According to seattlepi.com:

“Although still in test form, Windows Live Search signals the future direction of the company’s efforts in the market. It’s slated to eventually replace the MSN Search service that debuted last year, when Microsoft set out on its own in a bid to make up ground in the search business.”

CNET News.com had an interview with Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of MSN information services who says Microsoft has closed the gap with Yahoo and is “within a couple of points of Google.” That’s a pretty bold claim which reminds me of an old adage, “Don’t tell me, show me.”

Microsoft also announced their acquisition of Onfolio, which has been integrated with the Windows Live Toolbar.

“The new Onfolio Add-in for the Windows Live Toolbar beta will give people convenient ways to collect information online and organize it on their PCs. People can harness this information by saving it onto their computer so that it can be easily accessed for use in documents, e-mail messages and blog postings.”

I’m all for making search better and it’s great to see Microsoft making this kind of effort. Whether it advances Microsoft Search to the level of Yahoo or Google, remains to be seen.

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Microsoft today announced that it has purchased Onfolio.

Excellent. Buzz Bruggeman is always praising Onfolio running on his computers (he’s CEO of ActiveWords and someone who really works at having the most productive software around).

I can’t wait to hear about how the Onfolio technology will be used inside Microsoft’s stuff. For those who don’t remember Onfolio, it’s a browser plugin (works in both Firefox and IE). Is a very nice RSS News Aggregator (stores everything locally offline and has several different views).

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Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.

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Bloglines is easier, but Onfolio is much more powerful and, because it stores everything on your hard drive, opens up new scenarios (like you can read and search your feeds even when on a plane unconnected from the Internet).

If you are still looking for an RSS News Aggregator, this is certainly one you should try.

Real quick refresher course:

There are three basic types of RSS News Aggregators:

1) Server-based aggregators. Some, like Newsgator cross the lines since Newsgator has a server-side service too. Other server-side aggregators are Feeds.scripting.com, MyYahoo, Bloglines, and MyMSN.

2) Standalone client-side aggregators. RSS Bandit. FeedDemon. SharpReader. Radio UserLand. Among these, my favorites are RSS Bandit and FeedDemon. You’ll need to download and install these. They don’t depend on any other application being loaded, and are browser-independent too (for the most part). On the Mac, NetNewsWire is the one most of my friends like.

3) Built in the browser. OnFolio 2.0 adds onto IE or Firefox. Optimal Access adds onto IE. The Mozilla team offers Sage for Firefox users. Pluck adds onto any browser. My favorite here is OnFolio. Pluck is pretty good too.

4) Dependent on Outlook. NewsGator is my favorite here (it’s still the aggregator I use most), but there’s also IntraVnews.

Do you have an aggregator you like more than any of those listed? Which aggregator do you like the best? Let me know.

Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.

Go to Scobleizer …

The application, also called Onfolio, from a press release issued by the company, “enables users to easily collect, organize and share information they find searching the Internet.”

Onfolio was created, quite simply, to organize and save all of the content people find using search engines. Sharing, emailing, and presenting your saved content through a web page are just a few of the options available to the user.

Designed to be integrated with Internet Explorer, Onfolio gives you the ability to collect links, snippets of text, full web pages, and documents. All of the information gathered can be organized within your browser window.

Onfolio 1.0 is listed as $29.95 for the standard edition and $79.95 for the pro edition. A 30 day free trial is available from the website. The pro edition features Onfolio Publisher, which can produce reports and websites with the content that the user has saved.

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