News Blog

NewsGator converted its popular RSS feed aggregation clients to freeware in January 2008, and now that seed has borne fruit: recommended fruit, to be precise.

NewsGator's new Recommended Stories filter introduces users to stories and feeds they aren't already subscribed to, but might like.

(Credit: NewsGator)

Partnering with SenseArray, a collaborative filter from Uprizer Labs, NewsGator now offers live RSS feed recommendations from feeds that the user hasn't already subscribed to. Currently available only on the online NewsGator client, the filter pulls information from NewsGator as well as its sibling desktop clients, FeedDemon for Windows and NetNewsWire for the Mac so that users who synchronize their RSS data will be contributing to the list of recommendations.

Brian Kellner, NewsGator's vice president of products, compared the process to more common Web-based ratings systems. "It takes attention from the client or online site, just like your rating on Amazon, but you're rating it with attention." That attention, he said, comes from marking a post as read--essentially telling the filter that you like it. If enough people do that and the post matches your interest, it might be suggested to you as news you'd like but haven't seen yet.

Kellner said that NewsGator will be making two kinds of recommendations. The first, a general news category, is "wide-open," as he puts it, but limited to posts from the past two days. The second is narrowed down to categories, such as entertainment or sports, and more heavily utilizes the SenseArray filters. These more specific recommendations are limited to not more than a week old, and should be adjustable to the tastes of the user.

The challenge, Kellner added, was how to recommend current stories that users aren't already getting. "We pull in six million events per week that we think are relevant." But the system won't be perfect initially. "Over time, we'll see what adjustments we need to make."

NewsGator does have plans to push the recommendations feature out to its desktop clients, but there isn't a timeline for that, yet.

This brings some new meaning to the idea of local news: Google has added a new layer to Google Earth that shows Google News related to the area shown on the screen.

The search company announced the addition on its Lat Long blog about geographic matters.

Google Earth now can show Google News.

(Credit: Google)

"By spatially locating the Google News' constantly updating index of stories from more than 4,500 news sources, Google Earth now shows an ever-changing world of human activity as chronicled by reporters worldwide," said Google product manager Brandon Badger.

I've been a fan of geotagging photos, but clearly the trend is much broader than that.

The Internet has made global news a reality, but there are several efforts under way to meet the demand for local news, too. Google News can be customized to show headlines from a given city, state, or ZIP code, and MetaCarta overlays links to local news on a Google map.

Google Earth is software that shows the planet, letting people zoom up close and show different layers of geographically relevant information. The company's online equivalent, Google Maps, is gradually growing more similar, gaining Google Earth's satellite views and its ability to show local photos, for example.

Rupert Murdoch is admitting that the U.S. economy's pressure on advertising budgets is putting the squeeze on News Corp.

News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch is optimisitic about Fox Interactive Media's revenue outlook in fiscal 2009.

(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News.com)

News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media, which oversees all News Corp. Internet business, including MySpace.com, is expected to fall $100 million short of its ambitious $1 billion annual revenue goal, according to a Reuters report. While on News Corp.'s fiscal third-quarter earnings conference call, however, the News Corp chairman and chief executive reportedly called FIM's business "very healthy" and promised "well over" $1 billion in revenue in fiscal 2009.

"There's no doubt the consumer economy is stressed," Reuters quoted Murdoch as saying. "You're seeing it affected in advertising, more short-term planning, and booking."

In addition to MySpace, other FIM networks include Photobucket, IGN Entertainment, and Fox Sports.

News Corp. reported that its net profit rose to $2.7 billion, or 91 cents per share, in the quarter ended March 31, from $871 million, or 27 cents per share, in the year-ago period, according to Reuters.

Last month, FIM announced a restructuring that included the creation of an "Audience Network" unit that, according to a company statement, "will be to optimize monetization across FIM's content network and for third-party publishers," leveraging the company's ad technology that can target ads based on interests. The new unit combined advertising technology, ad operations, and performance sales efforts into one unit.

Google is extracting quotations for politicians and celebrities from news sources and featuring them at the top of the Google News results page for certain searches.

For instance, a search on "Barack Obama" brings up a quotation by the Democratic presidential hopeful, and clicking on his name under the quote takes you to more pages of his quotations. You can then search within just the quotations from there.

"As part of Google's mission to organize the world's information, we've been hard at work making quotations in news articles easy to search and browse," the Google News blog says. "You can now more easily keep track of what your favorite politician, actor, or sports star is saying. You can even search within their quotes for specific topics."

