Yahoo made a deal with Maxwell Laboratories to cobrand real-time automobile traffic reports in major U.S. metropolitan areas. Street traffic, highway accidents, and road construction and closure information will be featured on Yahoo's new series of regional sites now based in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties.
Yahoo soon plans to launch similar sites for Chicago and New York.
Excite expanded its services today by announcing a pact with Intuit to provide Quicken users with custom financial news and information. Excite officials declined to comment further on the availability and specific features of the new service.
Because many users think that search engines provide similar results, most continue to add features to set them apart from the rest. That is starting to pose competition to many online news sites, as well as print and broadcast media.
Still, most search-engine companies rely on advertising for revenue, and they are not yet profitable. Here's a rundown of some of the more popular search-engine offerings now on the Internet:
--Lycos provides users with custom news including coverage of the 1996 presidential campaigns, Web site reviews, and a people-finder feature.
--Infoseek provides users with personal news and offers tips for beginners.
--AltaVista, known as a high-speed, comprehensive search tool, has yet to offer content or news. Nor does HotBot, a service of HotWired.
Discuss: All the news fit to search
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