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

Paranoid? Maybe not..

[grub]

TinFoilHat time:
I imagine any news that is negative to MS' bottom line will be relegated to the back of the bus, much like Linux search results in MSN's search. Thanks, but I'll use a news engine from a company with in interest in cool tech, not spinning the news to appease stockholders.

Re:Paranoid? Maybe not..

[ironfrost]

It looks like you might have a point - at the moment, the second and third highest ranked articles are about Microsoft themselves.

Re:Paranoid? Maybe not..

[TopShelf]

Well, give them a bit of credit. The most prominent story in the Tech department is Sun's plan to partner with AMD and offer Wintel alternatives...

Re:Paranoid? Maybe not..

[mcpkaaos]

much like Linux search results in MSN's search

Didn't we just dispel that myth about a week ago, when showing that beyond MSN's initial page(s) of sponsored links, Linux search results thrived in massive numbers? A search for "linux" on MSN returns 440 sponsored links, most of which are legitimate linux sites. Going beyond that list yields over 15 million additional results. I know that doesn't compare to Google, but that's like apples to oranges. Google is a far superior search engine/service by its own merit. Linux.org is #4 on the first page of results, by the way (even though it is beneath that site about migrating away from linux over to Microsoft, lol).

I know that we can't expect Microsoft to roll out the red carpet for negative news about themselves too often, or even positive news for alternative products, but can we please stop with the paranoia? I think they've demonstrated that while they are in fact petty, they aren't quite that petty.

Re:Paranoid? Maybe not..

[fafaforza]

It is interesting that the newsbot looks so much like Google's news page that it even sports the "(beta)" disclaimer.

Has miscrosoft ever released public products or services that were labeled beta? From my memory, everything they produced was the most complete, functional, secure and final solution around.

Re:Paranoid? Maybe not..

[kiwimate]

Gosh...you don't think that might be because they've only just opened it up and so the vast majority of the site's users up until now would have been internal Microsoft people?

As I look now, a few minutes after the /. story appeared, that's already changing. Number 1 is about Microsoft, and number 2 is about a murder suspect in the UK.

How's this for a test? Everyone on /., go and visit the Tech News Site and click on the Red Hat subscriptions surge article and see how quickly it moves up.

Or, even better, come back to the site after a couple of days and see how it's changed. Then, reevaluate on the basis of some actually vaguely accurate data! Going against the whole rationale of /., I know, but you never know, it might work.

Re:Paranoid? Maybe not..

[marauder404]

Did you even try running a search? Their site tends to return Sponsored Sites, Featured Sites, and then whole sites dedicated to your query. Only then are individual pages listed. The difference is sites vs. pages. The second page of results are not second-tier, but just individual pages. The intent is obvious: ads to pay for the site, then whole websites dedicated to your query, and then individual pages. For very generic queries like Linux, it's probably better to find a whole site that's a Linux authority rather than an individual page that talks about Linux a lot. You might not like the system, and that's fine, but to say that it's skewing results to favor a competitive business agenda is completely different.

Re:Paranoid? Maybe not..

[1010011010]

Click on this (Redhat article):
http://g.msn.com/0PNENGB/1?http://c.moreover.com/c lick/here.pl?z103279857&z=237487

Re:Paranoid? Maybe not..

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Microsoft news...

The news source you anti-trust.

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.

Re:Paranoid? Maybe not..

[Sivaram_Velauthapill]

There is no such thing as an American system. You either have capitalism or you don't. Capitalists, needless to say, don't hold allegiance to countries (in fact, they are the first ones to sell out their countries and move to tax sheltered countries like Bahamas or Monaco :| ). Yes, people have the habit of blaming a country. Under capitalism, the corporations are free to move around and do whatever they want. Microsoft, or for that matter any other company, can move to China tomorrow. Besides, the ownership of the company may be foreigners. Many large corporations are inter-listed on other stock exchanges and many foreigners own them.

