July 30, 2005
MSN Screensaver
Has anybody else tried the new MSN Screensaver?
It was announced on the MSN Search Blog the other day, I guess because it allows you to integrate both search and RSS feeds into your screensaver. Pretty cool actually, and I've been using it for a few days now. I have mine pulling images from a folder on my computer that rotate through the screen saver, but also have it popping up three or four RSS feeds of different places I watch.
An aside: In order to use the MSN Screensaver you have to have a recent version of MSN's Toolbar/Desktop Search installed, since that's how they integrate search into the screensaver. I had the toolbar installed before, but not the desktop search. It's all bundled together with the latest release, but you can choose which --if any-- shows up on your computer.
My only question after seeing the RSS feed capability was why no one had done this before? RSS feeds have been around a while now. And though I'd never thought of it myself, you would think that someone would have!
Anyway, just an interesting tidbit. I'm rather liking it. Much better than flying boxes or vector graphics.
FYI, if you try it you're probably going to see the same thing I did. Unlike a normal screensaver you won't get out of this one when you simply move your mouse. Which makes sense considering you would have to move your mouse in order to click on a feed entry or even the search box.
The easiest way to get out of the screensaver is to simply hit the Escape (Esc) button on your keyboard.