MSN Beta SERPs available via RSS Feed... Interesting.

[JohnC]

I am not sure if this a good thing or not, but I do know it has a very nice Geek factor. Apparently the MSN Beta is allowing search results pages to be formatted into RSS. Here’s an example at Greg Lindens Blog (http://glinden.blogspot.com/2005/01/msn-search-results-as-rss.html). Gary Price first reported it over a SEW.

I can see how this might end up being easy exploit for those "build a page of search results" type spammers. I also see a whole new crop of Directories suddenly having populated categories for every imaginable topic. Not sure what to think about this yet.

[Quadrille]

Oh dear ... yes, I'd guess you are right on the possible uses.

But is there any useful use for it? What would have been M$N's thinking in setting this up?

[JohnC]

I did notice this in the RSS ...

<copyright>Copyright © 2005 Microsoft. All rights
reserved. These XML results may not be used, reproduced or
transmitted in any manner or for any purpose other than
rendering MSN Search results within an RSS aggregator for your
personal, non-commercial use. Any other use of these results
requires express written permission from Microsoft Corporation.
By accessing this web page or using these results in any manner
whatsoever, you agree to be bound by the foregoing
restrictions.</copyright> I am guessing you will eventually be able to purchase the right to add these to your sites.

[JohnC]

Here the "official" comment from MSN via their Blog...

http://blogs.msdn.com/msnsearch/archive/2005/01/11/351064.aspx