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March 14, 2006
Blog Search by Location
Often for ROS web features we try to find bloggers who can speak authoritatively about the place where they live (or hail from originally).
Unfortunately, none of the blog searches I know of allow you to restrict your search by location tag. Type in “Dubai blogger” into Technorati a few days after a major news peg like the ports deal, and you’re likely to get a bunch of Americans and Brits pontificating, and no man-on-the-ground perspective from Dubai.
Tricks I use to circumnavigate blogspace and find those regional bloggers:
-If the city I’m looking for has a MetroBlogging community, that can be a great way to find a cluster of folks who want to talk about their town.
- If I can find one site that uses Google’s Blogger interface, the tags for location are linked to other blogs with the same location tag. Unfortunately though, if one person enters their location as “Dubai” and one as “UAE” and one as “United Arab Emirates,” they won’t help you find each other.
-In Technorati and Google BlogSearch and the other engines, I find the best way to find the locals is to enter specific search strings: “life in Karachi” rather than ”Pakistan,” etc.
But those are really all I’m working with thus far. (If you’ve got tips and tricks or search engines that can restrict for location, please do send them along).
For now, since the ROS guys have been making valiant efforts to synchronize their rolodexes, I’ve been trying to keep a record of my favorite regional bloggers who group their blogrolls by location.
Selections:
Iraqi and Afghan blogs:
Dave Shuler edits Carnival of the Liberated, a digest of Iraqi and Afghan blogs. He posted a “greatest hits 2005” back in September at his own blog, The Glittering Eye .
Israeli blogs:
Lisa Goldman (a great friend to Open Source, also the regional Global Voices editor), On the Face
EB, OneJerusalem.com
Imshin, Not a Fish
Palestinian blogs:
Haitham Sabbah, Sabbah’s blog
Laila El-Haddad, A Mother from Gaza
Much much more to come.
Posted by Greta Pemberton at March 14, 2006 12:40 PM
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