Mike Gotta: You Can Search All Analyst Blogs

You can now search all the blogs listed in the Tekrati directory of analyst blogs — and get seriously good results — thanks to Mike Gotta. Mike, who runs with the Burton tribe these days, has mashed up his own Google Co-op magic with my OPML to create one of his serendipity search sites. I’ll arrange to keep the initial search feature going, and add some features and community, within a few weeks (i.e., after CES). Thanks, Mike.

The results are good, based on my initial test queries. And, it’s easy and free!

If you’re going to use it, here’s some background on the Tekrati OPML piece:

First, a note of caution: This OPML is 1.0 — i.e., out of date. It still works just fine with most desktop readers. I’ll publish a heads up after validating/updating with Dave Winer’s OPML 2.

As with all Tekrati directories, this one changes constantly. Recent incoming: 25 blogs since American Thanksgiving. Recent outgoing: no idea.

This OPML is the only Tekrati directory content that is published as “shared content”.

The analyst blogs directory and OPML has a life and luck all its own. I’ve been awed by the caliber of the people who take time to point it out, suggest improvements, alert me to their competitors’ blogs, encourage me to carry on with it. Just a few of the highlights:

The editor of ResearchBuzz, Tara Calishain, gave it an initial credibility with the Internet research community — a world far beyond my ICT research reach.

Tara’s coverage led Matt Pasiewicz, the content manager at EDUCAUSE to my inbox, with the suggestion to add an OPML, pointers on how to do it, and an offer to test it (this all predated Winer’s first OPML validator).

Redmonk Stephen O’Grady caught and furled an unintentionally exposed Tekrati experiment in exporting the OPML to a weblog for central “analyst planet” style publish, search and cross-link. This inspired many selfless and many more not-so-selfless suggestions on tools and services to try. Sadly, none worked very well.

Which brings me back to Mike’s project. I’m really excited about this. Thanks again, Billy Bob — er, Mike…