The Blogpulse homepage
Blogpulse is a site that allows users to search exclusively through blogs, without mixing other internet content. However, the site is far from merely a search engine. In addition to free keyword searches, blogpulse also charts major trends in the blogging world, ranging from politics to entertainment to the bizarre. The site then creates graphics to visually represent their popularity, and allows users to create their own “trend searches.” Blogpulse also provides statistics such as the current number of blogs included in their searches, top posts, stories, and videos, and most frequently mentioned people/”buzz” words. The “conversation tracker” allows users to find the original post from comments or feeds branched off of it. Bloggers can submit their blogs to be included in the site, and create profiles to give basic information about themselves to others using the site.
The Technorati homepage
A similar site, technorati.com also collects blog posts and information and allows users to search through them. The site also works as an advertiser for blogs and social networking sites. The site displays major blog posts and major news stories side by side, and allow users to view the top stories in specific categories. Technorati also displays photos and videos tagged that day, and a “most popular” list that includes blogs, movies, searches, and games, to name a few. The site also provides blogger support and allows bloggers to submit their blogs and have them advertised.
The goal of both sites seems to be highlighting the blogosphere and allowing users to access it exclusively, showing not only the popularity but the legitimacy of this relatively new source of information. Both sites strive to provide people with what’s happening in the blogosphere, and allow them to easily find issues that they are interested in. However, though technorati claims to have a larger search engine, I found blogpulse to be a more thorough site. The trend graphics were unique and instantly provided information. Additionally, this website seemed to be a bit more user-friendly, explaining all of their tools in detail, and linking everything easily from the home page.
I agree that both these sites do a good job at highlighting the blogsphere. Each give blogs that have been posted, and you can search for specific categories to limit what you want to look for. I thought that in Blogpulse it was really nice to have the top 5 news stories and what was happening during the day. This is able to keep people current, and may even spark more blog entries. Both of these sites are set up to allow people to search, but I agree that Blogpulse was a little easier to use and you could navigate through it with little difficulty and find what you were looking for. I didn’t realize before that these types of websites existed, but they are helpful in sorting out what has become quite a trend on the Internet.
| Posted 3 years ago