Celebrity gossip, Microsoft? Really?

I don't think I can come close to beating Kara Swisher's headline at All Things Digital, "Is Wonderwall Gonna Be the One That Saves MSN?"

So I'll just cut to the chase: in a move that seems to be way, way, way out in left field, Microsoft's MSN division has partnered with media company BermanBraun to launch an entertainment news site called Wonderwall.

Geared toward a slightly more highbrow breed of entertainment fan than the Perez Hilton set, Wonderwall primarily aggregates content from other entertainment sites but has an editorial team spearheaded by pop-culture veteran Alex Blagg. (He's on Twitter, natch.)

The launch of Wonderwall comes right before Sunday's Grammy Awards ceremony. It also happens to be timed perfectly to fit two high-profile celebrity scandals, the Michael Phelps up-in-smoke fiasco and the Christian Bale audio freakout.

So--why? Well, big tech players seem to want to have an in-house celebrity news hub, for one reason or another. Time Warner's AOL has the hugely successful TMZ, Yahoo has OMG (and indeed, the interface looks a bit like OMG), and Google has...um...the "entertainment" section of Google News.

And despite this whole "advertising recession" thing, we've seen big tech companies increasingly investing in ad-supported content. Perhaps as blog networks find themselves strapped for cash and print media companies find themselves smacking into financial icebergs, the tech companies see a potential gap in the market.

AOL rolled up all its content properties into a conglomeration called MediaGlow recently. We can only wonder if MSN's Wonderwall is the start of something similar in Redmond.

[NickChaplin]

OK i MUST say that this site is great.. i know i know there are lots of other celeb sites out there but they do not compare to the design effort put into this even if it is similar to zune software..

BLOODY LOVE IT

[t8]

Thanks for contribution, please pick your pay up at One Microsoft Way.

[CDubber]

Celebrity dirt-dishing site. Online t-shirt sales. Operating systems that are universally loathed by users and pundits alike. Consumer electronics devices that continue to be clobbered by competitors. Is there any doubt Microsoft is a wandering has-been without *any* original ideas whose days of relevance in the technology world are numbered?

[xcal78]

"days of relevance in the technology world are numbered"

Please put in the fiscal period and year you think Microsoft will fail. We'll check this thread when it happens if this thread is in existance then. Gates stole the idea for windows from apple yet made it 10 times more successful.

[Super2online]

LOL, climb back under the hatred rock from where you came from

[xcal78]

CDubber just fails to understand that Apple and Microsoft need each other to survive. Without a windows verison of iTunes it would have failed. We all know Microsoft stole the original idea from Apple.

[homercles82]

xcal78 are you saying Microsoft stole the idea of iTunes from apple?

[t8]

I can't see this taking off for one reason. Microsoft.
They just don't get the Internet because they are too busy with Windows and fixing other problems.

[Rádi Pál]

Yes! Really my beautiful. Thank you CAROLINE!