SEARCH GIANT GOOGLE WEDNESDAY LAUNCHED a search engine exclusively for blogs, entering a market that has thus far been dominated by niche search engines like Technorati.com, BlogPulse.com, Feedster.com, and IceRocket.com. The feature, located at BlogSearch.Google.com, is still in beta testing. As of yet, there are no keyword-related ads alongside the natural search results. Google announced the launch via its own blog, and included a link to a Google blog search results page for the query "Google blog search"--which, as of Wednesday evening, was ironically topped by a link titled "Google Blog Search Sucks."
While most of the blog search engines are considered niche, Google isn't the first large search company to take an interest in blog search. Earlier this year, Ask Jeeves--now owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp.--purchased Trustic, Inc.--parent company of the blog search engine Bloglines.
Google's entrance into the market could mean changes for the current leading players, said JupiterResearch Analyst Michael Gartenberg. "Folks like Technorati and PubSub have really carved out a little niche market for themselves, and of course woke up this morning to discover that the king of search has entered the game," said Gartenberg. "It's interesting that we're seeing this whole category expand when people are becoming especially interested in monitoring the blogs."
Pete Blackshaw, CMO of Intelliseek, which owns BlogPulse, said smaller companies such as his will have to develop special features to compete with Google. "At minimum, we'll all need to do search well--and yes, we'll need to keep developing tools of value to bloggers," he said. He added that BlogPulse's own extra features--trend search, conversation tracker, and BlogPulse profiles--are at least as popular as its basic search. "We intend to keep pushing in those value-added directions," he said.
Dave Sifry, CEO of Technorati, posted on his blog that the company plans to add features to its engine. "We've got some tricks up our sleeves too--and there's no doubt that in the end, the competition will end up producing more innovation and better services for bloggers and readers," he wrote. Technorati drew around 545,000 unique visitors last month, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
Both Sifry and Blackshaw indicated that Google's foray into blog search was another signal that the blogosphere is becoming increasingly mainstream. "Having a big traditional search player like Google working on blog search is a validation moment for the entire blogosphere," Sifry wrote.
Blackshaw concurred: "This will mark a major milestone," he said. "This underscores how blogs are becoming inescapably woven into the fabric of the Web, and certainly validates the importance of consumer-generated media."
