Northern Light Ends Free Searching

The Web search service Northern Light (www.northernlight.com) closed its free Internet search engine to the general public January 16. The culprit: dwindling profits from Web advertising. The company, however, plans to continue offering its search services to paying customers, mostly companies that use Northern Light to perform customized searches relating to their businesses.

Northern Light's (NL) Special Collection, a database of fee-based online business articles, will still be available to the public. NL's current news search, which includes bulletins from 56 newswires around the world, will also remain free.