MSN Adds Syntax for Discovering Feeds / Sites With Feeds

Robin Good is reporting that MSN's search engine now includes index that helps users find RSS feeds and sites that link to RSS feeds.

(And this is yet another reason that I don't think anybody has to worry about out-Googling Google. There is plenty of search engine technology to go around. No one has a lock on everything. It's better to focus on technology. Look, what's hot right now? Podcasting, RSS, tagging. Do you think of Google for ANY of those technologies? You might think, "FINALLY Google's offering RSS feeds for their news." But other than that no, you're not thinking about Google for those hot technologies.

Google has a wonderful interface, a damned good search engine, and the fascination of our culture. The only way competitors are going to compete with that is by doing what Google did to start with back in 1998: offer better search with better technology in a better presentation. Looking at Google and trying to out-Google is what AltaVista did circa 2000 and much good it did them. Okay, screed over, I know I had a writeup in here somewhere...)

There are two new syntax available:

Feed: -- Feed finds keywords only within RSS/Atom/etc documents.

HasFeed: -- Finds keywords only on those pages which link to RSS documents.

I tested both these syntax and I gotta say I like feed: a lot better. I think HasFeed: would come in handy when you're trying to find new RSS feeds, but feed: is better for general queries.

You can use them in conjunction with other syntax, too. Try this search:

feed:baseball intitle:sports

Will find feeds/blogs with "Sports" in the title, but "Baseball" within the context of the feed itself.

Or try this one:

feed:disaster site:gov

This'll be an excellent tool for discovering new .gov feeds.

If you just want to find out what sites within a certain parameter offer feeds, it looks like MSN allows a blank feed: syntax. So say I wanted to search for .gov site feeds, but I didn't want to restrict myself to a keyword. This search:

feed: site:gov

... seems to provide legitimate results. Nifty.

Posted to Search Engines-MSN