Why You Should Care About Google's Blog Search Launch

Why You Should Care About Google's Blog Search Launch: "Blogs aren't just about keeping tabs on breaking news or what your old college buddies are up to. They are fast becoming the content management system of choice for many small businesses. The ability to quickly and easily get content online in a manner that can be picked up by potential customers via aggregators isn't something to be scoffed at. Creative use of blogs has been driving traffic and sales to web sites for quite some time.

The thing that Google's new offering changes is that it will force the other major search engines to also pay attention to blog specific search. As each of the engines works to improve blog search, they'll force each other to up the ante. Existing blog search engines like Technorati and DayPop will also need to rise to the challenge. At the same time, the increased availability of quality blog search will give readers more access to new sites and feeds."

Google Blog Search Debuts in Beta: "In addition to standard search operators like 'link:' and 'site:' Google Blog Search will support new operators like 'inblogtitle:' 'blogurl:' and 'inposttitle:.' Blog search will be available in 35 different languages, though by default, the index will search all content. Safe search is also an available option.

The niftiest feature of Google's new blog search is the ability to create a custom RSS or Atom feed based on search results. Users can opt to subscribe to either the top ten or top one hundred listings for a particular search query. Google will then provide a feed that can be added to a user's favorite aggregator...

if you are already running a blog, you may be looking at some nice new traffic. After all, in the blog search engine, your posts won't have to compete with all of the other sites indexed by Google. If you're not already blogging, you need to give some consideration to whether or not you should start one up.

Now, as with search engine optimization, you shouldn't do it just to do it, you need to make sure that you have a reason to do it. Think about your target audience and ask yourself if there's anything that you can write for them that will make sense to your business. If you're a home improvement company, consider starting a blog that aims to answer common questions that your customers ask you. If you're a car dealership, consider starting a blog that features test drive information and car reviews. As with anything else online, it just takes a little bit of creativity."