Tapping into the power of Bing to bring you all the celebrity nonsense you require.
If you're looking for a new way to keep tabs on Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and Barack Obama, then Microsoft has you covered with its new celebrity news app, Snipp3t. Unveiled this weekend, the unfortunately spelled iOS app taps into Bing data, displaying the latest celebrity news in an infinite scrolling interface.
There are two ways to use the app: with Facebook and without. Log in without Facebook and you'll see all the latest celebrity news in an aesthetically pleasing form. Letting the app access your public Facebook profile personalizes the experience a bit, automatically subscribing you to celebrities you've liked on Facebook. Though if you're like me and refuse to "like" anything on Facebook, this won't be at all helpful, and you'll have to manually add celebrities to follow.
Naturally, I chose all the Kardashians who showed up in the "popular now" category (Kourtney, Rob, and Kim), as well as Barack Obama. As a result, "Rob Kardashian Currently Seeking Someone to Impregnate" is now a piece of information that I know. Snipp3t shows me this news from multiple sources, offering different angles on this important news. Each headline gets a blurb of text beneath it, accompanying images and tweets, and related stories (in this case, "Rob Kardashian Moves to Florida To Be Near Secret Love Child").
The interface, done in Bing-style gray and blacks, succeeds in infinite-scrolling headline form. But when it comes to displaying actual stories, it falls short. The app isn't quite a web browser, but isn't just a news app either. Tapping a headline brings you to the actual source of the news—perhaps AOL's entertainment vertical, for example. But you can't type in a new web address in the app, and the only option for doing anything with the link is sharing it on Facebook.
That may be fine, though. When it comes to celebrity news, the headlines are often enough—especially when rephrased by various sources: "Rob Kardashian Surfaces Online, Gushes Over North West." "Rob Kardashian Gushes Over Baby North West." "Rob Kardashian Gushes Over Niece North West With Adorable Photo: 'She's Soooooo Pretty!'" You get the idea.