Microsoft Launches Live Search News
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Written By Drupad Sil | April 16, 2008 | Share This
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The big news today is the launch of Microsoft’s Live Search News, an all-purpose news aggregator. The service will compete directly with Google News, and is Microsoft’s second foray in the field. Anthony Ha at VentureBeat describes one of the features:
“Live Search News does have some unique features of its own. For one thing, there’s a local news sidebar, which takes your IP address and finds news stories based in your area. The sidebar is pretty nice, since it helps readers quickly find stories that are directly relevant to them. Google News recently unveiled a way to find local news, but it requires a search of a town name or zip code.”
CNET’s Harrison Hoffman talks about another:
“The orange breaking-news bar on the top is a decent feature of the site and only appears when big news is happening. The breaking-news information, unfortunately, appears only to be provided by MSNBC and not automatically generated by trends. Even considering this, it is still a good way to call attention to important stories.”
The early word is that while the absence of RSS feeds and small pool of sources are negatives, the simplicity of the site, clean layout, and distinct features all point to Live Search News being a contender in the online news aggregation field.
Topics: Microsoft |