I’ve been a Beta tester for Sphere for a little while now, and it’s finally gone live. I have to say that I’m really impressed with the final product and I think it will give a lot more relevant results than those currently found on Technorati and IceRocket.
There are three main areas to Sphere:
- Blog search results
The results are based off of a number things. They are tying in which blogs link to each other, posting frequency and length, and which bloggers are starting the conversation. - Featured blogs
Supposedly, due to the way the Sphere algorithm is designed, they can tell wich blogs are the most relevant. Again, they pay attention to the posting frequency and link structure to determine this. If you don’t see a blog listed here that you think should be, you can submit it. - Related media
This last area is where Sphere makes a little money off of links to other media like books (Amazon). A feature that I like is how they link you to podcasts about the given search term and show images that are related as well. I’m sure this area will see some changes ahead.
Lastly, there is a downloadable Sphere tool that allows you to do quick searches of a particular website/blog that you are on for relevant results in the blogosphere. You’ll basically get back results from other blogs that have content similar to the one you are currently on.
May 2, 2006 at 11:05 am
Pretty cool. I tried it out and the search results were mostly relevant blogs. There was a bit of a timing issue. One blog search revealed a blog that they thought was a day old, but it was actually one from December.
Still more relevant searches than most though.
May 4, 2006 at 6:46 pm
Bye bye technorati for me and hello sphere. I like the “Sphere It” feature. Thanks for this.