Thursday, April 14, 2005

Yahoo News beta

Yahoo News has a beta test of a new look. They made it more powerful and customizable with a focus on reading content from specific sources (e.g. BBC, New York Times).

There are remarkable similarities with some of Findory's features. Findory Favorites allows readers to list their favorite sources; Yahoo News beta has a similar feature called "My Sources".

The source pages are also similar. The new Yahoo News source page for Weekly Standard is here. Findory's Weekly Standard page is here. Findory's is more complete with a greater focus on discovery, but the resemblance is apparent.

Unofficially and off the record, several people at Yahoo have expressed admiration for Findory. I'm not surprised to see these moves by the search giant. I hope that Yahoo will go a step further and target personalized news.

Frankly, it's amazing that our tiny little Seattle startup is at the forefront of news personalization. It's silly to see others so far behind in personalization technology. We would be pleased to see the giants join us to help readers find and discover the news they need.

Personalized news is the future. The sooner we all can make that future a reality, the better for all our readers.

[see also Gary Price]

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