SiliconBeat's Michael Bazeley points to a "Labs" version of a Microsoft RSS Aggregator (aka Feed Reader). As we all know from our Google marketing conditioning:

- If we put something out in Labs, we really really want opinion leaders to write about it
- If we move something to Beta, we really really want the mainstream press to write about it
- If we move something to Golden, we're ready for our final PR push

So, I'll comply...

The app is simple and slick. It's topic based tab metaphor (i.e., channels) reminds me of PointCast; it is also the basic information architecture structure of how I envisioned "DLA's" before I met Marc Canter. It'll be interesting to see if, like PointCast, branded tabs [channels] eventually appear...

Adding content is easy and convient... but viewing content is a different matter. Appearantly there's supposed to be a mode where clicking a Feed headline will open a new window with the contents of the page... but on my machine (XP2, latest IE, etc) it always navigate in situ. Maybe my machine, maybe a bug, dunno. Either way, I'd rather the page content be framed by the aggregator interface, as I've become accustomed to in SharpReader.

Which reminds me... There's no locking items, flagging items, etc as there is in Sharpreader, which is a must have for me (it's why I only use Bloglines when I have to).

But then, this is just a Labs project, and we're just meant to talk and speculate about it! ;)

Between this little gem and the buzz going on with Yahoo!'s YPN, it's clear that the race is now on to complete the microcontent stack. More on that later...