Yahoo! Beta Testing Blog Search Application
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Author: Danny Wirken

In the recent past, a news story came out that Yahoo! has begun
testing a blog search application in its Korean blog site.
Yahoo!, a leading global Internet company offers a range of
features making it a one-stop shop for all the popular
activities of the Internet. These features include Yahoo! Mail
(a web-based e-mail service), Yahoo! Messenger (instant
messaging client), online gaming, chat, news and information
portals, online shopping and online auction facilities. Add to
this array of features, the Blog Search. Yahoo! seems to be
ready to challenge industry leader blog search site,
Technorati.

The blog search technology is designed to let bloggers sign up
to publish their weblogs. The technology boasts of various
search tools that will enable blog visitors to retrieve content
and images within weblogs, latest blog postings or pages marked
as favorites.

Blogs are currently the rage in the Internet. Anybody with an
Internet connection can publish a blog for the worldwide
audience to see. At the beginning of 1999, there were only an
estimated two or three dozen blogs in existence. As of July
2006, Technorati counted more than 50 million and still
growing. In fact, 75 000 new blogs are created everyday.

A blog, short for weblog, is an interactive, personalized web
journal for posting articles or anything one wants to share
with the general public or a select few. Articles or posts are
arranged in reverse chronological order, that is, recent
addition is at the top of the page. A blog is updated regularly
and contains links to other articles (posts), blogs or websites.
Posting comments is another feature. Many blogs focus on a
specific topic such as politics, sports, technology, health,
news, etc. Others are more like personal diaries detailing the
author's (blogger) rants, raves and musings.

Because of the rapid growth of blogs, keeping on top of them is
quite challenging. Industry players like Yahoo! is well aware of
the increasing power of blogs and their ability to provide a
wealth of information online. Yet, there are only a few
blog-specific search tools to go through all the information in
real time.

Two months after Yahoo! began testing the blog search feature
on its Korean blog site; it has finally unveiled its blog
search tool. The launch came at a time when the United States
was still reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane
Katrina. During that time, millions of people logged in to
Yahoo! News for in-depth and accurate information.
Simultaneously, bloggers were posting first-hand accounts,
pictures, opinions, personal experiences. But due to lack of
mainstream exposure, much relevant information was not
disseminated. This further highlights the role that a blog
search tool can play – a channel to bring information to the
public in the shortest time possible.

Instead of launching a stand alone feature, Yahoo! has
integrated blogs in Yahoo! News Search. When a user conducts a
search in Yahoo! News, blog results as well as news from
trusted news sites will be displayed simultaneously. Yahoo!
acknowledges that the opinions, stories and experiences
published on blogs make a great complement to mainstream news
people read everyday. Blogs have proven to be an effective
medium for anyone who wants to be heard in the public forum. A
lot of times bloggers have even beaten mainstream media to
newsworthy stories.

Traditional media recognize that they do not have the time and
resources to cover all the events and happenings in the world.
By incorporating the blog search into Yahoo! News, Yahoo!
desires to offer an alternative perspective on news aside from
what mainstream media can offer. Yahoo! wishes to bring
professional journalism and amateur or citizen journalism
together to provide the users with a wider array of
information. Yahoo assures the users and the general public as
well that there will be enough distinction where the
information is coming from.

Yahoo! aims to learn from users and publishers. The expanded
news search gives users more chances to find relevant
information that matters to them from leading news stories,
commentaries, citizen first-hand reports, pictures and images
that mainstream media may not have covered. It will be to the
utmost benefit of the millions of people who wants to be
informed of what is going on around the world if Yahoo! News
can bring mainstream and personal or grassroots media together.
The people are then assured of greater variety of sources and
viewpoints from all corners of the world.

When a user conducts a search on Yahoo! News, results from
mainstream media partners of Yahoo! will be displayed on the
left side of the page. On the right side, in a side-bar type
area will be relevant blog search results. When the user clicks
on "all blog results", the user will receive Flickr (Yahoo!'s
photo sharing service) photo thumbnails related to his search
on the right hand side of the search results page. By
integrating global grassroots media into the News Search
results, users can enjoy analysis or opinions thru blogs but
also related photos from the Flickr community that will provide
a visual context to content as reported by the citizens. In
addition, My Web links will also be displayed on the right hand
side of the search results page together with Flickr. My Web is
Yahoo!'s social search engine that utilizes the combined
knowledge of the My Web community. My Web provides important
links to information related to the user's search topic.

As to which search results to display in its blog column,
Yahoo! does not give specifics but suffice it to say that blog
search results are based in part on the popularity of the blogs
within My Yahoo!, as measured by a computer algorithm. At first,
only blogs registered with the My Yahoo! RSS directory will be
included in the search but will eventually scan the millions of
blogs outside the My Yahoo! sphere.

Yahoo!'s Blog Search will complement Yahoo! 360, its social
networking and blog publishing service and Yahoo!'s recently
launched advertising service for small publishers.

Whether you are looking for political commentary on the Israeli
air strikes in Lebanon, Superman movie reviews, iMac G5 specs,
sumptuous Vietnamese recipes, Louis Vuitton's latest bag
collection, or anything else, Yahoo! Blog Search will help you
find out what people are saying on these subjects of your
choice.


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