ResearchBuzz

So apparently Google Blog Search is the most popular blog search engine. Considering how much blog spam I’ve found on there, this is IMHO less a victory for Google than an indictment of blog search engines in general (and it makes me nostalgic for Feedster.) Personally I still find Technorati very usable, though I do find that I’m using Google Blog Search more and more (the magical search modifier when using Google Blog Search is -inurl:blogspot . It helps weed out the splogs.)

I have not found the perfect blog search engine. I haven’t even found the one that makes me really happy. Many of them are too cluttered with spam. But I have found a couple that I like a whole lot and I’d recommend. The first one is Icerocket Blog Search at http://www.icerocket.com/ . It uses date headers to separate search results so it’s easy to get a sense of time by just glancing a results page. It also offers a trending tool and a high signal/spam ratio.

The other blog search engine I like doesn’t get a lot of press; it’s called Blogdigger ( http://www.blogdigger.com/index.html ). The number of blogs it indexes is on the small side, but on the other hand I’ve seen very few spam blogs here. Blogdigger also uses date headers, like Icerocket, and additionally appears to be indexing either del.icio.us feeds or bookmarks from certain users. Either way you’ll find Del.icio.us entries in the search results along with their tags. Very cool.

Instead of trying to kill Google, how about some of those hot new second web wave companies out there make a decent blog search engine? All submissions reviewed by a human, spam filtering in the search results, all blogs flaggable (so the splogs that do slip through can be caught by visitors and removed by site wranglers), a tagging system, integration with public information resources like Wikipedia, and partnerships with other sites that distribute and aggregate information (RSSFwd for starters).

And a partridge in a pear tree.

Woo Hoo! The Library of Congress has RSS feeds. Thanks Steven.

Google is now accepting applications for the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship. Deadline is January 15.

The Online Education DataBase put ResearchBuzz in their Top 100 Blog List. Awww, thanks! The avalanche of guilt for not posting for the last ten days commences… NOW.

The Year In Ask 2006: http://blog.ask.com/2006/12/the_year_in_ask.html .

New features in Blogger: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/bloggers-new-bag-of-tricks.html.

Note to self — read this later: the Mechanical Turk Getting Started Guide.

Pharmacy Information on the Internet — a roundup: http://www.pharmj.com/Editorial/20061202/society/p673internet.html.

Nike+iPod as a tracking device. Um, ick.

Online Exhibit: Oregon responds to WWII.

Which J. Smith is which? VERY nice.

Track bills in Arkansas: http://www.arkansas.gov/lobbyist/.

Newton’s Theory of Everything: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/index.jsp.

Thanks to The Scout Report for bringing this one to my attention. If you’re interested in putting a form on your site, and don’t have an easy way to process forms, or you don’t want to learn the HTML to get a form up, try Wufoo at http://www.wufoo.com/ . Looks like a lot of effort has been made to make the site as easy-to-use and friendly as possible.

Wufoo is essentially a paid service with subscriptions ranging from $9 a month to $199 a month, but there is a free version that limits the number of forms, fields, and entries. Once you sign up (signing up requires a user name, password, and the URL you want to use to create your particular Wufoo-space) you’re prompted to create a new form. (I guess “Holy Tabula Rasa!” counts as a prompt.)

The form creator is not quite click and drag easy, but it’s easy. Form elements are on the left, while the form itself is on the right. You can add a variety of items including radio buttons, address, Web address, and even section breaks so you can space everything out the way you like it. Each field also has its own set of properties that you can change — for example, a text field can have a predefined value, be required, has an editable title and space for user instructions.

The form itself also has properties. You can have results e-mailed to you (and e-mailed to the person filling out the form.) If you have a paid Wufoo account you have forms password-protected and redirect the user to a different URL after the form is filled out (free accounts have to settle form confirmation text.)

Once the form is set up, you’re able to make it public or private and view its page. You also have the option to edit the form, get HTML to add the form to your site, and actually subscribe to a secure RSS feed that contains new entries to and comments on your form (very sweet!) A “statistics” tab shows you information about recent visits to your form.

A lot of effort has been put into making this service easy to use, but in case you do find yourself a bit lost, there’s a FAQ, documentation, and even forums.

If you’re looking for an easy way to put forms on your site and get the results in several different ways, this looks like a nice service. I have only one concern if you decide to use a paid account. If you look at the Terms of Service, you will see the following statement: “On paying accounts, if you exceed the maximum number of entries allowed for a given month, a fee of $0.05 USD per entry exceeding the limit will be charged to your account at the end of your billing period.” I can easily imagine a situation where your site gets Dugg, or something similar, and suddenly you have a lot of people using your form, and you end up owing Wufoo a lot of money. I see that with the free accounts your form is simply turned off once you reach your quota of submissions. It would be nice if the paid accounts had the same option.