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Microsoft Plans News Aggregator

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the following-google's-business-plan dept.

wyldeone writes "ZDNet says Microsoft is planning on creating a news aggregation service similar to Google's Google News. It will draw headlines from over 4,800 sites. It will also provide customized feeds, similar to Googles News alerts. Here is the beta version of the site."

4 of 265 comments (clear)

  1. 4800? by isdfnmo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Who needs 4800 news sources?

    I have BBC, NYTimes, a few industry-specific, a few 'for interest' (e.g. Economist, New Scientist, Reason.com), a few for sport and one for UK TV Listings. Maybe a dozen tops and I am one of the most well-informed people I know.

    Too much information = too easy to lose the salient stuff.

    --
    quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
    1. Re:4800? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Maybe it is to actually get news without spin? A lot of those news sources are actually foreign papers (including Al-Jazeera on Google's site). It is nice sometimes to get a different point of view. Of course, on the other side, a lot of times 90% of those sources are just pulling the same exact AP or Reuters release verbatim.

  2. Re:What's new? by costas · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, at least one thing that MSN Newsbot dows that Google News doesn't, is that MSN attempts to personalize the news page based on passed clicks. Now, my newsbot has been doing that for almost 3 years now (plus a lot more, like customized XML and PDA feeds, peer networks, etc) with a more varied selection of sources (end of shameless plug :-)

  3. Quick observations. by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's slower than google news. Because it uses the left hand side MSNBC toolbar (with its less than instantaneous menus) less actual news fits on my screen.

    Finally, this statement is somewhat disturbing.

    "Newsbot (beta) responds to your reading preferences. Clicking on articles determines what we base your recommendations on."

    MSNBC does go out of its way to label AP wire service stories as such, which is a nice touch-- I really don't need to read the same story 700 times.

    However, google does print the headlines of stories from three sources for each news item, which is more useful that a simple "Also covered in Sun, Herald-Tribune, and ABC". Speaking of which, is that the Chicago Sun, International Herald Tribune, and American Broadcasting Company? Or is it The Sun, Southwest Florida Herald Tribune, and Australian Broadcasting Company?