Slowly but surely, posts from MySpace blogs have been invading my Technorati search results. Because it started out as a slow creep, it took me a while to notice how negatively it impacts the usefulness of the blog post search. I think it’s pretty clear today though.
As a case in point, I just performed a quick search for “Steven Covey” (don’t make me explain why) and got a set of results that is virtually owned by MySpace blogs. And while I’m sure Dee to the Double and Avon Gal both have some pretty profound thoughts to share on my topic, I have a strict rule against reading MySpacers that aren’t on my friends list.
The easy way around this would be to allow boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT) or other exclude methods in blog post search strings just as they do for tag searches. Surprisingly, though, the only filtering options come in the form of language and/or authority selections. While these options do allow visitors to effectively chase off MySplog results, increasing the authority requirements also knocks out viable results from my C-List blogger pals.
Who knows? Maybe there’s a good reason they don’t allow it. I’m not even sure the search string hits against the blog’s name / platform. If the issue goes ignored much longer, though, Technorati is going to start loosing users to Feedster, a blog search engine that does allow boolean functionality and does not seem to be indexing MySpace with any zeal.
ps: Before all you MySpace defenders start hate mailing me… it’s as amusing to me as it is to the next person. I just believe what happens in MySpace should stay in MySpace.