The layout of the new Live Search News is somewhat similar to Google News, but also may remind some of Techmeme, another aggregator. Sections are listed across the top, with news headlines listed down the left column. Users are able to drill down from the major headlines by clicking “more on this story,” which returns news articles having to do with the topic of the headline article.

While Live Search News may never be able to break into Google’s dominance in the news aggregator segment, having another player in the space will benefit publishers.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that these services may actually do a better job of driving traffic to news sites than the front pages of these sources themselves. While in some cases these companies have taken issue with their content being indexed, for the most part they have been well received.

Exact details on Microsoft’s future plans for Live Search News are not yet known, as no official announcement of the service had been made as of midday Wednesday.