I could find quotations for Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, President Bush, and Vladimir Putin, but not for Bill Clinton or some major actors. As for sports stars, this is what Tiger Woods had to say: "I learned my lesson there with the press. I'm not going to say anything."

Google News offers quotations for politicians, sports stars, and celebrities at the top of the results page.

(Credit: Google)

This is a screenshot of the quotations page for Barack Obama. Note the search box on the left for searching just within the pages of quotes.

(Credit: Google)

According to Google News, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have offered contradictory views on sociology.

(Credit: Google)

Update: As a clarification, Microsoft previously had a Google News competitor, named MSN Newsbot, which no longer exists.

As a part of its Rome release, Microsoft's Live Search team has launched a new Live Search News, a direct competitor to Google News.

At this time, Live Search News looks like a simplified version of Google News. The layout and design are aesthetically pleasing and will be familiar to Techmeme readers.

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.

Microsoft's Google News competitor, Live Search News

(Credit: Microsoft)

One feature that I really like is the local-news sidebar on the right. It appears that the site automatically detects your IP address and feeds you news from the state that you're in without you needing to register an account. This local focus is a nice touch.

Live Search News also lets you refine news results based on categories that are relevant to the story you're viewing. To access this functionality, just click "More on this story" for any article and you'll see relevant stories, along with these filters.

One feature that sets Live Search News apart from Google News is its "Top News Videos" section. Not only are the videos provided relevant, but Microsoft has implemented the same preview technology that Live Search uses in its video search. If you roll over any of the video images, a preview of the clip will automatically start to play. I can't say enough about the cool factor of this feature, in both news and in its regular video search.

While Microsoft is not providing a specific number of sources that are included in Live Search News, it appears, at this point, to be significantly less than Google News' 4,500. Google News definitely has more customization and alert options than Live Search News. Despite those differences in features, I prefer the design of Live Search News over that of Google News, and simplicity does a lot for readability. In addition, I love the video preview integration, along with the breaking news.

There has been no announcement, at this point, from the Live Search blog, so detailed information on this new service is limited.

Google News already has a fairly loyal user base and it benefits from the popularity of the search engine, so Live Search News may struggle to find an audience until the search engine grows in popularity. However, I think that Live Search News is a strong offering and is definitely worth a look.

Microsoft, while entertaining an alliance with News Corp. or other options, would rather buy Yahoo on its own, Reuters reported Sunday, citing a source close to the company.

In addition, an unnamed source told Reuters that News Corp. is talking to Yahoo directly about a tie-up, though the source didn't share details.

Microsoft's attempt to acquire Yahoo has spawned a flurry of possible alliances and counter-alliances, none of them confirmed by the companies except a partnership under which Yahoo will test use of Google's search ads.

Updated 8:10 AM PDT with Wall Street reaction.

In rapid-fire succession Wednesday, the Microhoo buyout brawl had Yahoo throwing a one-two punch at Microsoft, with a swift comeback punch from the folks in Redmond.

And the crowd, or should I say the investors, liked what they saw. Yahoo's stock ended the day up slightly as the first punch came in toward the end of the trading day, and has continued to climb in early morning trading Thursday, following news events from last night.

Here's a quick blow-by-blow.

Yahoo looks to Google and AOL
Yahoo kicked things off . That gave investors a bit of excitement, as they envisioned the hook-up would give a nudge to Microsoft to raise its current bid.

That was quickly followed with reports that Yahoo and AOL were on the verge of doing a deal on terms that had been speculated upon over the past two months--Yahoo absorbing Time Warner's AOL and the media giant getting roughly a 20 percent stake in Yahoo.

Two new wrinkles in this long-rumored deal were its supposed imminence and word that Yahoo would come up with enough funds to lure investors with a stock buyback--worth several billion dollars, with a price in the range of $30 to $40 a share, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft mashup with News Corp.?
Soon, another development emerged, with The New York Times reporting that Microsoft and News Corp. were in tentative discussions on a joint bid to buy Yahoo. The report noted that the deal would mash up Microsoft's MSN and News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media unit, which oversees MySpace, with Yahoo.

A Yahoo-Google-AOL deal could prompt Microsoft to raise its bid, something it has resisted since announcing its unsolicited cash-stock offer back on Feb. 1, with an initial value of $31 a share. The deal price is currently valued at $29.24 based on Wednesday's close.

