It seems like web based blog tools and tracking sites are popping up daily. I’m curious to see which ones stand the test of time. Here’s a list of some of the most popular sites along with their functions and my predictions for their chances of survival. Many of these sites are still in alpha or beta.
Bloglines – The best online weblog aggregator available. Easily keep up with weblog subscriptions, save clipping and links, publish your own weblog, search weblogs, share your links. Fully featured and if you ask me, in it for the long haul.
PubSub – Subscribe to searches and have them delivered by email or RSS. You can also get a browser sidebar to be updated immediately of changes.Bloglines also allows you subscribe to searches. I imagine PubSub will be around for awhile, but it’s not one of the most useful weblog tools in my opinion.
Technorati – Search for blog content as well as view the popularity rank of blogs by how many sites link to them. Technorati was one of the first weblog tools and remains one of the most popular.
Blogtree – A blog genealogy site. It shows how blogs are related. It’s an interesting novelty, but I don’t think it will stand the test of time.
Daypop – A Technorati / Google like blog/news website search tool. It gives rankings for search terms and weblogs by citations. Overall, I’d say it’s a pretty good service. It’s not unique, but it’s speed and simplicity give it a good chance of sticking around.
Bloogz – Another blog search engine / popularity rating website. They also have an aggregator online, but in testing. It is similar to Bloglines, but with far fewer features-notably no OPML support. The site isn’t too bad but it’s slow and they really should employ some translators, some of the grammar on the site is pretty humorous. I’m not counting on this website standing the test of time either.
Syndic8 – Gathers syndicated feeds, lists and ranks them. Actively encourages non-syndicated sites to syndicate their content. While the design of this website makes it hard to see anything, I doubt they’re going to disappear any time soon. It’s clear they already are making money and that should ensure the longevity of the site. They have what many of these other services seem to lack–a business plan.
Blogstreet – This is a tool to find blogs similar to each other. To be listed they require you post an image similar to the one on the left. I’m not sure about this site, but my first impression is that it’s too close to Technorati, but too strict on entry to survive.
Blogshares – A fantasy stock market for weblogs. By far the most unique site in the list. Play the blogmarket and trade shares based on a which weblogs you feel will gain or lose popularity. I think Blogshares will be around for years to come.
Blizg – A blog index that focuses on metadata. Another blog search engine. This website has motivated me to work on my metadata, but I’m not sure if that’s a good enough reason for me to keep using their site.
Those are a few big ones. There are several others I haven’t included that I’ll add later.