Topix.net recently (November 6, 2005) started to index blog content and is offering it as part of its regular search results. This is a monumental move by Topix.net in the rise of citizen journalism. Yahoo! News recently began to offer blog news in the right rail of search results however there was definitely a distinguishable line between a blog and mainstream media results; Topix integration completely wipes out the eroding line.
Topix appears to be tagging blog content by subject and content type (i.e. blog, media, etc). with different tags. For more details on the method Topix is using to tag and index blog posts check out the recent post on the Topix.net weblog.
I wanted to find out if I was being indexed by Topix, so I did a search on my name Frank Gruber and found that I have been indexed several times in the last day (see results image below) and some of the results were tagged as "Blog News".
I also wanted to see if Somewhat Frank was being indexed and it appears it is in the two posts shown below. See if you are being index and if you are not you can let Topix know by going to this inclusion form.
I think this is a great news for bloggers across the blogosphere since
many times the blogosphere is a couple of weeks ahead of mainstream media on covering trends and other stories receiving buzz. I applaud
Topix for realizing the importance and influence of the blogosphere
and adding them to its index. Does this move crown Topix as king in the race for most update to date and relevant news search and aggregation?
Additionally, there is A LOT of buzz in the blogosphere surrounding the move by Topix to crawl and index blog content. To read some of the perspectives and reports from the blogosphere check the following posts on:
- SiliconBeat
- TechCrunch
- Micro Persuasion
- Search Engine Watch
- Alex Barnett's Blog
- Copy Write Watch
- Geeking With Greg
- Blog Goodies
- Tin Finger
- The Blog Herald
- Phil Ringnalda
- Susan Mernit's Blog
- New Media Musings
- POP! PR Jot
- Bloggers Blog
- Web 2.0 Explorer
- ProBlogger
- Search Engine Journal
- Jon Berg Exclusively
- Basic Thinking Blog
- Local Media Blog
