Last modified: November 17, 2003, 12:35 PM PST
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Microsoft has started testing an international news search service in competition with Google's, upping the ante in the hotly contested Web search market.
Microsoft Web portal MSN has unveiled a test, or beta, service called MSN Newsbot to search news in the languages of four countries--the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain. MSN Newsbot is an experimental, automated news service that gathers news from more than 4,000 sources online, according to the Newsbot Web site.
But unlike rival periodical searches on the Web, Microsoft said the service is designed to deliver personalized news to visitors, using tracking technology and consumer data from users of Passport, Microsoft's e-wallet system.
A representative of Redmond Wash.-based Microsoft did not provide much detail on the new service, but the company's site said it is being developed in partnership with San Francisco-based Moreover Technologies, a news data source, and Microsoft Research, its research and development unit.
More: http://news.com.com/2100-1032-5108152.html?part=dht&tag=ntop

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