Scoopler.com seems very usable... live search is a feature google doesn't have, and would be slow to adapt to.

Thinking about how I normally google.. I tend to browse clusters of linked information, in a sequence of relates searches/refinements.. there's no reason I really need to leave the page to do that..

So theres also room to revolutionise the UI.. perhaps text that zooms away as you traverse links in your walk through the graph? But that might be too radical for some users, it would have to be subtle.

With the current page as is, I think this is a nice product.

Another feature that could differentiate even further is geo-location [orthogonal to the search terms] That would bias news according to proximity from my location, as inferred by my ip address. But Id want a non-intrusive way to turn on or off...

Nice.

Sorry, as a rock star code wizard I am insulted that you would try to lure me with a fancy title like "Software Engineer"