Blogs and search engines

Recently I have been tuning into the TWIT Podcasts. I am almost caught up to the current episode. So far each release has been very insightful. Leo Laporte is sharp as a whip and always brings a strong cast to his episodes.

On one the podcasts they were talking about how search engines are handling and should handle blog posts. Most of the casts were in favor of search engines filtering out blogs from its results. One of the points made was that blogs just rehash and repost the same information found else where on other blog sites. Well, isn’t this the same thing that all the other media outlets do? There is the Associated Press and a few other wire sources that give out the mass of information that is rehashed and reposted by all media outlets. Sure once in a while a media outlet comes up with a new idea or story but I am willing to bet the “new story” ratio is very similar in the blog space. Bloggers get their information from some central sources Slashdot, Digg, cNet and the media outlets.

I don’t like the trend of having to do separate searches for blog information. I already find myself doing multiple searches when struggling to find an answer. A straight web search and then a search in the groups to make sure I am not missing anything. I hope I don’t have to add another step in this process.

I think including blog posts in the search results is very valuable. For the most part when people repost items they usually comment or speculate about it. Sometimes this is the information that is of the most value.

Big Blue

I have started working on mock-ups for EvanAndAbby.com and have completed the first one. Not bad considering my lack of any color coordination!

Yahoo Unlimited and Winamp

The Yahoo! Music experience continues to impress. I have been forever a Winamp user and until a new mp3 player comes along and absolutely sweeps me off of my feet, Winamp will remain my preferred player.

I also have always stuck with the classic version of Winamp. I guess I have never seen an advantage of upgrading to the 5.x version. Until now! With the 5.x Winamp install comes the WMA plug-in v2.13 that allows you to better interact with .wma files. Yep you guessed it, the music I download from the Yahoo! Unlimited Music can now be played along with all my other music inside of Winamp. This is even cooler considering the office jukebox we have setup and the foresight of Yahoo! to allow multiple installs of its Music Engine. VERY SWEET STUFF!

This morning Evan and I were looking at his Madagascar sticker book and he started singing the “Move it” song from the movie. In less then 2 minutes, I had my laptop with the Music Engine installed on it hooked up to our entertainment system and legally playing the song. Even Evan was impressed. Of course he then insisted on seeing the movie. I couldn’t help him with that…legally…yet!