Company: MSN Filter Launched: August 2, 2005 Overview: MSN Filter is the latest MSN product release from Microsoft. Filter is a blogging network similar to Weblogs, Inc. (profile) and Gawker – meaning they have hired bloggers to blog about specific subject areas and let them go. They’ve already evolved the product (by adding the blogger’s name, something they were originally criticized for not having), and we assume further enhancements will come over time. From the launch post by Adam Sheppard, Filter’s lead project manager: Today we officially launched MSN Filter. Filter has been kind of a labor of love for me as a pet project for us to create more of a dialog with the online community and build a closer relationship with consumers. The model is essentially Nanopublishing as originally championed by Nick Denton at Gawker Media and Weblogs Inc. Both great blog networks with their own audiences that they’ll continue to be successful with. Days like this are why I love to work at Microsoft. There is nothing more rewarding than watching an idea become a reality through the hard work of a dedicated team who care about making a difference. The people at MSN care about making a difference. With MSN Filter I hope to increase awareness of Blogs and give users a voice and forum to submit interesting content to our hired bloggers. This is something we want to learn from and evolve over time. So if you’re out there we’re listening! The current topic channels, and the bloggers for each channel, are: TV Filter – Kimberly Potts & Raoul Music Filter – Oliver Wang Technology Filter – Dan Costa Sports Filter – Matthew Callan Lifestyle Filter – Diane P(enelope) Vadino Blog opinions so far have been pretty evenly divided, although a lot of the criticism has come from people not liking the original format that didn’t name the bloggers. It seems to us that some of the original criticism was too aggresive – Filter has responded quickly to feedback. In the meantime and while we await additional channels and product enhancements, we’ve subscribed to the Technology Filter. Team: Adam Sheppard, Lead Product Manager Additional Links: Jason Calcanis, Paid Content, Richard MacManus, MyMarkup, Dave Winer, Om Malik, Microsoft Watch, Plaxoed!, Robert Scoble, Steven Hartwright, Steve Rubel, John Walkenbach, Paul Scrivens, ProBlogger, Technoogle, Guillaume’s Tech Blog → Read More