Google Base, Google's public-access database for whatever you've got, has at least one feature that's interesting from this blog's perspective: it accepts input in the most common RSS formats (RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 and Atom 0.3 ). This according to the Google Base frequently asked questions.

Some blog tools -- I'm thinking of WordPress in particular -- use MySQL as a back end so already have the database aspect covered. But if you're using an RSS format as a way to get your data, whatever it is, from application 1 to application 2, and there's a need to have that data searchable, letting Google Base import the data seems like a viable solution.

For run-of-the-mill blog content, of course, this isn't really an advantage; plenty of search engines, Google's included, handle weblog content admirably. But for other stuff that's publicized by RSS -- bibliographic records of recently acquired books, new journal articles in a given subject area, and the like -- there might be some interesting uses.

Anyone doing anything with this who wants to share? Drop me a line...