Microsoft is planning an online search service called "Start.com" which it hopes will come to pose a serious challenge to Google. Some test services that require personalized selections are available, and surprisingly this is done without sending any personalization data to Microsoft servers; a new client-side logic architecture based on AJAX is being utilised instead. Many interesting features are available, or are being planned.
One of Start.com's intriguing test features is blog aggregation, which at first provides instantaneous links to blog posts from various sources, including Microsoft's own engineers. Click the down-arrow next to the "start" logo, and under "Popular Feeds," you'll find links to popular and selected blogs, whose headlines and entries pop up instantaneously in a side window. The service enables users to enter their own chosen XML feeds into a "My Feeds" list, providing yet one more example of merging local functions with a global service provider.