Google Blog Search Memetracker
Google Blog Search (GBS) is now memetracking, similar to services such as Megite and Techmeme.
You can filter by a number of categories such as Science, Technology, Entertainment, Business, Politics, etc..
The look and feel is no way close to Techmeme.
Clustering
GBS clusters stories similar to Google News.
Techmeme does something similar but, it does this 2 ways:
1. Stories that link to the main story are clustered as Discussion items (where you can expand to see, rather than GBS launching a new page which loses the context of where you are)
2. Stories that don’t link to the main story but are equally popular are clustered as Related Items (these Related Items also have their own Discussion Items)
In Context and Snapshots
Another thing I like is that when you search Techmeme, you can view an item “In context” which launches to the unique URL of the story with all its clustered items
- whereas when you search GBS, it’s just a standard results page, there’s no way to view that item in context
One thing though, on Techmeme how do I get a unique URL for an item without having to search for it, and click “In context”, how come these unique links aren’t hyperlinks under an item on the homepage?
What I like about Techmeme is that you can enter a date and time and view a snapshot of what was happening that day/time.
The Juice
Techmeme is just more usable and looks supreme, but the difference here is that Techmeme only tracks a set of blogs, whereas GBS tracks the whole blogosphere.
- I’m not sure on the differences in how these services rank popularity, authoritativeness, and influence.
- as Marshall Kirkpatrick says, another feature for breaking news bloggers is who’s actually faster at collating the news everyone wants to know
More
Now let’s see this as my Google Reader homepage.
As an alternative to Google Reader, how about a customised Google Blog Search page, just like Google News Customised.
What I’ve always liked about Megite is that you can make your own memetracker via your OPML, I guess this would be similar as a Google Reader homepage memetracker…Megite also throws in recommended items into the mix.
So what about a social OPML memetracker, that is, base the blogosphere on my OPML and my Google Reader friends OPML (just pretending that Google Reader is a social network).
What I’ve always wanted is a widget for an item on Techmeme…meme clip blogging.
eg. imagine if this screenshot was a live widget
Related
Moopz - Friendfeed memetracker…FriendFeed are now clustering duplicate items (not quite memetracking, but lessens the noise)
Tweetmeme - Twitter memetracker
UPDATE: I just noticed Twitter are doing Newmastering pages just like Google Reader
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