Tuesday, February 01, 2005 - Posts

Microsoft One Ups Google, Yahoo!

MSN’s Yusuf Mehdi told Reuters that its search engine would be upgraded to provide users with more than just links to their inquiries. In an effort to provide more thorough results to search queries, it will make available information from Microsoft’s electronic encyclopedia Encarta.

One of the most interesting points from this announcement came in the second paragraph from the bottom of the article:

“One new capability that Microsoft will be introducing with Monday's launch is the ability to create RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, feeds that allows users to track search results through an incoming data feed on their personal computers.”

It will be interesting to see how extensive the inflow of information will be to an RSS reader on a given topic. How will MSN’s search syndication benefit PR? The ability to aggregate information on a particular company (a client) will allow us to track the changes in what MSN’s searches are bringing up about them.