Scobleizer - Latest Comments in I thought Google was a search company…

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Matt Foxtrot — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 17:56:07 -0000

Yeah, the blog search stinks. However, I thought they'd already said that they acknowledge this and they're letting it die a slow death. I remember hearing something like that... maybe it was from CNET's the Daily Buzz?

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Tony Conrad — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:21:17 -0000

Hey Robert - Sphere results look great. Most complete and high quality blog posts surfaced to the top - :)

Best,

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Nikhil Chandhok — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 16:39:54 -0000

Robert,
I am the product manager on Google Blog Search. Thanks for bringing this to our attention and we have since fixed the bug. Your query should now work. Please let me know if you have other ideas on improving the service.

Thanks

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Laurence Gonsalves — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:06:34 -0000

Adding the "link:" prefix turns up 46 results.

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:00:29 -0000

Wow, Robert, how soon you forget:

"Google blog search with a query for any blogs that are linking to Channel 9. Wow. Fast. Fast. Fast."

"Let's go to Technorati and do the same query. First off the result took more than five seconds. The Google query took less than half a second. This is a HUGE deal for me. I can get a lot more searches in because Google is so much faster. Oh, and Technorati has 20 links.

I like Google's design too. Very simplistic. Some might like Technorati's better, though.

Oh, with Google's blog search I can see 100 results all on one page. I don't see how to do that with Technorati. So, actually, Technorati's page is a lot slower even yet cause I have to do two searches to see all the results."

"But this thing really shines when you click on advanced search. For instance, I did this query for my last name that includes the word "pdc" in any of the posts.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Why wow? Because it's so freaking fast.

The speed is what kicks all the other blog search in the teeth. Oh, and you can subscribe to a query via RSS. Look at the bottom of the page.

Nicely done."

"But, not all is lost for Technorati. Technorati seems to have more up to date results than Google.

Back to doing advanced searches. I just did a search for "PDC" that contained either "Day One" or "1." Google's result seems a lot better than Technorati's."

http://radio.weblogs.com/00...

I also could have sworn you made a post on Newsvine saying something to the effect of "...this is definitely a service I'd use". Can't find the post, sorry if I'm wrong.

Anyway, carry on :)

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

randymorin — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 13:25:56 -0000

Robert, That query is looking for the URL in the text. If you want people linking to an article, simply put link: in front of the URL. This works exactly like regular Google search. Hope this helps.

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Matt Cutts — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 12:09:49 -0000

I think the blogsearch guys are optimizing for searches like [google apps domain] and less so for backlink queries to news articles with parameters. I'll certainly pass on the feedback.

But if you compare that search to technorati's current results, Google's blogsearch does return more feeds I would have expected/wanted to see (Search Egnine Watch, ResourceShelf from Gary Price of Ask, Anil Dash, Dare, Matt Marshall from siliconbeat, Google Blogoscoped, etc.)

Try it yourself:
http://blogsearch.google.co...
http://technorati.com/searc...

I'm seeing a non-English result from technorati (http://magic3.net/item/965), a lifehacker post (lifehacker is a great source, but not a domain expert necessarily in this instance), a reprinted AP article syndicated to linuxtoday.com--not great. They do have an article by Nick Carr, which I would have wanted in the top 10. So points for returning Carr, but I think Google's blogsearch does quite well on that search.

I'll still pass on the feedback that you want more backlinks though. :)

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Robert Scoble — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:31:41 -0000

Daniel: to see who else is talking about that article.

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Robert Scoble — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:27:43 -0000

Anonymous: I never gave Google blog search much praise. Please back up that claim. And Newsvine? I don't remember even talking about that. I've always used Newsgator.

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 08:33:54 -0000

Hehe, funny that you gave it so much praise when it launched. That and Newsvine...do you even use Newsvine these days?

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Anonymous Coward — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 08:20:45 -0000

If you use the Google Blog search to look for "Google business suite," the first article is relevant.

If you search for "Google InformationWeek," the second article is the TechMeme post.

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

brem — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 07:33:43 -0000

I've never really trusted Google to be the search engine with the most up to date data. Technorati is blog oriented, therefore, when I want to know right now what happens on the blogosphere, that's where I'll head to.

Google acquiring Technorati? Would be a sensible move. Maybe Google could straighten the loose part of Technorati. Namely a shaky reliability of their database.

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

searchengines — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 06:59:17 -0000

Google Debuted the site one day early - possibly because it was leaked - and of course that means Digg will pick it up

http://digg.com/software/Go...

It is already on Digg Front page

However, in reference to the point about NOT having the
informationweek ARTICLE on their Blog search, Google perhaps distinguishes TECHNICALLY between Blogs and Articles.

Doing a URL Site query search for Informationweek - there was NOTHING, howver every single well known blog that was searched for was included

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Jake — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 04:37:04 -0000

Just to be fair, I think this may be a problem with Google Blogsearch stripping out parameters from links.

Compare the following two google blogsearches:

http://blogsearch.google.co...

(results: 0)

http://blogsearch.google.co...

(results: a lot)

Note that trimming off the end of this url resulted in lots of relevant people linking to the article showing up.

Verdict: What you're seeing is clearly not a 'search' problem, but it's definitely a bug!

On the other hand, I have seen Google have issues with freshness in the past in their main index, but I don't think that's what's happening here.

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

scristian — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 03:58:00 -0000

Technorati seems a good acquisition for Google or Yahoo.

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Cory — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 03:52:13 -0000

wow. so much for google being the smartest search engine. or atlest for blogs... great find

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Ron — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 03:47:27 -0000

I've noticed in recent weeks that Google Blog Search is a lot more susceptible to blogbots lately.

I think I'll start using Technorati more.

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

amorson — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 03:39:32 -0000

I think you're on a bigger problem. The entire http://www.informationweek.com/ URL is not showing antyhing on Google.

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

met — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 03:12:22 -0000

They don't get to profit too much from it???
Isn't that possible?

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Daniel Nicolas — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 03:06:04 -0000

uh... why would someone search for a url that complex?

if you already know the URL, why search for it?

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Christopher Coulter — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 03:03:34 -0000

Repeat after me, Google is NOT a Search Company, they are an Advertising Company.

Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw and etc., now those are search companies...

Re: I thought Google was a search company…

Robert Scoble — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 03:02:18 -0000

Ajay: go and look at those Technorati links. Only nine of them (that I could find) actually point at that article.