Anyway, MS DOES innovate. They DO take ideas from others but they make a better product out of it. Why is MS Office so popular? Wordperfect and Lotus had a headstart but couldn't keep up. How come SQL Server is eating up marketshare? It came out of nowhere. Watch X-Box capture market share (I think Nintendo won't release a next version and Sony may have problems). If MS sucks at innovation, why is Visual Studio offer more features and capabilities than any of its competition?

Look at the Linux world. Most of the open-source software(OSS) are clones of existing stuff. The vast majority of OSS software copy Unix or Windows. Why is KDE/X (or Gnome for the rest of you ;) ) lagging Windows? For example, Longhorn (next version is windows) is supposed to use 3D card capabilities (at least that's the "rumour"). I don'tsee KDE doing anything like that in its future version. Why is OpenOffice.org (OOo) lagging everything? Right now,OOo is just copying MS Office and isn't really doing anything innovative or new.

Sivaram Velauthapillai

Oddly Enough...

[Jaysyn]

.. I doubt many here care. Just annother "innovation" from MicroSoft.

Jaysyn

Re:Oddly Enough...

[Frymaster]

Just annother "innovation" from MicroSoft.

too true. microsoft has talked a lot recently about how their committed to innovation. and yet, their two most recent releases:

1. a news service "like google's"
2. an online music store "like apple's"

Re:Oddly Enough...

[Frymaster]

don't care whether or not a company has innovated in the "here's something totally new that you've never seen before"

you may not care, but microsoft does. remember that recent interview where balmer said that linux was "not innovative" because it was just "a clone of unix"?

ms has set their own definition of innovation. and they aren't living up to it.

Re:Oddly Enough...

[advocate_one]

so we're all waiting for "innovation" number 3...

3. A secure Operating System "like Linux"...

Headlines on MS' News:

[pheared]

"Does Linux cause cancer? Find out at MSnewsbot.com. ... Bill Gates: Terrific Dancer. ... Dow down 5000 points. ... Study: 92 percent of Linux users are gay.. ... Oil slicks found to keep penguins young, supple. ... Steve Ballmer: Awesome."

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.

MSN Newsbot Technology Headlines

[Noryungi]

As seen recently:

• New Linux security vulnerabilities.
• SCO receives a large new infusion of cash from partner Microsoft.
• Exclusive Ballmer/Gates Matrix spoof, now in THX and Dolby Digital Surround!
• Foobar Software is named "Innovative Windows Software of the Year" by Bill Gates.

Etc... Etc... Etc...

(All this is said firmly tongue-in-cheek, of course...) ;-)

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.

Biased? Microsoft?

[captainclever]

Most Popular Articles:

1. Microsoft tests Web news service ZDNet Full coverage...
2. Microsoft tests Web news service DoubleClick Full coverage...

'Course not ;)

Trustworthy News Reporting?

[Ridgelift]

Quote: According to MSN, by tracking the interests of users of the site it can determine which stories are most popular and suggest stories that users want to follow based on the patterns of other users.

Great, now Microsoft can collect information on me without having to sneak around. "Your honor, Mr. Public asked us to track his every move when he was forced...UH...opted-in to MSN Newsbot". Of course, they'd _never_ use the information they gather for marketing purposes (ouch! my tongue is wedged into my cheek!)

Quote: Users of MSN Passport can get personalised news depending on their interest during past visits. When logging in to Passport, MSN Newsbot displays news from sources you've chosen in the past.

Passport users? Oh, you mean everyone who uses XP because of that annoying bubble that keeps pestering you to sign-up until you do.

So now I can read all the favourable press on Microsoft, have all my activity tracked and the rest of my privacy compromised so I can have super-specific product advisement beamed right into brain. Gotta hand it to you, Bill, your vast fortunes are eclipsed only by your ability to me, John Q. Public, exactly what I want (ouch! My cheek!)

