Google's (beta) Blogsearch finds stuff in the blogosphere. "The goal of Blog Search is to include every blog that publishes a site feed (either RSS or Atom). It is not restricted to Blogger blogs, or blogs from any other service." The multi-lingual search can find posts or blogs and it can also be narrowed down to specific dates. Furthermore you can subscribe to your query by Atom or RSS feeds. 'Social software' and 'Web 2.0' for example, yielded well I thought. There is more here and oodles about blogsearch.

Socialtext has this nice summary out on the state (June 05) of the European blogosphere.The French are leading, this is seen to be due to their political background and a blog-friendly MSM.  Top, corporate, political, money generating and niche bloggers are also featured. Each country can be inquired into from the sidebar. The German scene is wrapped up here.

Stephen Downes' 'How to be heard' is a very useful article for people planning a blog or running one. There are very good hints towards increasing your virtual presence. He gives advice about having a purpose/concept, labouring over content, designing well, providing rich media and marketing. I agree, that it is very important to have an initial concept for a blog, but also see enormous potential in playing with 'identity' and allowing the blog to morph within the universe of memes. The 'self' can then be surprised about the diversity of identities. 

"The landscape of social bookmarking tools is like the wild west." Users who would like to make the right choices should consult bookmark comparisons before they invest their resources into one or a couple of options. "ConsultantCommons provides an online collaboration space and community for non-profit technical assistance providers to collaboratively build and share knowledge." Their article (print version) investigates the functionalities and examples of usage of the ever evolving bookmarking systems.Their primary selection criteria is, that the service should be compatible with nonprofit communities of practice.The commentries add further more services. One noteworthy one is a matrix (pdf) by Thorsten Rox comparing 11 major providers in July 2005.

(via Kairosnews)