Feed-based search service Feedster has announced a “Web 2.0” style makeover for its site.

On first look, this appears to mean that they made the site slow and ugly. Here’s their take on the changes, though:

To start with the obvious, the site looks completely different. When comparing the old with the new, it’s quite apparent that we decided to keep only the name from the old design. Everything else we set aside, in favor of our newer, shinier self.

Another obvious change is that our content channels, labeled “Feed Buzz”, now occupy a much more prominent place on our site. Each channel has been built from hand-selected feeds that match the general topic. The criteria for selection were as follows:

1) Frequent updates
2) Widely read
3) Largely and consistently confined to one topic
4) Valuable information

They’ve also announced a custom widget that lets you embed channels of information into other sites. The widget can be customized to coordinate better with your site.

Feedster also announced changes to it search to minimize spam:

There’s another big change that may not be as obvious… A few weeks ago, we quietly released a new semantics-based search engine. Any Feedster search is now algorithmically focused on producing meaningful results, effectively limiting spam.

Feedster provides real-time search and other services based on RSS feeds from blogs, podcasts and news sources.