Review of Blog Search Engines

I visited the two blog search engines (blogcatalog and globeofblogs) and submitted a search that I already knew what the result should be. This was my way to test the accuracy and relevance of the search engine. I put in the search topic "peak oil". This is an economic and scientific topic exploring the the current oil markets. The premier blog on this topic is "The Oil Drum". It is updated daily and has the largest number of subscribers of persons interested in peak oil. Neither of these two blog search engines came up with this blog site and they should have. Most of the search results were frivolous and completely unrelated to my search request. I then put this topic into the Google Blog Search engine and The Oil Drum was listed first. In fact, the Google Blog Search gave me a complete list of relevant blogs with no false leads. I do not think I will use the first two blog search engines again. It is obvious why Google is the gold standard. It simply works.


I went back to the first two blog search engines and put in a search for developmental math. I teach developmental math courses at UAS and wanted to see what blogs came up. I searched several different ways and the following site came up
http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/
This blog is for parents, students, and teachers and explores ways to think about math in effective ways. The archives go back 5 years and are searchable. I read several thread about multiplication and ways to teach that topic. There was a thread on whether multiplication should be memorized.
I also searched for 'math anxiety'.
http://afterthemathpanel.blogspot.com/2008/04/math-anxiety.html
This was an interesting personal story about math anxiety but did not offer anything new.


Questions-
List the sites selected
http://afterthemathpanel.blogspot.com/2008/04/math-anxiety.html
http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/

Why did you choose these sites?
They relate directly to my teaching interests and concerns.

What did they offer?
Very little. The search engines did not produce a complete list. Most of the listings were individual journals about people's personal experiences with math or math instruction. There was no real help there. The individuals who were writing were not experienced and did not have helpful information. When I need answers -- I prefer professional journals or more directed research.

Do you plan to continue to use?
I will use Google blog search when I want to local relevant blogs. I think listservs on specific topics is a more useful communication tool.