I compared

[savaget]

I did a comparison of both by searching my hometown(in Canada).
The MS got 8 hits while Google got 21. The main difference here seems that Google hits were sourced from newspaper web pages and MS hits came mostly from newswire services.

Litmus test

[cyranoVR]

"Linux Windows" on newsbot.msn.com = 717 stories
First headlines:
Sun Micro Signs China Desktop Linux Software Deal (Reuters)
Leader: Comdex reflects harsh IT realities (Silicon.com)
Brown defends Blair relationship (?? Guardian Unlimited)

"Linux Windows" on news.google.com = ~1,800 stories
First headlines:
Intel intros hyperthreading compilers for Linux, Windows (The Inquirer, UK)
Linux-Windows file access (Linuxworld)
An editor to ease Windows to Linux migration (Newsforge)

Of course you realize...

[MyDixieWrecked]

that M$ has just made back their investment solely from advertising income from the slashdotting.

Must we help the borg?!

And it'll be integrated with next IE...

[Urkki]

...so when average user uses the net, he will automatically use MS services, unless he goes to the Special-dialog in the Advanced-tab in some obscure settings windows...

It's really a bit like TV makers would have their own TV channels where they would show content made by themselves, and TV sets of their make would only display those channels... Oh, and using a microwave oven that could heat your standard TV dinner would require having their TV set as well or the result would look all funky.

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.

As momma always said

[sielwolf]

Imitation is the sincerest form of Hostile Takover.

Re:Moreover.com?

[1u3hr]

Noting happens when I click on the links. On investigation. "c.moreover.com" is in my hosts file defined as 127.0.0.0, from a standard list of banner and popup spewing domains. So I feel disinclined to unalais it.

Also is it tacky to have a headline: "Michael Jackson 'to be arrested'" and below that an ad "Find Michael Jackson Items on eBay.co.uk", and more stupidly, if less offensively: "Airline Network: Cheap Travel to Jackson".

Good; Shop and Compare

[4of12]

I think it's good that Google has a competitor to keep them on their toes, honest, etc.

I'd be really curious to know if there is any implicit shading of news happening by use of different technology or explicit policy.

One way would be to do this comparison:

1. Use Google's search engine to look up URLs that are critical of Google, favorable to Google, etc. and compare to using MS search engine to lookup URLs that critical of Google, favorable to Google, etc.
2. Use MSN's search engine to lookup URLs that are critical of MSN, favorable to MSN, etc. and compare to Google using Google's search engine to look for, again, exactly the same topics.

This might also be done with regard to favorite wavelengths on the political spectrum, too, to see if there's any differences in returned results that indicate a different political weight (intentional or incidental, as the case may be.)

MS doesn't innovate anymore.

[bs_02_06_02]

Yahoo news has been pretty good for quite awhile. MS is doing nothing but trying to "keep up with the Joneses." Most newspaper sites do the same thing. They just don't pay for as many newsfeeds.

MS has some really brainy product people: "We need to do something."
"I can't think of anything."
"How about we copy google?"
"Too hard."
"Ok, how about we just copy parts of google?"
"Ok... news. We'll just aggregate."
"Cool... we'll just chip away at Google."
"We've got more money than god... they'll cave sooner or later."

MS buys a hundred Dell servers, hires a contractor to come in and set up the scripting. They hire 2 people to keep the 100 Dells running linux... I meant 50 people to keep the 100 Dell machines running Windows 2003.
MS starts issuing press releases before the contractor is ready. The advertising people have all of the Intel/MS cronies lined up for advertising spots. They start beating on the contractor when the site sucks.
MS starts reporting estimated revenue streams to Wall Street. Everyone is happy. The general public buys Windows XP, they aren't even asked if they'd like their default news page set to MS. It's just done.

Definition...

[TWX]

"From my memory, everything they produced was the most complete, functional, secure and final solution around."

I guess that depends on your definition of "final solution"...

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