MSN FILTER... MICROSOFT'S PAID BLOGGING PLAY

Read about this last week somewhere, but here are various sources on Microsoft's steps into the blogging and nanopublishing:

MSN Launches Blog Media Network: MSN, in hunt for some differentiation from other portal players, has launched a blog network, similar to what Weblogs Inc or Gawker Media has. The network, launched in beta on August 4th, is called MSN Filter, and has topics ranging from music, tech, lifestyle, sports etc. It has been hiring for these blog writing positions for some time now. The MSN blogs don't have any writer names, which is a bit strange, considering what blogs are. (full post)

Some more from Rafat:

Adam Sheppard, lead product manager for MSN Filter, said MSN's model "is essentially Nanopublishing as originally championed by Nick Denton at Gawker Media and Weblogs Inc." With MSN Filter, Lead Program Manager at MSN Spaces, Mike Torres, said, "expect 5-10 high quality entries per day on topics near and dear to your heart -- you can even submit content, links, photos and multimedia to the bloggers on topics you're passionate about...That's why we chose the name 'Filter', there's a ton of content on the web on every topic imaginable but you have to know where to look in order to find the hidden gems."

More from Microsoft Watch here, and check out MSN Filter here.