Yahoo to include Blogs in News Search

At a time when the whole Blogosphere is commenting on the role of the MSM in covering events like the IIPM Blog Wars, Yahoo has decided to include Blogs in their News Search. BBC has more:

Bloggers are gaining a higher profile alongside traditional news sources with Yahoo including blogs in its expanding news search system. The decision could reignite the debate over what constitutes news reporting and whether blogs are as valuable a source of news as that from professional journalists. So-called citizen journalists are increasingly dominating the headlines. User-generated content has proved invaluable in breaking news stories. Yahoo sees its plans, which will include photos from users, as enriching the news for everyone.

"Traditional media doesn't have the time and resources to cover all the stories," said Jeff Redfern, product director for Yahoo Search.

Weblogs are a community of self-published sites which cover a range of topics from the personal to the political. They have proved their worth as news sources in recent times, perhaps most notably following Hurricane Katrina.

Leading web firms are beginning to sit up and take notice of blogs. In September search engine Google unveiled its own blog search engine. At the beginning of October, AOL agreed to buy leading web journal firm Weblogs Inc. According to blog search and indexing site Technorati, there are more than 17 million weblogs currently available online.