There are a number of blog search engines out there today, however, no single one has emerged as the clear champion in this realm. While Technorati has become the current blog search directory front-runner, the recent explosion in the number of blogs and postings has challenged it to keep up with the expansion. I recently experienced Technorati's simple search functionality performing as slow as watching paint dry. Not to mention, I have also received a number of error messages when trying to perform simple functions within my Technorati. Other noted issues I personally have experienced include:
- A lag or malfunction in posting accurate blog information when searching for posts from this blog, although I made a point of both using Technorati tags and auto-ping Technorati with every post.
- Inaccurate accounts for links and TrackBacks to my blog.
- Any positive correlation with the use of Technorati tags in regard to being indexed on their site and placement in Technorati's search results. It makes me wonder if all of those tags do anything at all...
- Profile information being returned to the browser incorrectly despite changes to make it be reflected immediately.
I do not want this post to be a total Technorati rant since I do like using Technorati and find their site very useful. I think that they have some interesting features that include the most popular tags, which makes more prominent tags in a larger font. 
Another nice feature is listing the most popular search terms from the last hour on Technorati.
Technorati may be the current leader, but due to its latest issues, it may not be in the lead for long, especially if some of the other web search players get involved. For example, Blo.gs is a blog directory site that was recently acquired by Yahoo. It looks like Yahoo is close to releasing a new RSS search functionality since a few people stumbled on the new product and posted this screen shot that surfaced; John Battelle also mentions it here, however, I was unable to find the URL in searching for this new product. Niall Kennedy was one of the fortunate stumblers and did a very brief but thorough analysis of the new Yahoo product and how the technology will work with this post and Online News Squared does a good job recapping the situation here.
While Yahoo plunges into the Blog and RSS search arena there are other players trying to stay active as well. Bloglines is currently the leading blog reader as reported by Online News Squared here, therefore it can be assumed they have a large number of RSS feeds aggregated for users to read. However, I do not use Bloglines so I am not an expert in it's functionality by any means. PubSub is another key player in the field and Bob Wyman, CTO of PubSub, recently posted comments to a Bloggspotting posting titled "Why Technorati feels so slow" explaining how "scaling" is a key hurdle in the field of blog search functionality. Check out the rest of his interesting comments here. Of course there are a number of other great blog directories like Blogarama, Blogdigger and Feedster just to name a few, and they seem to all do pretty much the same thing, but no one has emerged as the champion yet. To see more of the current players just go to any one of the all-in-one ping website links PingMyBlog or Pingomatic.
So I guess the question now is, who will be the champion of blog search? Especially since Google has not yet weighed in with a specific RSS or blog search functionality. It makes me wonder if they have something up their sleeve to revolutionize blog searching the way they were able to revolutionize web search? Ironically, Jason Calacanis recently begged Yahoo and Google to enter into the blog search game in this post. While it is clear that Yahoo has something planned for release soon, it might just be a matter of time until Google shows its cards.
