#14 Technorati

I use Technorati when I want to find blogs on topics rather than a search engine. Is that very often one could ask?
No. 50 million out there so some must be worth while? A sea of words.
In the last year of so, trying to come to terms with Web 2.0 and the wavery course of the SLV21 juggernaut, I think I have read more blogs, with tags acting as stepping-stones. While the subjective nature can be misleading or amusing (the wag who tagged an Australian politics site with the word 'culture'!).

Mmm searching on blogs vs tags vs posts, with the results converse to that hierachy?
Blogs 522 and posts 21, 700. Tag search left me hanging. Directory gave me a top blog written in Spanish and possibly erudite, but began to loose faith with the Google ads (in english) for fat free diet pills.

At the Unconference in March I listened to a thoughtful discussion about the inclusion of tags in standard library catalogues, as one means to broaden both patron and library staff options constrained at times by the archaic and Anglo-centric nature of LCSH. It reasonated, recalling a patron searching in vain for executive recruitment by subject heading, as 'head hunting' steered him resolutely to Papua New Guinea titles.
Tag clouds are fun for some serendipity web time. See earlier post re labyrinth. Offered in search engines such as clusty they can be illuminating for students online who can't think beyond the fug of their initial question.
Importantly, clusty allows you to select the color of your cloud.