Sources Of News On The Internet
Information travels fast on the Internet and news broadcasters want to be first to reach the public with their stories.
Maybe it's no surprise that there are a lot of Web sites on the net offering news.
If news is what you're looking for, then the really good news is that a lot of the news feeds on the Internet are
free. Is there a catch? Well, maybe the commercial news providers offer a slightly better service,
but things are changing and soon there won't be much in it. The big US news media companies offer a large number of
breaking news stories on their Web sites, and most of the portal sites, search engines and directories offer headlines,
stock information, sports news and other news items.
Good though they are for indexing the Web, the big search engines are not so good at indexing news items because their
spiders take so long to revisit each site. Often stories appear and disappear before they are indexed, or they get
indexed in one location and then move. To avoid this problem, searching for news is best done using specialised
news databases such as
TotalNEWS,
News Index,
Excite's NewsTracker,
Northern Light's Current News,
and the news sections on
Yahoo,
HotBot and
Infoseek.
A quick look at these seven sites:
- TotalNEWS
- One of the two search services not associated with the main search engines and portal sites. TotalNEWS indexes
hundreds of Web sites and has one of the most extensive back files of any of these types of databases.
- News Index
- Another news search engine without ties to a general portal. It covers numerous news resources but unfortunately
provides no list of the sources.
- Excite's NewsTracker
- Successfully combines a searchable database of newswires and news Web sites. NewsTracker originally only
searched the most current pages of news media Web sites but now it includes some of their archived pages.
- Northern Light Current News
- Yahoo Daily News
- Also combines newswires and Web sites but its main emphasis is the wires.
- HotBot News
- A searchable database of almost two dozen news Web sites, including CNN, CBS News, ABC News, MSNBC, ESPN,
the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the Washington Post and the New York Times. It is refreshed every 30 minutes.
- Infoseek News
- Offers several different news databases to search: News Wires, National News, and News Web Sites. The News Wires
database includes wires, such as Reuters, PR Newswire and Business Wire.
Some other good sites for news:
- BBC News - The news-gathering
excellence of a trusted source. News from all over the world as well as local uk news, plus news in other languages.
Offers some archived in-depth analyses.
- 1stheadlines - Direct links to news from
108 sources. The majority are US but there are of international sources too.
- AltaVista News - News, Finance,
Sport and Entertainment and more.
- AltaVista UK news - UK news from 'The
Independent' and Reuters.
- 123jump.com - Good financial news for free and
a free alert service.
- Internet News Bureau - Links to
recent news releases and an
archive search. They will distribute
press releases to over 1,300 journalists who
subscribe to receive Web-related news tips. This site has a really good links page
to track and monitor media coverage.
- PR NEWSWIRE
- An excellent news site. A leader in the electronic delivery of breaking news releases and information directly from
companies and institutions through a fax, satellite and Internet network: press releases, company news, global news and
more.
News And News Alerting
Although there are plenty of sites you can visit for up-to-the-minute news reports, it is clear that you can't spend your
whole life continually checking hundreds of news sites in the hope of finding relevant news stories. This is where news
alerting services come in.
The principle of news alerting is straightforward: instead of you having to visit a site looking for news, a news
gatherer sends you notification of breaking news stories.
This can be sent:
- Via email
- To your Web site
- To your mobile phone
- To your pager or other hand-held device
News Alerting: Business and Financial
NewsALERT
Business, financial and general news. Press releases from over 15,000 companies.
Personalise the Web site to show your chosen stocks and shares:
you can create your own home page as well as set up portfolios to track news and stocks of interest.
AlertMe! is their e-mail service that allows you to monitor price movements on specific stocks.
The basic package is available free; for more features you have to pay.
[stock] alerts
This is an easy to use Web based application which can monitor the value of your stocks (traded on any major
international market) and provide unlimited email alerts free of charge. For a small fee, Stock Alerts can also
simultaneously send the alert to your pager, cellular phone or similar hand-held device, anywhere in the world.
123Jump.com
Stocks, markets, global news from several wires, and global stocks. They offer a free alerting service:
- Intra-day alerts are sent to your e-mail address three times each day when the NYSE is open. They include the latest
123Jump market update, and quotes and news for your personal watch list.
- Daily Close alerts are sent to your e-mail address after the market closes. They include the latest 123Jump market
wrap, and quotes and news for your watch list.
- Weekly Outlook alerts are sent to your e-mail address every Sunday. They include the latest 123Jump weekly review,
and a calendar of the next week's events.
Powerize.com
Powerize.com is a superb Internet source of business and investment research. It gives information from more than
10,000 brand-name publications and other sources around the world. Members enjoy free, unlimited access to research
from up to 2,400 of those sources and membership is free. Other good content is available on a pay-per-view
or subscription basis. They provide an email newsletter service. Have a look at
how to find free content.
Moreover.com
Established in 1998, Moreover.com have become one of the world's most comprehensive online news aggregation services.
Their news feeds combine the depth of established databases with the flexibility and efficiency of the Web.
With software that spiders more than 1,500 editorial sources they provide 'webfeeds' of headline links in more than
200 categories.
News Alerting: Market Research
Publications Resource Group
The Publications Resource Group is a leading market intelligence provider on the Web. Ther high-information web site
offers more than 6,000 reports, newsletters, directories and databases from 250 top-tier partners in all industries.
They offer a weekly email service
to keep you up to date.
News Alerting: The Government
The House of Commons Weekly Information Bulletin
This is not strictly speaking a news alerting service, but as one-stop entry point for the goings-on in parliament, this
the site worth visiting.
Here you can select a Weekly Information Bulletin for which the full text is available. This Weekly
Information Bulletin is produced weekly when the House is in Session and includes recent and forthcoming business
of the House of Commons plus some for the House of Lords.
The
search facility is excellent, allowing you to search through over 20 categories,
including Bills, Commons Written Answers, the House of Commons Commission Report, House of Commons Report & Accounts, and
the Weekly Information Bulletin.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office
This site gives you access to the FCO's news reports, information about travel abroad and visas, information about
policy issues, and many other things. The news and press releases can be searched by keyword. It is possible to
'personalise' the site and receive email updates
of news and travel advice in your chosen areas of interest.
News Alerting: The Scientific Community
Within the scientific community, the advent of widespread access to the Internet has caused an explosion of
Internet-based scientific alerting services. These services provide scientists with customized information in a timely
manner. There are several different types of alerting services available. The common element linking these types of
services is that the alert information is compiled and delivered as an e-mail message to the individual subscriber.
One type of alerting service is the News Service, which allows one to receive particular news items of interest.
There are also Table of Contents Services where one can sign up to receive the tables of contents of particular
journals. Finally, there are Profiled Services which allow one to set up a particular profile of research interests
and search topics. Article citations matching the established profile are then mailed as an e-mail message.
News Services
SciCentral News Alert
This service gathers together news articles and press releases from 120 different scientific disciplines. A profile is
initially created (with relevant scientific disciplines selected) and a customized email message is then sent weekly
to the subscriber.
Table of Contents Services
Oxford Journals
Oxford University Press Journal titles include Biometrika, International Immunology, Carcinogenesis,
Nucleic Acids Research, Mutagenesis, and Toxicological Sciences.
Profiled Services
ScienceDirect
Free to AWBERC staff, this service allows subject
searches to be saved and re-run regularly in the ScienceDirect database. A personal login is required for this service.
At the core of ScienceDirect is the Elsevier Science
Journal Collection, with in-depth coverage in a wide spectrum of disciplines.
