Methodology

• Many methods are proprietary
• Free, blog-dedicated search engines
• blogscope.net
• blogs.clusty.com
• blogsearch.google.com
• Keywords
• Thesaurus
• Blogscope keyword feature
  

Relevance to Public Policy

• "Computer chair" analysis
• Quick responses to events
• Insight into public opinion
  

The Blogosphere

What does it look like?

• Rapidly expanding
• Blogs, videos, other media
• Lots of spam

How does this affect searching?

• Dedicated search engines

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Free
• Requires little movement
• Meta-searching

Cons

• The "Snowball effect" and its reverse
• Keywords are hard
• Often hard to judge credibility