section, although there doesn't appear to be much activity there at this time.

Recipe blogs

I've come across a few blogs that talk about cooking. While I am no culinary expert, and I haven't tried any of the recipes, I'm mainly drawn to the mouthwatering photos on the sites. :-)

Here are three that I like:

Kalyn's Kitchen
Delicious! Delicious!
Simply Recipes

Your Monster Gallery

Your Monster Gallery is another blog that posts submissions from its readers. The site displays drawings of monsters (many of them from children, it appears) that are emailed to the author.

Tom's Astronomy Blog

Tom's Astronomy Blog features astronomy news, notes, and observations. If you're into astronomy, this blog will appeal to you. I like it because of the pretty pictures of astronomical objects. :-)

Gadgetize

For all you gadgetheads out there, the Gadgetize blog is one way to find out about gadgets that aren't widely publicized elsewhere. A recent post to the blog said, "The products we feature are here because we don't see coverage of them elsewhere." However, they are all actual, available products. According to the site, "If you read about it here, you can buy it. Probably."

Did You Know?

Want to know what causes hiccups? Why hair turns gray? What languages are spoken in countries around the world?

A blog site called Did You Know, started in May, can tell you, often with accompanying diagrams and pictures. The site is educational and entertaining, with explanations that are thorough yet simple enough that readers without a science degree can understand them.

Technorati

The blog search engine that I use most nowadays is Technorati. Compared to IceRocket, which I wrote about last week, Technorati is more like a portal. Think of it as being Yahoo to IceRocket's Google, but in terms of look and feel only -- IceRocket can only hope to be as comprehensive as Google.

In addition to searching for blogs, Technorati also features the most popular blog topics and search terms. You can also look for blogs by category. The test of any search engine, however, is the ability to find the information you're looking for. As with IceRocket, I searched for blogs of people I know using Technorati, and Technorati performed much better. It turned up over half of the blogs, whereas IceRocket found none.

VentureBlog

A year and a half ago, I wanted to start my own company, so I did some research on venture capitalists, hoping to raise money for my idea. Eventually, I didn't get any funding, but I did start the company with my own funds. However, along the way, I discovered VentureBlog, a site written by VCs about the VC industry. There are some pretty interesting articles about what VCs are thinking, what they consider to be hot ideas at the time, and how the VC process works. I continue to read VentureBlog periodically in case I want to look for VC funding in the future.

Blogger's "Next Blog" button

There are so many blogs out there. How do you discover them without knowing what to search for, assuming search engines even know about the blog? Enter Blogger's Next Blog button, found in the top right corner of many blogs hosted by Blogger, including this one. The Next Blog button takes you to another random blog in the Blogger universe. You can easily lose yourself for minutes at a time surfing through all the interesting (and not so interesting) blogs you find with a click of that one button.

IceRocket

The first search site devoted to blogs that I started using was IceRocket. It has a simple interface that looks eerily similar to Google's. If you swapped out the logo and disregarded the link for Blogs, you'd think you were at Google's site instead. Even the result set resembles Google's, with text ads along the righthand side.

The true test of a search engine is whether it can find what you're looking for, so I tried searching for my own blog as well as those of people I know. Sadly, IceRocket did not turn up any of the results I was looking for. Additionally, my searches often showed irrelevant topics in the results. Clearly, IceRocket needs to fine-tune its search engine some more.

Postsecret

One of the first "cool" blogs I ever stumbled across was Postsecret. The idea behind Postsecret is that anyone can anonymously mail a postcard with their secret written on it to the blog's publisher. According to the site, "Each secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before." Every Sunday, ten of the postcards are posted on the site.

Not only did I think the idea of sending in postcards was cool, but I was struck by the creativity of the postcard senders. Many of the submissions were original postcards that someone took the time to create. Of course, the secrets were interesting to read too, albeit disturbing at times.

Yahoo adds blogs to news

Yahoo 's news search will now include blogs, listing blog results in a box on the same page as professional news articles. According to AP, "Yahoo's inclusion of blogs in its news section represents another validation for a growing group of people that are bypassing newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets to report and comment on topical events."

Introduction

From dictionary.com:

Main Entry: blog
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log
Example: Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.
Etymology: shortened form of Weblog
Usage: blog, blogged, blogging v, blogger n

The purpose of this blog is to disseminate my thoughts on blogging, blogs, and blog-related sites.