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.