Following in the footsteps of Google, and after seeing the report of Outsell, Live Search News of MSN has began to show press releases in its results. On the other hand AOL News has stopped doing that. The trend of showing press release as news source was started by Google in September of 2002 and was followed by Yahoo! News in March 2004. Ask.com News Search and Topix.net followed suit.

Outsell had released the report last year according to which knowledge workers are heavily banking on press releases as news sources. From November 2005 to February 2006 about 37% knowledge workers in corporate sector were using press releases as news sources while this figure was as low as 10% from September 2004 to January 2005. Press releases are leaving behind the trade publications in this area. Roger Strouse, Outsell Vice President and Lead Analyst said to InformationWeek “It may be that press releases are easier for people to get their hands on. It may be that press releases are shorter and pithier.”

The thing to note this year will be if the trend of showing press releases in results by search engines gets a boost or declines.

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