NEWS ONLINE

CONTENTS:

• Newschoice
• Ananova
• The Nassau Guardian

NEWSCHOICE

NewsChoice, from MediaNews Group, has gathered a selection of over 50 newspapers with searchable archives. From the home page select a newspaper and you will be taken to another page with search options.

On the search page find both a simple search and an advanced search option. For the simple search, either enter an OR query (any of the keywords) or an AND query (all of the key words). Hit the search button. Farther down the page is the advanced search option.

On the advanced page, select date range (your own input or opt for the selections from a drop down menu). Selections from the date range drop down menu include Past 14 Days, Past 30 Days, Past 60 Days, 2001, 2000, 1999 or all. Of course, the date range selections may be limited by the individual papers. Other advanced output options: change the number of results per page and select the order of output (relevancy, most recent or oldest first).

Although there are only 50 to 60 newspapers from which to choose, this isn't really the case. When I clicked on Norwalk Citizen-News, I was able to search Connecticut Post, Darien News-Review, Fairfield Citizen-News, Norwalk Citizen-News, Westport-News and Woman Magazine.

OK, I understood why all the papers were on the list but Woman Magazine? Huh? But, hey, if it produces something useful, it's good for the research project.

Continue searching by selecting Choose Different Publication and you will be returned to the publication list. Click on the new selection and you will be returned to the search page, with the search query already entered in the query box. Opt for New Search from the results page and you will be returned to the search page for another search in the same group of publications.

The ease in using NewsChoice is a BIG plus. Currently, the archives are searchable only for the past 60 days, but the site plans to extend its archives by February 2002. Keep it on your list.

http://search.newschoice.com/

Go to the home page for links to more newspapers in the News Choice Online Paper Network. Its properties include news from California, Alaska, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Connecticut.

http://www.newschoice.com/

ANANOVA

Ananova bills itself as "a new kind of news service" where you receive "your news on your terms."

Let's take a look.

"Ananova's agenda is whatever you want it to be."

There are 3,500 different selections - a lot to pick. Opt for e-mail alerts (that's not new). The e-mail contains the first 3 paragraphs of a story, along with a link to your personal news page at Ananova. Choose any topic offered, from sports to entertainment to technology.

How can this help a researcher? In my research role, I spend a good amount of time searching, analyzing and qualifying prospects (along with all the other jobs).

Having topical news delivered to me for prospecting for a specific project, keeping abreast of changes in an industry important to my organization or professional development is a helpful tool. Ananova sends only the news you choose.

Creating a personal page along with news alerts via e-mail is not new. The e-mail alert has enough text to help you decide the worth of reading the whole article on your personal news page, and may be a time saver. See http://www.ananova.com/yournews/ for your personal page.

To help you from becoming too myopic, Ananova provides general news on your own page. From your personal news page, you can manage your content by adding or subtracting topics and alerts. Also, you can select the time and day you receive your e-mail alerts.

You can use a WAP phone to access your personal news page. After registering, select WAP from the upper right hand of the page and follow the directions to register for WAP service. Streaming news service for PDA users just became available at http://pda.ananova.com.

WAP and PDA news is not all that new. But video Ananova is new. With Real Player 8, a virtual Ananova reports the news. Like the rest of the site, you can select what you want to hear from Ananova. Ananova has been recognized by the Guinness World Records as the first virtual newscaster.

In 2000, Orange, a UK mobile operator, purchased Ananova, which is part of the France Telecom companies. Content is targeted to UK readers.

http://www.ananova.com

THE NASSAU GUARDIAN

The cold weather of winter (it is cold here in the Northeast U.S.) elicits thoughts of warmer climes. Hence, it is time to read about our prospects in the Bahamas. The Nassau Guardian reports the national news, the sports, the social news, business news, religious news, the weather, travel and commentary.

A nice feature of this site is the search function. Enter a keyword and opt to search the Nassau Guardian news or to use one of the major search engines. Reenter your term/s, select a link to a different island paper and search the archives of that new paper.

Of course, find the classifieds, employment listings and other features regularly found in many newspapers.

A handy tool for planning a trip to the Bahamas for a calling officer (or for yourself) is the events calendar. Click on a date in the monthly calendar (top right of the page) to view any upcoming events. Current events are found at the bottom of the page.

http://www.thenassauguardian.com/

Pamela J. Smith