Seeking to raise its profile in the increasingly influential world of bloggers, software giant Microsoft said Monday it has launched a preview version of its new community blogging service called MSN Filter that will focus on topics like music and fashion in addition to technology.

MSN Filter (filter.msn.com) currently features blog posts written by six staff bloggers on various subjects that also include television and sports.

The service is also looking to eventually become a community-driven site where readers can post in many categories, Microsoft said. But it won’t be a free-for-all. Microsoft staff bloggers will review the comments before they go live.

The site is expected to resemble other blogging sites that aggregate user content like Boing Boing, Engadget, and Technorati.

Rather than depend on its staff, Microsoft has stated the goal of MSN Filter is to get contributions from other users and the blogosphere, the online world of bloggers. The company said it has not decided yet if it will charge users to post on MSN Filter, a move that would differentiate the service from other similar sites that don’t charge.

“We are exploring monetization options,” said Adam Sohn, the Director of Global Sales and Marketing PR for MSN. “However have nothing to share at this time.”

MSN Filter quietly appeared online on August 4 but did not make the announcement until Monday.

The site has now become one of the most talked about topics in blogosphere.

“It’s good content, it’s short, it has a lot of links and it is updated often,” said Steve Rubel, who writes a blog called MicroPersuasion and is the vice-president of CooperKatz, a PR firm that focuses on online communities. “It is also very news driven and that’s a good idea to keep it current and interesting.”

Shedding ‘Evil Empire’ Label

Roger Dooley of Rogerd’s Noteblook applauded Microsoft’s continued interest in blogging but said that it will not be easy for the company to earn respect from online users.

“It remains to be seen how much of an impact these topical blogs will have, and whether vibrant communities will develop around them,” said Roger Dooley in his blog Rogerd’s Notebook. “Still, it's a step in the right direction for a company that is simultaneously trying to shed the 'evil empire' label and gain mindshare in consumer entertainment markets."

Microsoft has been working quietly to increase its visibility among bloggers. In June, the company posted recruiting ads on various journalism career sites calling for bloggers who could write and produce between five and 10 blog posts a day. The bloggers, it said, would also be asked to review user submissions, monitor comments, and feedback.

But, since its launch, not all feedback has been positive. Clyde Smith, who blogs at ProHipHop.com, has criticized MSN Filter for not posting the names of the bloggers who write for it. Mr. Smith has said it’s bad strategy for Microsoft to have anonymous bloggers since the medium is personality driven.

"Blogging is about personal voice," he said. "Launching an official blog without identifying the writers basically reduces it to a content management system and feeds into Microsoft's 'you will be assimilated into the cyborgsphere' public image."

Serving Self or Others?

There are other concerns too. Microsoft has not publicly disclosed any guidelines that its staff bloggers will have to follow.

“Will they blog about Microsoft’s products?” said Mr. Rubel. “Will they have the same impartiality towards the Microsoft and its ideas that a site like Engadget does? Microsoft needs to have greater transparency about the blogging policy for MSN Filter.”

Microsoft will likely do that if that is what it takes to get respect in blogosphere. Blogging has become increasingly important for the company. The test version of Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft’s newly released updated web browser, allows users to automatically discover and subscribe to RSS feeds. Microsoft is also encouraging developers to build RSS applications that can integrate with Windows Vista.

Microsoft hopes to integrate MSN Filter into MSN Spaces, an online area that offers a blogging tool and photo-sharing feature. MSN Spaces was introduced in April. At the company’s annual analyst meeting on July 28, Microsoft Senior Vice President Yusuf Mehdi claimed that MSN Spaces now accounts for 10 percent of all RSS traffic.

Analysts said that the MSN Filter is an idea to promote Microsoft’s profile and its services among a new set of increasingly influential audience.

“MSN Filter is not a strategic or core product for Microsoft,” said Michael Gartenberg, senior analyst with Jupiter Research. “What it is an experiment, a way for them to learn what kind of web based technology and services they can expand into and should offer in the future.”