Maybe there's no money it. Maybe there's no love to be gained from it from bloggers. But blog search is in a pitiful state right now. There's room for someone to come along and innovate.
Now you can argue that blog search doesn't matter as much these days. Twitter and Friendfeed both have strong search capes. The main Google engine scoops up blogs as fast as Elvis ate peanut butter and banana sandwiches. In addition, paid tools like Radian6 do a very nice job. But, darn it, I grew accustomed to having good blog search FOR FREE. And now it appears to be gone.
Here's a rundown of the contenders and what's currently right/wrong with each. Also, I put each site through its paces by tracking links to my recent post on WIkipedia Mobile.
Technorati - Link searches pull up both blog rolls and mentions. Please give me a choice. Technorati seems to be more focused on rolling up bloggers into ad networks rather than on core search. They are leading right now in results, however. (Links to my post: 18. RSS feeds? Busted)
Google Blog Search - For awhile, Google gave me everything I wanted. Fast results on both keywords and link searches. But then a few weeks ago the plumbing broke. Now it's practically useless because it alerts me anytime a blogger who has me on their blogroll updates his/her site. (Links to my post: 9)
Twingly - They offer spam free results. And they look promising so far. But when you put Twingly through its paces, it is very weak on results. (Links to my post: 4)
Sphere - No longer a blog search engine. Off my list.
IceRocket - This might be the true dark horse. It's slowly been improving and it's got a spiffy new design. Note how each link shows you other posts that are referencing it. Smart. Mark Cuban may have a hit here after all. However, IceRocket Trends is currently down. (Links to my post: 14)
BlogPulse: I stopped using this site circa 2006. It has some nice features, but it's not working for me now. (Links to my post: 5)
Ask.com: I always forget about these guys. Their blog search engine is pretty good. Unfortunately, they include my own site in the search results. (Links to my post: 9. Bloglines, owned by Ask, turns up the same)
Bloggers, what are you using? Leave your thoughts in the comments. Are there any I missed? I am giving IceRocket a serious look again because they seem to be catching up.
