Google News Alert Beta Debuts Quietly and Simply
Google has introduced yet another "Beta" function for its news search and aggregation services, providing email alerts on a daily or "as posted" basis through a simple signup form, as reported by CNET News and other sources. The alert function is not even hooked up to the main Google news page yet, so apparently it's more of a true beta at the moment. Hardly a revolutionary development or amazing feature in and of itself, it nevertheless provides a new outlet for their emerging news capabilities to attract people via email-enabled venues, and especially gaining a foothold in mobile venues. Sometimes it's not the technology itself that makes such a move profound as the extensibility of an already important capability into new distribution channels in an instant.