MsnNOW: what is everyone talking about?

Mon 20 February 2012 13:45, Tamara Yadvichuk

On February 16th. Microsoft launched msnNOW – a new online trend-spotting service, which analyzes popular searches and most shared posts on Bing, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and BreakingNews.com. A team of editors then translates this info into small articles less than 100 words each.

Long story short, msnNOW gathers top online topics in one place and allows you to look through them within a minute. USA Today reports that the service’s target audience consists mainly of teenagers and young adults who rely on mobile devices to stay informed of all the latest news.

MsnNOW is recent news with a flavor of a global friend feed. It seems like a great idea to be able to get a quick overview of the online world within a couple of clicks. However, a few questions arise.

First of all, msnNOW gets its data about top search queries from Bing and Yahoo, which with a combined global market share of around 7% can’t compete with Google’s 91% (see StatCounter). So does msnNOW refleft the real situation?

The second question I ask myself is whether such news is really newsworthy. During the making of this post, the top story on msnNOW was about a dog that tried to jump off a balcony in Hollywood. So is it really big news?

<GIF is the (old) new animation!

More and More Students Finding J...>

Comment

Crowdfunding to Eliminate Silico...

Tue 14 May 2013, Seema Sanghavi

0 comments

Crowdfunding to Eliminate Silicon Valley Poverty

Many of us think of the Silicon Valley as a hub for all things technology, however, most people are not aware of a lingering problem in the area, poverty. According to...... read more

Building Apps for the Social Good

Tue 26 Mar 2013, Seema Sanghavi

0 comments

For the first time in India, the government of the state of Maharashtra is working with Microsoft to develop apps for the social good. The apps are meant to help civic...... read more

Facebook redesigns the news feed

Fri 8 Mar 2013, Tamara Yadvichuk

0 comments

Yesterday the world’s number one social network introduced a major transformation of their key feature, the news feed. Following the trend toward a simpler...... read more

BlackBerry Keeps Moving Together...

Wed 27 Feb 2013, Vitto Christaldi

0 comments

BlackBerry Keeps Moving Together with Alicia Keys

“New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do. Now you’re in New York. These streets will make you feel bra...... read more