Microsoft Introduces Competition For Google News

Romeo E. Cabrera writes "In advance of an imminent launch of its own search engine, Microsoft has launched its own version of the popular Google News service. Based initially on feeds from the Moreover news aggregation service, the new beta service (known as MSN Newsbot) aims to provide news on a range of subjects including World, Sports, Entertainment, Science and Technology."

Comments

Impartiality

[harks]

I wonder if they will be as impartial as the Google news generator. The first two "most popular" articles on their service are the same one: Microsoft Tests Web News Service

Re:Impartiality

[terraformer]

Hopefully they will be as impartial through the use of automation, which is where google gets it's impartiality from.
The more important thing here is this may push google to drop the "our news site is an experimental beta test which can be dropped at any time" attitude and start to really pour some resources in. One thing about competition is that it will help hone the product and google's news site has not really changed since it's inception a while back. I was hoping for some interface tweaks and other enhancements that could make it the killer web app.

What about MSNBC???

[RobertAG]

Wasn't a REAL news website good enough? Now they have to be in competition with THEMSELVES?

At first glance I thought it was a new place to search usenet news. This new "news site" is just plain worthless. It reminds me of the USAToday site.

second to the punch

[jest3r]

M$ launches news service
M$ launches new search engine
M$ launches music download servive

it seems like M$ is scrambling a little bit, not quite sure what to do anymore. coming to the market second or third works when you can leverage your existing user-base in a controlled environment (think IE or Office).

the trouble is the internet is not really a controlled environment like their os. even with a browser monopoly M$ hasn't really figured out what to do online .. the only success they have achieved thus far is by buying existing leaders (think HotMail).

so as far as I am concerned as long as M$ is mired up trying to develop their own online services in-house the world is safe.

Who cares?

[neiffer]

So, I looked at the NewsBot site and I suppose it's swell, but I still like GoogleNews better. Why? Maybe because deep inside I like Google and their business model better. I think Microsoft, who is not really loved among the masses (and I am a Windows user; I like XP although I use OpenOffice instead of Office XP/'03) doesn't really do much for itself when it slaps its brand on a product. Also, I have to wonder if MSN will make the classic mistake of making it overbloated like the rest of its sites. I see that now there is no advertising on it but when will that change? Also, I see the cheesie MSN banner on it. When will MSN start forcing you to sign into passport or worse Hotmail (gag) to get the news. Google is simple. Low bandwith (with an option for lower bandwidth yet if you want). There is no advertising on the news page. There is no need to sign into the collective.

Re:Paranoid? Maybe not..

[RALE007]

IBM once held a monopoly. Then Microsoft got 'em.

Now Microsoft has a monopoly and the inertia will eventually kill them. My only question is, can I pick the stock of the next contender to the throne? That my friend is the American way.

What's interesting is IBM lost its PC monopoly because of the openness of the hardware. I think it would be rather ironic if MS loses their monopoly because the, albeit different, open architecture of OSS.

Haven't you people ever seen MSNBC?

[CalCudahy]

Why is everyone here going nuts on the possibility of MS skewing the results? They've shown for years that they can co-run a news site that has plenty of room for anti-Microsoft and pro-linux stories. Has anyone made a serious claim about MSNBC not being impartial?

Pro-linux

Anti-microsoft