Yahoo Takes On Google News With Beta

While Google News may be garnering all the attention, Yahoo has been quietly refreshing its own news aggregator, which is now available in beta form. The revamped Yahoo News streamlines the site's interface to pack in more headlines and pictures, along with adding support for user-added news sources via RSS feeds.

Unlike Google, which has even begun including blog postings as news, Yahoo only pulls headlines from a limited number of major media outlets. But to make up for the smaller pool of content, Yahoo members can add headlines from any RSS-enabled Web site, which appear in the "My Sources" tab.

The new tabbed structure allows visitors to quickly flip through news sources without having to reload the page. "And we've added wider story areas and clearer links to related information. All this so you can get to your stories with less effort," the company says.

Yahoo has also hooked up its Y!Q technology to the beta, which highlights similar stories below news articles to enable users to find additional information on a specific topic.

The company has not said when it plans to replace its current Yahoo News page, but it has begun promoting the beta atop its news pages and asking for feedback from users.