Microsoft’s new customized news feed is actually great – Here’s how to find yours

Microsoft's new customized news feed is actually great - Here's how to find yours
Microsoft.com

The quality of news and the type of content shared on social media has come under fire over the last few years. Thanks to the “fake news” moniker, many online users have been vocal about unfounded claims and the veracity of facts.

Bouncing between publications can be tiresome, with many repeating the same coverage. While there isn’t anything wrong with their reporting, nobody wants to bookmark too many news sites. Tap or click here for six secrets to spotting fake news or scams.

If that’s how you feel, Microsoft has a solution for you. By selecting the news sources you want, you can set up your own feed with your interests. Here’s how you do that.

Here’s the backstory

Microsoft Start news service was created for you to control what news you see. It is a curated feed that only includes the topics and categories that you are interested in. In the past, the tech giant worked with news curation services like MSN and their own Microsoft News.

The Start service is somewhat a spin-off from that. In a blog post, the company explained that Start “brings new technology to content experiences” and will use AI and machine learning together with human moderation.

When the service is loaded, you can personalize what news you see. Start pulls in articles from over a thousand global publications, so the chances are high that you can find your favorites there. The more you click or read certain articles or content, the more refined and personalized your feed will become.

How to set up Microsoft’s Start news service

To get going with Microsoft Start, visit the website or download the free Android or iOS app. In the top-right corner, hit the Personalize button to set up your feed and select the things that interest you.

  • Discover Interest is where you will find news that Microsoft thinks you’ll enjoy, with a few topics to get started. You can also search for a particular subject and add that to your reading list.
  • Underneath the Discover Interest tab, you can drill down into specific topics like Sports, Entertainment, Money and Lifestyle. There is also an option for local news if you want articles related to your region.
  • Followed Interests is where you can find a list of the topics or subjects that you are currently following. You can edit this list by removing the ones you no longer wish to see.
  • Followed Publishers is similar, but only a list of publications you follow. If you follow The Kim Komando Show, all content will appear in your feed and not just selected topics.
  • You can also choose to hide publishers from seeing their articles. A list of hidden publishers is underneath the rest.

In addition to curating your feed the way you want it, you can edit your profile, view saved articles and history and change your experience settings. At any point, you can update your topics to “tune your feed.”

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Tags: Android, categories, fake news, Google, machine learning, news feed, scams, social media, technology, topics