MSN Filter sure is getting some people upset (hi Ross Mayfield). Personally I wanted to give MSN Filter a few weeks before giving my opinion, but Ross goaded me into it.
Boring. Boring. Boring.
Link: MSN Blogs Against it’s Customers
First, what is it? MSN hired five people to do a blog each. There’s one on sports. Another on tech. Music. TV. Lifestyle.
Second, a disclaimer. I spent a bit of time on Monday with the team and I’m planning on spending some more time with them later today. They are listening to the blogosphere and working to make them more interesting, more credible, and more useful.
Another disclaimer: last time I said that something at MSN sucked (remember, I said that about MSN Spaces) it turned out that the market didn’t listen to me. MSN Spaces, since launching last December, has opened more than 18 million spaces. Whew. Ever since then I’ve had teams call me up and say “can you say on your blog that we suck too?”
So, take this all with a grain of salt.
It’s just five people blogging while being paid. It’s not the first time Microsoft has done that, by the way. Hmmm?
But, back to Ross’ point. I don’t get it. What, MSN isn’t allowed to hire bloggers and try to build an audience? Really this isn’t a serious effort yet.
What does a serious effort look like? Study Jason Calacanis’ blog and podcast network (he also responds to MSN Filter here). He has something like 80 to 100 bloggers. That’s serious. Five is not.
But, don’t miss this. MSN now is paying attention to blogs and podcasts. This is the metaphorical equivilent of sticking their toe in the water to see if the water is warm.
If they find it’s warm I’m sure more serious efforts will be coming.
Speaking of more serious efforts, read Jason’s blog to see some sizeable investments have been coming into the podcast space as well as there’s a new blog survey out that shows that blog audiences are affluent and educated.
Back to MSN Filter. I’ll admit I subscribed to a couple. I want to see if they get some attitude (study Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money. That guy is entertaining! Having someone like that on the blogosphere will be how to build an audience. Speaking of which, did you see that Donald Trump is now blogging?)
More on MSN Filter? Mary Jo has a report. Joe Wilcox looks into it. Corante has a bunch of links to a bunch of other opinions.
Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.
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