Yahoo pipes does the searching for its users

By: Kathryn Lisk

As the Internet continues to grow, sorting through information has become more difficult than ever. Simply using Google and a few key words rarely provides sufficient information to anyone.

Yahoo now has a tool that allows Internet users to constantly track what is being published on any given topic. According to Poynter Online,  Yahoo pipes allows its users to "gather, filter and display any collection of online content." 

While a tool like this would be beneficial to anyone with very specific interests in the media, it is also helpful for journalists with a beat. It allows reporters to spend less time on Internet search engines and more time out of the office talking with their sources.

This also may be the program Brian uses which constantly gathers stories about journalism, which are then posted on our blog cite. Having this resource available has been very helpful in finding news-related stories to post about.

My only concern with Yahoo pipes is that it provides users with a tunnel vision keeping them away from important news. Now that readers have direct access to news specifically filtered for their interests, they won't even browse through other news stories and will be less informed.

 However, it may also bring more people to the news world. People may find newspapers overwhelming and avoid the industry entirely. Yahoo pipes would at least give these uninformed individuals with some news.