Peepin' N' Hidin'
by Gary Woods

If you're looking for real targeted search results there are some cool places you can find specific things like Blogs and Podcasts. For instance, a site called Odeo http://www.odeo.com allows you to search for audio on the web without having to install iTunes on your system. Registering with them allows you to browse podcasts by the tags assigned to them. Plus, registering allows you to do some tagging of your own and also allows you to subscribe to topic-oriented channels and to download audio to your iPod.

Another search service is Technorati http://www.technorati.com which is a free blog portal that takes tracking blogs to the next level. You don't have to register to search blogs or use the site's Blog Finder to locate blogs on a particular subject. But signing in lets you promote your own blog and setup watch lists of topics you want Technorati to track for you.

The free Wink http://www.wink.com search engine incorporates the human element, crawling tagged sites such as De.licio.us, Digg, and Flickr and drawing on Wink users' tagged searches to separate the cool from the un-cool.

How about a "Roll Your Own" search engine? Well at Rollyo http://www.rollyo.com that's exactly what you do. You can create a custom collection of search engines and topics and then share the resulting "roll" with others. The free site provides logged-in users some starter search rolls of its own, as well as lists of topic-targeted rolls created by celebrities and other "high rollers."

If you have any suggestions or questions for me please drop me a note at garyandlaury@santabarbaraproperties.com or see my column on the Internet at http://www.santabarbaraproperties.com or call me at (805) 729-0910