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..

[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.

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."

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...) ;-)

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.

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"

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.)