I picked this up—WSJ.com - New Search Engines Help Users Find Blogs—from Niall Kennedy's blog last night—Niall Kennedy's Weblog- Wall Street Journal on blogs ...—and it has also been written up on Business Blog Consulting (BBC)—Business Blog Consulting- WSJ Article on Blog Search.  The implications of this article aren't the WSJ gets blogging, because we already know they do, it's that they see the value of blogs to ordinary people.  This article wasn't in the Tech or Biz sections, it was in the Personal section (not personals).  The section where things featured that relate to "normal" people.
 
An interesting related item is from the PharmaBlogging Conference blog—Proof! Blogs Influence Medicine Purchases—which means that in addition to the known influencer of websites, blogs are taking this to the next level.  People are searching and finding information ranges of topics (health being one of the top ones) and these are influencing a range of buying and lifestyle choices.  I wonder when pharma companies are going to see the marketing potential of sponsoring blogs?  Probably a while actually.

Blog Ads by Chitika

Regardless, blog search is hot.  Technorati is taking it on the chin frequently, but you do have to give them props for getting the ball rolling.  I expect that soon blogs are going to become so mainstream that they won't be differentiated from "regular" websites, well except that they kick butt on Google.
 
The race will continue both in terms of getting blog search down, the technical challenges are tremendous, and having blogs recognized for their informational and marketing value.  And the race is only getting faster and hotter.
 
Powered By Qumana