Microsoft, meanwhile, is hoping to keep Yahoo investors focused on its offer and the notion that it's "the one" to hook up with Yahoo. In addition to the option to raise its offer price to clinch the deal, Microsoft may find a Yahoo-News Corp.-Microsoft deal will be equally attractive to investors as a Yahoo-Google-AOL operation.

And given that Microsoft over the weekend issued a three-week deadline to Yahoo to do a deal with the software giant or face a hostile proxy fight and direct plea to Yahoo investors, proxy solicitors say the pitch and pace will be greatly accelerated between the two companies.

"It's an accelerated strategy," said Rachel Posner, senior managing director for proxy solicitation firm Georgeson Inc. "There'll be multiple road show meetings with investors in a single day, repeated calls to investors, and follow-up meetings."

She added that the topic of discussion will no longer be just about price and terms of a Yahoo deal, but now also ways in which Yahoo could bring other strategies to the table.

One gauge of investor sentiment is Yahoo's share price, of course.

Said Posner: "Investors vote with their pocket."

What Wall Street thinks
Wall Street weighed in Thursday morning, and the consensus seems to be this: a higher bid for Yahoo, and a Microsoft victory.

"We continue to believe reaching a mutual agreement with Microsoft would be the best way for Yahoo to potentially extract a higher Microsoft bid (likely $32 to $35)," analyst Heather Bellini of UBS said in a research note Thursday.

Bellini termed an AOL-Yahoo transaction as "unlikely." She noted that Yahoo may face a tough time convincing a majority of its shareholders that an AOL transaction--even with a $35-a-share buyback--would be more attractive than Microsoft's offer.

"(Yahoo's) shares likely would pull back once the buyback is done," Bellini noted. "The (AOL) deal likely also includes outsourcing search to Google, which stands in stark contrast to management's strategy that combined search and display (advertising) are critical to long-term success."

As for a Microsoft-News Corp.-Yahoo deal, Bellini points out that the integration risks could outweigh any financial benefit the Redmond giant would receive by having News Corp. help offset some of the costs of a Yahoo acquisition.

Mark Mahaney, an analyst with Citi Investment Research, meanwhile, views Yahoo's Google announcement as an "aggressive response" to Microsoft's looming deadline and possible proxy fight.

"As such, we believe this will increase pressure on Microsoft to increase its $31 offer price," Mahaney said. "Arguably, a worst-case scenario for Microsoft would be a full Google search outsource decision by Yahoo."

Updated at 10 p.m. with details from the New York Times.

Are Microsoft and News Corp. locking arms for a joint bid for Yahoo?

That would be something.

According to a report Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal, the two industry titans are in "serious talks" over such a deal.

And a New York Times report lays out the type of mashup that is being considered by the software and media companies.

Under a deal, Microsoft's struggling MSN would be joined with News Corp.'s social-networking site MySpace, as well as Yahoo, according to the Times report.

Although the Journal characterizes the talks as "serious," the Times notes they are in a "sensitive stage," and many miles have yet to be traveled before such a deal gets to the finish line.

While terms of a transaction have not been hammered out, the Times cites some sources speculating that News Corp. may throw cash into the deal and its Fox Interactive Media unit, which oversees MySpace.

Ironically, just last month, News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch said he had no plans of getting into a bidding war over Yahoo with Microsoft. Talk about a cliche: If you can't beat them, join them.

The day-by-day, nearly hour-by-hour, developments involving Yahoo since Microsoft on Saturday issued a three-week deadline for its reluctant target to do a deal is enough to make your head spin--from the Legg Mason investor offering support to Yahoo should Microsoft lower its bid to Yahoo looking at a two-week test for Google search ads to the never-ending noise that Yahoo is looking at doing an asset swap/investment with Time Warner's AOL.

One thing is for certain as the days count down to the three-week deadline: the volume of noise is going to get even louder and more frequent...

Microsoft is reportedly working on its own version of Nintendo's Wiimote and plans to introduce it by the end of the year. The report comes from MTV News, which attributes the information to a developer "who has been brief on the project" but sought anonymity to preserve business relationships.

The source told MTV News that the project, supposedly in development since last August, is being designed by Rare, the U.K.-based game studio acquired by the software giant in 2002. Microsoft would not comment on the report.

Although its functions are similar to those of the Wiimote, according to the report, the device does not need a companion controller to be used with it. The device has "face buttons, an analog stick, and microphone," MTV News said. A purported sketch of a working prototype of the device can be seen here.