Orbit
How Orbit works
Quick answers to the product decisions that shape what you see. If something here doesn’t match your experience, ping @Andrewoh2020.
Why does the “Orbit brief” button only appear on some stories?
The brief is generated for the paywalled cohort — Bloomberg, FT, WSJ, Nikkei Asia, and a few others where you’d otherwise hit a login wall. Free sources (Reuters, AP, AFP, BBC, CNA, etc.) get a direct “Read article” button instead because the publisher is already reachable.
Why do some followed people show a live location pin and others don’t?
Two conditions: the person needs a Wikipedia headshot in our index, and our grounded web-search resolver needs to find them in recent coverage. World leaders, major CEOs, and people in active news cycles usually qualify. Lower-profile follows fall back to a curated home anchor or show no location.
Why do some person follows have no avatar headshot?
We pull headshots from Wikipedia’s thumbnail field. Some entities (newer figures, regional politicians) don’t yet have a Wikipedia image — they show as a slate-tinted slot until backfilled. This is on our list of things to improve.
Why does an Orbit brief sometimes feel thin — or take longer to load?
Orbit writes briefs by reading public coverage of the same story across multiple publishers, then synthesizing original prose. For very fresh news — say, a story that just broke on one publisher minutes ago — there often isn’t much else for Orbit to draw on yet. Within an hour or two, wires and competing publishers typically catch up, and the brief becomes richer.
Tip: if a brief comes back thin, or if Orbit tells you it couldn’t synthesize one yet, save the article and try the brief again a little later. You’ll usually get a fuller version once more sources are reporting on it.
Tip: if a brief comes back thin, or if Orbit tells you it couldn’t synthesize one yet, save the article and try the brief again a little later. You’ll usually get a fuller version once more sources are reporting on it.