I had tried out the two versions of Microsoft's online RSS aggregator/reader—http://www.start.com/1/ and http://www.start.com/2/ a while back and now there's a third preview version of Microsoft Start that combines various features from the previous two versions. To try the preview version, go to http://www.start.com/3/ and answer the five questions to get the new version's URL (don't worry, if you don't know the answers, you can click the search link to get each answer from MSN Search). Here's a typical screen shot of the new Start:
When you first go to Start, the initial RSS feeds appear organized in blocks in a dashboard (you can toggle the dashboard on or off by clicking the link in the upper right hand corner). Click Show next to Start in the upper left corner to see the feed categories. Click the arrow to the left of My Feeds to open it up and then click [add feed] to add your own feeds. After typing in the feed URL and clicking Add in a dialog box, you can pin that feed to the dashboard. You can drag the blocks by their title bar and move around to rearrange the dashboard. When you click a link in a block, a few more lines of that item appears in a popup dialog box. The new version's user interface is a mixed bag for me. I wish that clicking an item expanded it within its block in the dashboard instead of showing another popup. Clicking more... in the expanded view of an item brings up that item's full content in a separate browser window. I don't know what a good solution is, but when I click a link, I would rather have the content appear in the dashboard area and then I can click Back to return to the dashboard again. I think they could divide the box on the left hand side into two scrolling vertical panes and make use of the lower pane as a placeholder for the current dashboard when that area is showing an item's full content. They could offer a link on that lower left pane to revert to the dashboard view again. Anyway, I noticed a feedback link at the bottom of the window—I guess I better click that link and give my feedback directly to the development team!
Once again I tried to see this thing, and once again I failed [g]. I answered the five questions (which has to be the most obnoxious promotion ever), received the link ... and it's broken! It goes nowhere.
Posted by: Brad Hill | June 06, 2005 at 09:08 AM
Brad, I don't know why it doesn't work for you. After that too cute promo with 5 questions, do you get this link http://www.start.com/myw3b/ or something else? If anyone else is reading this, please let us know if the link works for you or not. Thanks.
Posted by: Naba Barkakati | June 06, 2005 at 03:04 PM
So what are the differences between Start & MY MSN?
Posted by: uwantanamehuh | June 09, 2005 at 10:19 PM
Start has an RSS aggregator/viewer. If you don't see anything different from MY MSN, click "Show" on the upper right corner and also the arrow (the two "V" shapes) next to "start" at the upper left side). You can then look at RSS feeds by category and also add your own feeds to the list.
Posted by: Naba Barkakati | June 10, 2005 at 08:25 AM
good work...
Posted by: Josh | June 03, 2007 at 05:53 AM