My relationship with the World Wide Web seems to be getting more personal lately. And it's about time. The unwieldy Web is finally beginning to deliver on its promise of serving up fresh news that is truly useful to me, cogently organized, and best of all, free.
Problem is, it's beginning to get pushy, too.
Several services on the Web provide free personalized news, based on a user profile you define when you register. It's like designing your own online newspaper or television network. All cull stories from excellent sources, such as the New York Times, Reuters, and CNN, though press releases do creep in. NewsTracker lets you design your own channels instead of picking from preset categories and links to outside news sites. Of course, you have to be online to get these goodies.