MS tests personalized news search

SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp. has informed that it would start testing its personalized news search engine at MSNBC.com, its online news Web site, as it challenges Google's position as the Internet's top destination for search queries and information.

Newsbot beta, which incorporates search technology being developed at the world's largest software maker's MSN Internet division, is designed to offer visitors suggested news stories based on what they have read previously.

Google also has its own news service, called Google News (www.news.google.com), which pulls in stories from thousands of online news sources and ranks them automatically using search and "clustering" technology that groups relevant stories together.

Personalized news is the newest frontier in online information delivery, with smaller sites such as www.findory.com offering customized news articles for registered readers.

"The new Newsbot is a unique opportunity to get readers what they're looking for in news," said Justin Osmer, product manager for search at MSN. "We're trying to do more of the work for them so that they spend less time searching and more time reading."

The Newsbot Web site -- newsbot.msnbc.msn.com -- will be operated under beta, or test, mode while MSNBC.com and MSN collect data to improve the service. The Associated Press is also participating in the beta test with MSNBC.com "to evaluate this emerging market segment of online news."

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft hopes to fully launch Newsbot within a year, Osmer said.

MSNBC.com, which recently reached profitability, is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC News, a unit of General Electric Co.