As someone who has plunged into the world of blogs in the past year, I've come to appreciate the insight and knowledge of some very smart people out there. The problem, however, is the difficulty in tracking down good-quality blogs. Often, the process involves a lot of "blind dating" where you stumble upon something interesting before coming to a dead end. It's an unproductive and frustrating process. Of course you could do a Google search for "best blogs" or "blog awards" but that kicks back subjective choices that, although interesting, can be far from satisfying.
All this got me thinking maybe there has to be a way to combine the power of Google, Technorati and eBay to develop a better mousetrap. Bear with me because this is an idea I haven't completely thought through, but I'm thinking about a tool where a Google-like spider goes out and ranks blogs based on criteria such as how many other blogs and/or Web sites are linked in to them. This ranking criteria would, for example, put someone like Om Malik near the top of technology blogs. The other tool would lie within the blogging community and would allow blog visitors to rank the sites they visit - much like eBay offers with its user feedback scores. This could involve a small piece of software that bloggers would install on their sites if they wanted, or it could be a central location such as Technorati where people could come to submit ratings, which would be published dynamically.
Perhaps something like this system already exists, perhaps I'm planting the seeds for the next great online success story - if so, i want a commission! - but it seems like a no-brainer to me. If anyone has some feedback/suggestions/ideas, I'd be most appreciative. If anyone has some money looking for a good back-of-the-envelope idea, I'm open for business.