The blogosphere has grown large enough to justify having its own search engines dedicated to mining the prolific output of blogs of all topics and genres, and not just engines like Technorati. The new medium has become so pervasive so quickly, traditional media, the corporate world, and fortune-hunters of all stripes will spend years trying to catch up.

Business Week has the story:

No, if you’re looking for today’s buzz, the first place to click is a Web log search engine such as Technorati, Feedster, or Blogdigger. By picking up the latest posts, minute by minute, from some 12 million blogs, these sites showcase an ever-changing mosaic of what is on the world’s mind.

TRAFFIC DRIVER. From politicos to ad execs and plaintiff’s lawyers, lots of people are hungry for just that.

Now a surge of traffic to blog search sites has raised expectations that giants Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft’s MSN may soon plunge into blog search.

Blogs would give them yet another vehicle for the search-based ads they sell. Just as vital, blog search promises to be a big traffic driver as more surfers — some 40,000 to 50,000 a day — take up blogging.

CRAWLING ALONG. The time looks ripe. Industry incumbents appear vulnerable as they struggle to sort through the avalanche of new data pouring into their servers. Adam Hertz, Technorati’s chief engineer, says the company handles 850,000 daily blog postings, up 70% in three months. Adding servers is a snap, Hertz says. But revamping systems to digest all the data “is like changing a flat tire on a moving car.”

What all this portends for search engines like Google and Yahoo! and for businesses in general is anyone’s guess.

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