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Tracking Aussie Web Logs

We all know how difficult it is to stay on top of information resources on the web. The best sources six months ago may not be the best choices today. The tools and techniques you used in 2003 don't work now. In fact, Chris Sherman and I found that our search examples were changing on an hourly basis during the last Web Search Pacific tour!

One way of keeping on top of relevant sources and tools for web research is to selectively monitor web logs. Yes, they too can contribute to information overload if you try to read every blog that might be useful. That is why sites that monitor blogs, allow you to search recent content, and scan for blogs on a particular topic are so useful.

For a user-friendly tool for searching Australian blogs, check out "Australian Weblogs, v.2". This site monitors close to 2500 Australian blogs, and generates a list of the most recent additions to the blogs, either for the entire country or for blogs located in a specific state. You will find blogs on everything from digital photography to future cars, commentary on world events, and "a collection of random thoughts about finding work in a library".

Of course, this site does not include every blog in Australia, in part because the definition of a blog is somewhat fluid. Anthony Hicks, the manager of Australian Weblogs, sees a distinction between blogs, which he describes as subject-oriented writing, and e-journals, which he describes as more personal writing, similar to an online diary. For most web researchers, this is a useful distinction. If you want to identify e-journals, check out LiveJournal.com, which lists almost 35,000 e-journals from Australia.

The Australian Weblogs site offers only limited search functionality; it is more useful as a way of browsing local blogs than to search for individual postings.

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