Orbit helps you follow a topic through a dashboard instead of a pile of tabs.

You can use it for live stories, launches, service incidents, elections, public events, company announcements, market-moving news, and other topics where the useful information is spread across several pages. A dashboard brings the important pieces into one place: the latest updates, the current state, key facts, timing, maps, videos, trackers, and the sources behind them.

The source list is a core part of the page. It shows where the dashboard is getting its information and gives you a way to check the original reporting, official page, live blog, tracker, or stream yourself.

Orbit also uses more than one kind of AI. Large language models help shape the final dashboard, while smaller purpose-built models and classifiers help with tasks such as recognizing useful source evidence, live-update structure, page quality, and media relevance. Those supporting models are there to make the source list and dashboard more reliable, not to replace the sources themselves.

What a dashboard can include

Every topic is different, so dashboards do not all look the same. Orbit uses the parts that fit the available sources.

A strong dashboard does not need every component. A short official announcement may only support a few facts. A live blog may support a long update feed. A launch may support a countdown, livestream, tracker, and event facts. The best layout is the one the sources can actually support.

When Orbit is useful

Orbit is most useful when you want a fast overview but still care where the information came from.

Good use cases include:

• following a breaking story without opening every live blog first
• checking the current state of a launch, event, outage, or public announcement
• comparing several sources on a fast-moving topic
• keeping an eye on official pages, live streams, trackers, and reported coverage together
• finding the strongest sources to open first

It is less useful when there are very few sources, when every source is repeating one unconfirmed claim, when pages block access, or when the topic requires specialist judgment that is not present in the source material.

How to read a dashboard

Start with the top-level state: the title, alert, latest updates, and any timing or map components. Then open the source list.

For routine topics, the dashboard may be enough for a quick overview. For important topics, use the sources:

1. Open the top source.
2. Open another source from a different publisher or organization.
3. Compare the exact claim, time, number, or status you care about.
4. Look for uncertainty words such as "expected", "unconfirmed", "tentative", or "no earlier than".
5. Check whether the source is direct coverage or only a side angle.

This is especially important for legal, medical, financial, safety, emergency, political, or fast-changing topics.

Understanding the source list

The Sources panel is there to help you judge the dashboard.

You may see:

• the source title and link
• a short preview
• a score
• reputation details when available
• factuality or bias labels when available
• a source tier, such as official, curated, or community
• a breakdown explaining why the source ranked where it did

The score is not a truth percentage. It is a usefulness score for this dashboard. A source can rank highly because it is direct, current, text-rich, structured as a live page, from a strong domain, or useful as a video, map, tracker, or official page. A lower-ranked source may still be accurate; it may simply be older, thinner, less direct, duplicated, or less central to the topic.

Labels such as factuality and bias are also aids, not guarantees. They describe source-level context where available. You should still check the actual page, especially when the claim matters.

Why source wording matters

Small wording changes can change meaning.

For example:

• "scheduled for May" is stronger than "no earlier than May"
• "confirmed" is stronger than "reported"
• "will" is stronger than "is expected to"
• "officials said" is different from "local media reported"

Orbit tries to preserve important wording from sources, especially in live updates, status messages, direct claims, timings, and uncertainty language. Still, always open the original source for high-stakes decisions or precise wording.

What to be careful with

Treat a dashboard with extra caution when:

• all top sources come from one domain
• the sources are old for a live story
• the strongest pages are topic hubs rather than direct reports
• the dashboard relies mostly on search snippets or thin pages
• the sources disagree
• the claim depends on a precise time, number, location, or legal status
• the story is still developing

Orbit can make reading faster. It cannot remove the need to check original sources when accuracy matters.

Where to go next

Read How Orbit Chooses Sources to understand source scores and ranking.

Read How Orbit References Work to understand source links, references, and attribution.

Read FAQ for quick answers.