How does one do this you might ask? Knowing that search engine rankings don''t change that frequently, how was I going to find an invite on the day that the program launched?

Simple - I went to Feedster.

Feedster didn't offer me an invite, but I did a blog search for "Yahoo! 360" and the third listing was a blog of a guy in Romania who was invited and was giving away invitations to the first 50 people who commented on his blog.

So I did - I was about 15 or 20, but I responded and true to his word I had a Yahoo! 360 invite within a couple hours, on the day the service launched.

And to me this is the real power of blogs (and more importantly where search needs to go). As more people become like me (and the numbers are growing) they want the instant satisfaction of finding whatever they want when they want.

You see, blogs could be the next step in the evolution of search, at least in terms of how they work. Blogs generally have the most current information sometimes weeks in advance of "mainstream" services like newspapers (both print and online).

And there is a feeling among bloggers that indicates that if something is found in a blog (and even better multiple blogs) then it must be pretty accurate. Whereas finding information on a webpage is always suspect.

There is also the speed of the system. Because the main blog and feed engines work on pings, they are more efficient at retrieving results. They don''t have to crawl the entire web on a regular basis; they leave it up to the bloggers to let them know (via ping) that there is an update to the site.

I think the fact that this is still new technology also attracts the bloggers. It hasn't hit mainstream yet, so they feel more comfortable. I think you'll see bloggers move onto the next "big thing" when their parents become bloggers as well.

So, if you wanted to know what the "hip" thing on the web is these days it is definitely blogs. They are a great way to attract the online crowd, build exposure (and brand) and get visibility for new items whether they are news or products and services.

Rob Sullivan
Head Organic Search Strategist
Enquiro.com

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