After I covered Placeblogger last month, I got a pointer to another site that focuses on local news and blogs. This one started in Virginia and covers 21 states. It’s called Blognetnews.com and when you visit www.blognetnews.com , it seems to automatically drop you in the Virginia section to start (this is a bit annoying.)

You can choose another place by using the pull-down menu on the right; states covered include Arizona, California, New York, and Ohio. Local contents on the left side of the page include frequently-linked-to news items (and sometimes news sources; find out what the local people are reading/watching), most recent news items (which you can filter by political orientation and sometimes by geographic region), and a list of blogs associated with that particular state. Smack in the middle of the page there’s a search engine for all the state’s blogs. I was going to complain that it’s not easy to get a full list of RSS feeds associated with a particular state, but I looked around a little bit more and found an OPML link at the bottom of the state’s page.

If you’re looking for the latest buzz check out the right side of the page, which features the most linked blogs, the most active blogs, and the most commented posts for that area.

I like the idea of Blognetnews in theory, but I have a concern. Three or four years ago, I would have thought, “Wow, a whole state, that’s a great amount of content!” Now, I’m thinking, “Wow, a whole state, that’s a pretty overwhelming number of blogs!” Unless the blogs included are being narrowed down in some way (only political, only media-sourced, etc.) I worry that this might be too much content to keep up via an interface like this.