Blogdigger Offering a Local Search

Blog search engine Blogdigger ( http://www.blogdigger.com ) continues to roll out the specialized search services with the launch of Blogdigger Local. You may access the new service at http://local.blogdigger.com .

When I first tried this search (yesterday) it didn't work, and it still doesn't work in Firefox (wonder why?). Works fine in Opera though. Blogdigger allows you to search blogs by geographic location. The interface looks a bit like Google Local; enter what you're searching for and then a location.

I entered bikes in Denver CO. I got a map of Denver, a list of the 'blogs nearest Denver, and a link to the results in RSS format. Finally I got the results themselves.

Which were a bit disappointing, but I think that's going to be the nature of this type of search. Blogs cover all kinds of different things. Searching for something generic like bikes is going to get you a wide variety of results. I think a search like this would be better used with a brand name. So I searched for Denver Post, which gave me a much more interesting mix of Denver Post stories being quoted and discussed, complaints about the Denver Post not having RSS feeds, etc. The search results in toto were better focused than the other search I did.

If you like you can expand the search results to a 100 mile radius of the place you're searching, or shrink it to 5 or 10 miles (by default Blogdigger searches within a 20-mile radius of your specified location.)

The FAQ for Blogdigger's new features is available at http://local.blogdigger.com/faq.html ; note that the service currently supports 50,000 US locations/zip codes. The FAQ also explains how you can add your geographic information to your 'blog.

Posted to Internet-Weblogs-Search | TrackBack