Microsoft creates Digg-like sites in Norway and Belgium

Microsoft has launched Web sites in Norway and Belgium that allow people to submit news headlines and blog postings that other people can vote on, similar to the Digg model. The Microsoft sites are called MSN Reporter.

One site is in Norwegian, and there are two versions for Belgium, in French and in Flemish. Planning on other rollouts has not been finalized, a Microsoft representative said.

An individual's votes are used to generate various views tailored to that user. People can browse through the latest headlines, scan the most popular, and see which are climbing to the top rank the fastest or which have incited the most comments.

Users can subscribe to the different views via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or though their personal Live.com site. The top four fastest climbers are displayed on the home page and channels of MSN Netherlands.

Yahoo also launched a new user feedback site called Yahoo Suggestions. The discussion board offers a way for people to provide feedback directly to Yahoo, according to an official Yahoo blog.

Suggestion boards have been launched for about 15 Yahoo properties, including its Autos, Answers, Travel, Real Estate and HotJobs sites. They use a thumbs-up icon like Digg does for the button that people hit to vote in favor of a user comment.

Some users were not amused by the similarities. A comment from one anonymous user: "Be original, Yahoo. Come on, this is pathetic."

CNET Editor Rafe Needleman compares the Yahoo and Digg sites side by side in a video review and finds that while the sites have some similar interface features they are actually quite different functionally.