The Microsoft Network search blog team announced a set of principals and aspirations that will guide them in their weblog postings.
They pointed to the IE team blog and Robert Scoble’s Corporate Weblog Manifesto as inspirations for the kinds of posts that will be in their blog.
Their basic principals and aspirations for the MSN search blog are as follows:
Honest and Respectful. We will tell the truth and stay the high road. nuff said.
Useful. We will announce new products, features and releases related to MSN Search. We will answer frequently asked questions, make clarifications, and once in a while we may address a rumor or two. We’ll discuss significant problems and fixes.
Relevant. We will keep the blog current and post when we find that there are things to discuss. We aspire to cover a broad variety of topics over time, and cover a broad range of things that are interesting to you. To do that, the blog has to be
Personal. Various team members will contribute over time on topics they are passionate and knowledgeable about.
Tantalizing. We intend to maintain a faint air of mystery. 🙂 Don’t expect us to reveal too much information about the inner workings of our search service, or about upcoming features and product plans. There are practical limitations on what we can say. Besides, it would be boring if we revealed all the secrets at once.
Communal. We would like to build a two-way dialog, rather than a broadcast. So do expect us to listen and respond to your comments, and to solicit feedback on specific issues. You should also expect us to stumble and to learn from it. As an example, I want to modify what I said the other day and not blindly rule out commenting on the nature of our search results; if an explanation is necessary and beneficial to a broad range of our customer community, we certainly reserve the right to chime in.
Constructive. In turn, we ask for your constructive suggestions, feedback, and requests. Thanks to everyone already doing this, it is greatly appreciated!
The posting of their own “Manifesto” is a great idea and will bring credibility to their blog. I especially like their link to the rumor post (since it links to a webproworld article that brought the rumor a lot of attention). I also think it is interesting that the MSN team openly links to Google and Yahoo and is not afraid of controversy. In my opinion, they are off to a great start!
webproworld is the CEO of webproworld which publishes over 200 websites and email newsletters.
Rich also publishes his blog WebProBlog which focuses on internet business and marketing trends.