It seems no matter how much information comes available online, people thirst for more. To illustrate this point, just take a look at all the online news services sprouting up on the web like garden weeds. With the click of a mouse you can instantly search thousands of news sources for specific and timely information on virtually any topic you choose. Heck, if you're a real news junky, you can even get up-to- the-minute news emailed straight to your desktop! Now, I'm the first one to say that nothing beats a good old-fashioned newspaper you hold in your hands. Few things rate as relaxing as a cup of coffee, a quiet morning, and today's newspaper ready for my inspection. In fact, my day doesn't officially start until I walk to the end of my driveway to retrieve the paper (occasionally from under a bush). But as much as I love the paper, it rarely contains stories on highly-specialized subjects such as the latest email marketing laws, html parsing, and search engine promotion. Of course, it doesn't make sense for virtually any local newspaper to carry news about email marketing laws (other than how they affect consumers) because the market demand simply doesn't exist on that level. However, around the world, thousands of people just like me want to know the instant a news story breaks on the latest "Can Spam" legislation, and that's where online news services come into play. Log on to http://news.google.com, http://news.yahoo.com and www.news.com to search thousands of different news sources from around the world. On these sites you can dig up information on anything from current world events and your favorite Spanish soccer team, to cattle tagging regulations in Argentina (no kidding) and the exploding online auction markets in mainland China. News from around the world on virtually any subject waits literally just a few keystrokes and a mouse-click away. An incredibly useful feature offered by many of these sites includes email notification based on your keyword search criteria. So instead of paying a "clipping" service to find articles and send them to you, these websites will do it free. Now how could you use this type of news notification service? Well, imagine you own stock in a specific company. You could subscribe to a number of different news services and have them send you breaking stories about the company, CEO, affiliated companies and anything else you choose. Or, let's say you deal in a very specific industry, such as real estate investment publishing. You could sign up to get notified any time a news story gets published about changing regulations, interest rates or other factors affecting your business. All this online news certainly does not rate a substitute for morning coffee, local and national news, and an important ritual to start the day, but it has a place, especially for extremely specialized areas of interest, hobbies, or business news. Watch for many new services, software, and opportunities to arise from this growing and dynamic area of online publishing. |
