Google's new entry into blog search is far faster than Technorati, which is probably enough by itself to compel many people to switch over, given how overburdened Technorati seems to be these days. From the few searches I've made today, it looks like Google is less comprehensive, but presumably that will change, given Google's unparalleled resources (and of course, this is the first day).
But for me the most important difference is Google Blog Search's complete lack of transparency in the search and ranking criteria. The beautiful thing about Technorati is that relationships between blogs and are made explicit, so it's easy to see clusters and communities and conversations. Presumably this kind of information is contained within the default "by relevance" search option, but by putting it below the surface, Google gives users less useful information. Why?
This isn't the first time I've complained about the lack of transparency in a Google algorthim, and I wonder if earlier attempts to exclude blogs from general search will somehow end up being justified by this new offering. I hope not -- that would be a crushing blow for individual speech.
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