Robert Scoble has a blog post entitled Filtering Out MSN's Filter which seems like a good enough opportunity to state why I think of the newest addition to MSN's family of offerings. Robert wrote

MSN Filter sure is getting some people upset (hi Ross Mayfield).

Personally I wanted to give MSN Filter a few weeks before giving my opinion, but Ross goaded me into it.

Boring. Boring. Boring.

First, what is it? MSN hired five people to do a blog each. There's one on sports. Another on tech. Music. TV. Lifestyle.

I have to agree with Robert, I think the MSN Filter sites are pretty boring. More importantly as a MSFT shareholder and someone that works at MSN, I think it is a bad business investment in its current incarnation. Precedents for professional blogging such as Gawker Media (e.g. Gizmodo)  and Weblogs Inc. (e.g. Engadget) family of sites are supported by topic specific ads including some from Google's AdSense program. On the other hand, if you look at MSN's Technology Filter you don't see any such ads.

I think it is pretty cool that MSN is allowing folks experiment with ventures like MSN Filter. However my personal opinion is that in its current incarnation it's a lame knock off of the stuff coming out of folks like Nick Denton and Jason Calacanis and it doesn't have a chance of making much [if any] money for us since they are eschewing targetted ads.  

Lame. Lame. Lame.