Technorati

I did some playing around with this site. Seems like there are several ways to search it. When you click on advanced search it kind of looks like a search in a library catalog! That was the place I found to search in different places (whole blog, tags). If there was another way to search by tag I didn't find it. I looked through the directory, but didn't find a way to actually search it per se. However, it is in categories, so by looking in the technology section I did find the learning 2.0 blogs.

As far as comparing the blog search to the tag search, I did see some overlap, but it seemed like the blog search also pulled in some other things on "learning" without the 2.0.

I thought the directory was interesting just for browsing the different subject areas. Some of the categories were rather broadly drawn. For instance, I looked under lifestyle at the travel list, and although they all were about a geographic place, I wouldn't have called them all travel blogs. Gossip about Paris Hilton in London for a new TV show didn't seem like travel writing to me!

The popular section was also interesting. I looked a few websites. I have to admit I was most interested in the ones that weren't aimed at techies. The PostSecret blog which was an art project with artistic postcards sent in anonymouslywith secrets on them was especially compelling.

My overall impression of technorati is that it shows how many blogs are out there in the world. Without having a specific need to search for, it was pretty overwhelming. However, I will try to remember to use technorati when doing research in the future.

I didn't claim my blog or try to index it since it's really just an exercise and I didn't feel like it is really very useful for anyone doing research. However, in the future if I did a "for real" blog with a purpose, it's good to know that possibility exists.