A really good case study on this is Greg Linden and his former startup, Findory. (<a href="http://glinden.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/brief-history-of-findory.html" rel="nofollow">http://glinden.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/brief-history-of-findo...</a>)<p>My personal opinion is that news connects with a core human trait; the need to discover, search for new things. Customizing news is the opposite of this when you're presented with the same thing over and over again.