MSN is testing "MSN Newsbot"

"MSN Newsbot," an aggregator of over 4,000 headlines, is being tested on MSN UK, France, Spain and Italy. This appears to be a glimpse of what's ahead as MSN continues to vie for it's foothold in the search arena.

"MSN Newsbot is in its first stages, available in beta at this time, " said Karen Redetski, MSN product manager. "It is expected that more countries will be added over time."

With staffing levels nearly tripled and significant investments made in the search arena, it sure looks like Microsoft is working hard to catch up with Google and Yahoo. There's been much speculation on what Microsoft's intentions really are and they've been quiet about their strategy specifics.

Overture provides the text ads that are on the main Newsbot page as well as on the news search results, and will continue to appear on MSN-UK and MSN US at least through June 2005.

The only distinguishing feature of MSN Newsbot over Google's News Service is that MSN has incorporated personalization. When a MSN user signs into Microsoft Passport the user receives personalized news based on previously demonstrated interests.