Peter Sinclair: Much ado about not a lot, really

By PETER SINCLAIR

Well, it's up and running. How well does it work?

I speak of the new XtraMSN website, fruit of the loins of MSN and Xtra, which arrived with so much sound and fury a few weeks ago in a joint announcement by Microsoft's Bill Gates and Telecom CEO Theresa Gattung.

Not that it's finished yet - a portal this size is in a sense forever a work in progress. Xtra will continue to integrate its Content Channels into the design over the coming months.

"We wanted the new site up as fast as possible so Net users could start enjoying the benefits of the combined content and services," says Xtra spokesman Rod Snodgrass (if you spotted this as PR-speak, go to the top of the class and get a gold star). "The new site features revamped Entertainment, Sport and News Channels which all have the new XtraMSN look and feel. We've also introduced a new Kids Channel and ... we'll also be focusing on building more fun and interactivity into the site."

So there's no shortage of content, but the question remains: was there a point to the manoeuvre, and if so what was it, apart from simple gigantism? Was this a convergence of interests ... or cannibalisation?

My own feeling is one of slight fatigue, that "isn't the sum of the parts rather less than the whole?" feeling. The very density of the content brings with it diffuseness, and despite Mr Snodgrass ("the new-look navigation and home page layouts have been through some pretty vigorous user testing ... and the feedback has been extremely positive.") I didn't find the navigation especially smooth.

As with most portals, I suspect you must commit yourself to it body and soul on a daily basis to fully realise the navigational benefits of the site. And like so many other users these days, I don't know that I want to trade the dedicated coverage I can get from my own bookmarks for the once-over-lightly portal experience.

The XtraMSN "look" is bright enough, crisp enough - a sort of hybrid of Stuff with a touch of Nzoom.

But it's lucky your columnist has a warm, forgiving nature, or he might be tempted into unkindness about the "feel," which too often is the kind of sad, dumbed-down, recycled sort of lifestylish material which reduces the cerebral cortex to an inert substance incapable of thought, let alone analysis - "Tipsy Topless Dancer Can Sue Club" ... "Pearl Harbour Goes Porno" ... "Clueless on Condoms ... "

Dull, dull, dull ... it's a shame to see Xtra's news focus diluted like this. And I don't know I'd especially want the kids to read it, either.

CLIPBOARD

Don't play it, eat it: Scientists are puzzled by a CD-eating fungus discovered in Central America. The fungus burrows into the edge of the CD and thrives on the thin aluminium substrate and the data-storing polycarbonate resin. So far the metal-eating fungus appears to be restricted to Belize.

Geekfest: Ellen Spertus, a 32-year-old computer science professor at Mills College in Oakland, California, can safely be labelled "a bit of a geek." Spertus won the dubious honorific "Sexiest Geek Alive" after beating out seven other regional finalists in a pageant.

Missyplicity Project: There are still a few drops of IT venture capital left in the well, apparently. "We've heard from hundreds of potential investors," says Lou Hawthorne, founder and chief of Genetic Savings & Clone - a venture that hopes to corner the "developing market" on pet-cloning. "We've assembled a world-class team of scientists to propagate genetically desirable animals," he says.

Mr Hawthorne's first project: "Missyplicity," which he hopes will result in the duplication of his mother's dog, at present in the freezer.

BOOKMARKS

MOST INDIVIDUALIST: pdom

Pdom is focused on the explosive trend where people are securing and establishing their own personal identity on the net.

"The ramifications of this trend are significant and far-reaching and signal the beginning of a fundamental change in the way society communicates." So says chief executive Robert Wiles.

"I love the internet because it's a way for people to tell the world that they exist, that they have something to say, and their own way of saying it. This is new; for most of history, most people's voices went unheard. Powerful people controlled information and their versions of events were the ones that went down in the history books."

Advisory: Wiles writes his own: "For he has suffered an e-change, into something rich and strange ... "

Links


XtraMSN

Genetic Savings & Clone

Pdom