A valuable source of gift ideas this season may be a software engineer in San Francisco or a former Conde Nast marketing services director from New Jersey. Or it could be a work-at-home mom who is a designer and once worked as an elf at Macy's.

Shoppers scratching their heads for gift suggestions are seeking advice from a cadre of bloggers who are up on the hot products in their fields. Although mining the sites may require sifting through industry news and the occasional life story, blogs can provide ideas from people with particular expertise — backpack suggestions from trekkers or gadget advice from techies, for example.

While most bloggers write about personal experiences or topics in the news, many are now dabbling in product reviews, in part because it is on such sites that advertisers, who are keen to capture trend-setting online shoppers, are seeking to spend their dollars.

The result is a mass of new blogs that focus mainly on products, from hits like Uncrate.com and Engadget.com to smaller standouts like Watchreport.com — and a twist on the sometimes staid or out-of-date gift guide.

Useful and reputable blogs are also becoming easier to find. The launch of new blog networks — compilations from companies like Glam Media that handpick bloggers to feature on their sites — is helping popular blogs stand out. An adventurous blog sleuth can search for shopping blogs in any category by going to search engines like Technorati.com and Google Blog Search.

Here is a sampling of blogs in popular gift-giving categories:

Fashion

Omiru.com: Unlike most style blogs obsessed with Lindsay Lohan's latest handbag or a "must have" $30,000 fur coat, Omiru.com highlights trends around more practical fashions, from relaxed-fit pleated khakis from Gap Inc. to a $39 floppy hat from Amazon.com Inc. Fashion gossip and runway commentary are sectioned off for die-hard fashionistas. The rest of the site highlights trendy and typically affordable products and outfits great for gifts. Shoppers can search by hot style trends (dresses with pockets for women or tassel-free loafers for men, for example) and find links to merchants offering the selections. The site is edited by Trisha Okubo, a former fashion design student, who lives in Cupertino, Calif.

Outdoors

HikerDeals.com: This site can help you save on gifts for outdoorsy friends and relatives, whether they are cyclists, backpackers, skiers, runners or kayakers. The site also features in-depth gear guides on everything from headlamps to Clif Builder bars, which it describes as having "a surprisingly good, foodlike texture." The site's focus, however, is on finding the best deals, which are posted regularly to the home page and segmented into gear categories like running and cycling and snow and slopes. The offers can be substantial — 20 percent off one item at REI.com. Beware of scrolling down too far, however, since some deals closer to the bottom of the page may have expired.