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Microsoft Plans News Aggregator
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."
So, what is new here? Seriously.........Is this another case of Microsoft coming late to the game and saying "Oh, well, we have one too", or is this another case of Microsoft publicizing they have something in the works that will come out any time now to keep other folks from entering into the fray? Come on, if you are going to get into the game, offer something new. For instance, take a page from the Apple playbook when Apple realized a little late that mp3s and online music was the way to go, Apple put some thought and effort into things and came up with not only the iTunes music store, but also the iPod. Both of which were nice innovations and spurred other companies to improve their products.
From the looks of Microsoft's news bot site here it appears that ther innovations are links to Hotmail, shopping, other proprietary properties and news programs of either Microsoft and NBC, and notably in the Science/Health categories, we have business news about companies such as Boston Scientific rather than real Science news. It's also more bandwidth intensive than the Google news site.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
Finally a news service uncluttered with :)
anti-Microsoft stories.
Yet Another Web Site
I would wager that this news service will get embedded in the Longhorn desktop presentation layer. This would hide the IE browser from view (although its underlying tech would be the content server), allowing MS to further embed its applications further into the OS offering.
Considering MS owns MSNBC, I wouldn't be suprised if it's a bit bias towards it's own property.
I like Google partly for neutrality.
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
yet more "innovation" from Microsoft - have the EVER thought of ANYTHING original.
Let's see...
An MS-bashing post.
On Slashdot.
Castigating MS for stealing ideas.
How original!
and you're in for a surprise.
Two wrongs may not make a right, but three
newshub been doing news gathering for a long time..
google came and did it better..
Now MSN is throwing its hat in the ring. AOL will provide a web page with news/ other stuff based on what you want to see which is oddly good (It shows movies playing at the closest movie theaters..)
There a probably lots of others I'm missing.
Competetion is good. Hopefully everyone competes and makes theses sites better.
Win Win Win...
Have you never seen how these sites work? They don't copy the entire article onto their site. They provide a link to the original site with a short blurb. This doesn't infringe on any copyrights and, if anything, the sites are getting free advertising. In the case you link he had the information on his site. Now that doesn't necessarily mean he was infringing but you can't compare the two.
Imagine the precedent if they did. It would totally destroy the search engine industry (which is basically all this is).
Anti-Trust Legislation: Evil or just Wrong?
Macs turn people gay.
Office XP: Best Software Ever!
Internet Explorer Holes Largley Fiction
Bill Gates Lands on Moon
Dennis Miller Funniest Man Ever
An Editorial by Clippy©
Better Computing Through Crashes
Spyware Ain't So Bad
Your Computer is Old, Buy a New One with XP Now
How I Caught a Cold from Viral Open Source
Windows Saved my Life!
Jesus Uses XP
MS Wins Nobel Peace Prize
Service Pack Two Will Cure Impotence
Child Killed by Linux Installer
etc
... all I can say is "HA HA HA HA HA!"
See for your self. If you can read anything past the ugly blue-black-and-white font, you're a braver man than I.
Google news stories seem more interesting as well. MSNBC basically has a lot of US-related tabloid articles, while Google has some real news. An example:
World news according to MSNBC:
In contrast, Google has:
Also, Google allows you to go to country specific news feeds. I'm sorry, but MSN is going to have to do much better than this to steal my clicks. And before you argue that it's still beta, Google News had much better functionality than this before it first appeared on the Google front page.
Search for Linux in http://newsbot.msnbc.msn.com(within first 20 hits):
:)
Opinion: Why Linux isn't ready for the Desktop
Vulns: Linux Kernel Unspecified Local Denial of Service Vulnerability
Vulns: Linux Kernel Floating Point Register Contents Leak Vulnerability
Vulns: Linux VServer Project ProcFS Weak Sharing Permissions Vulnerability
Vulns: Apache mod_userdir Module Information Disclosure Vulnerability
How Microsoft Can Embrace Linux
I love biased news source. So here I'm.
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?
This is Prostetnic Borg-o Gates of the Galactic Microsoft Planning Council.
We are about to build a Galactic Longhorn Expressway through your system and, regretably, your Open Source has been scheduled for demolition.
Plans have been on display at 1 Microsoft Way for 5 of your Earth years, locked in a filing cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign on the front saying "Beware of the DMCA".
The demolition will take slighly more than 2 of your Earth decades, just as soon as we've got XP Service Pack 2 working.
Prostetnic Ballmer will be passing amongst you shortly with a collection box into which you may deposit your Linux CDs and free software floppy disks as part of the amnesty.
Thank you for your time...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Emphasis on 3rd line added by me....
Rapper Ja Rule Charged With Assault
Kansas City Star - 12 hours ago Popularity Rank: 17 Similar Stories: 23
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TORONTO - Rapper Ja Rule appeared in a Toronto courtroom Monday on a charge of assault causing bodily harm.Authorities would say only that the...
Also covered by: CBS News BBC AP via News-Journal Kentucky.com Times Union ABC 7
More photos & full coverage
Register for passes? To what, the assault?
This just in. Microsoft has announced a beta version of a revolutionary new news aggregation service to be called "Dotdotbackslash." Unlike automatic services such as Google News, this one relies on the human judgements of hundreds of Microsoft MVPs to locate and make available the most relevant information needed for IT managers.
Slogan: "News for PHBs--Words that Buzz"
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
This article was posted back in Nov of '03. go figure.
Absolutely. But for you to use a word that is not used in America (technically the United States of America - just calling it America is kind of ignorant) is sort of a faux pas on your part. It is a British word, so why would you use it when composing a post towards Americans? It doesn't show that you have a better vocabulary, just a different one. Whooptie doo.
The fact that you spent so long replying says it all, really. You just can't accept that there are major flaws in your country. You're told at school that America is great, the govt. tells you that America is great, and you want to believe that America is great.
And how would you know what they tell us in school? I can accept the flaws of my country, but it sounds like *someone* may be a little jealous. Otherwise, why would you spend the time verbally attacking the USA? Upset that you can't win a Tour de France?
Well, you need a change. Go and live in Switzerland or Sweden for five years, and take note of the high standard of living, low crime rate, intelligent people and general good quality of society. THEN make your opinion up about America.
Umm, that would give me a better opinion of Switzerland or Sweden, not the USA. (oops, there is your faux pas again) Perhaps you should come live here for 5 years in order to get a more accurate opinion of this country.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.