MSN
MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps provided by Microsoft. The main home page provides news, weather, sports, finance and other content curated from hundreds of different sources that Microsoft has partnered with. MSN is based in the United States and offers international versions of its portal for dozens of countries around the world. Its [|dedicated app] is currently available for iOS and Android systems.
The first version of MSN originally launched on August 24, 1995, with the release of Windows 95, as a subscription-based dial-up online service called The Microsoft Network; it later became an Internet service provider named MSN Dial-Up Internet Access. Also around this time, the company launched a new web portal named Microsoft Internet Start and set it as the default home page of Internet Explorer, its web browser. In 1998, Microsoft renamed and moved this web portal to the domain name , where it has remained since.
Microsoft subsequently used the "MSN" brand name for a wide variety of products and services over the years, notably MSN Hotmail, MSN Messenger, its web search engine, and several other rebranded and discontinued services. In 2014, Microsoft reworked and relaunched the MSN website and suite of apps offered. Following a partial rebranding of the website to Microsoft Start beginning in 2021, the company reversed course in 2024 and kept "MSN" as the name of the website.
History
Microsoft Internet Start
From 1995 to 1998, the MSN.com domain was primarily used by Microsoft to promote The Microsoft Network as an online service and Internet service provider. During that period of time, MSN.com also offered a "Custom Start Page" and an Internet tutorial, but Microsoft's major public web portal of that era was known as "Microsoft Internet Start" and was located at .Internet Start served as the default home page for Internet Explorer and offered basic information such as news, weather, sports, stocks, entertainment reports, links to other websites on the Internet, articles by Microsoft staff members, and software updates for Windows. Microsoft's original news website, MSNBC.com, which launched in 1996, was also tied closely to the Internet Start portal.
MSN.com
In 1998, the largely underutilized "MSN.com" domain name was combined with Microsoft Internet Start and reinvented as both a web portal and as the brand for a family of sites produced inside Microsoft's Interactive Media Group. The new website put MSN in direct competition with sites such as Yahoo!, Excite, and Go Network. Because the new format opened up MSN's content to the world for free, the Internet service provider and subscription service were renamed to "MSN Internet Access" at that time.The relaunched MSN.com contained a whole family of sites, including original content, channels that were carried over from 'web shows' that were part of Microsoft's MSN 2.0 experiment with its Internet service provider in 1996–97, and new features that were rapidly added. MSN.com became the successor to the default Internet Explorer start page, as all of the previous "Microsoft Internet Start" website was merged with MSN.com.
Some of the original websites that Microsoft launched during that era remained active in some form for decades. Microsoft Investor, a business news and investments service that was once produced in conjunction with CNBC, became MSN Money; CarPoint, an automobile comparison and shopping service, became MSN Autos; and the Internet Gaming Zone, a website offering online casual games, became MSN Games. Other websites since divested by Microsoft include the travel website Expedia, the online magazine Slate, and the local event and city search website Sidewalk.com.
In the late 1990s, Microsoft collaborated with many other service providers, as well as other Microsoft departments, to expand the range of MSN's services. Some examples include MSN adCenter, MSN Shopping, and the Encarta encyclopedia with various levels of access to information.
Since then, MSN.com remained a popular destination, launching many new services and content sites. MSN's Hotmail and Messenger services were promoted from the MSN.com portal, which provided a central place for all of MSN's content. MSN Search, a dedicated search engine, launched in 1999. The single sign-in service for Microsoft's online services, Microsoft Passport, also launched across all MSN services in 1999.
The MSN.com portal and related group of services under the "MSN" umbrella remained largely the same in the early 2000s. This era also saw the introduction of the MSN butterfly logo on February 14, 2000, which went on to define the brand of all MSN services from that point forward.
The sports section of the MSN portal was ESPN.com from 2001 to 2004, and FoxSports.com from 2004 to 2014. MSN had an exclusive partnership with MSNBC.com for news content from 1996 until 2012, when Microsoft sold its remaining stake in msnbc.com to NBCUniversal and the website was renamed NBCNews.com. At the time, MSN launched "MSN News", an in-house news operation.
As of May 2005, MSN.com was the second most visited portal website in the United States with a share of 23.2 percent, behind Yahoo! which held a majority.
MSN released a preview of an updated home page and logo on November 3, 2009. It was originally expected to be widely available to over 100 million U.S. customers by early 2010. MSN rolled out the newer logo, together with a redesign of the overall website, on December 25, 2009.
In 2012, MSN announced on its blog that it would be unveiling a new version of the MSN.com home page on October 26, exclusively for Windows 8, saying that the new version would be "clean, simple, and built for touch". Microsoft said it would be more app-like due to the speed of Internet Explorer 10. More new features included "Flip Ahead", which allowed users to swipe from one article to the next. MSN for Windows 8 also had new deals with the AP and Reuters.
Rebranding of services
Many of MSN's services were reorganized in 2005 and 2006 under a new brand name that Microsoft championed at the time, Windows Live. This move was part of Microsoft's strategy to improve its online offerings using the Windows brand name. The company also overhauled its online software and services due to increasing competition from rivals such as Yahoo! and Google. The new name was introduced one service at a time. The group of Windows Live services used Web 2.0 technology to offer features and functionality through a web browser that were traditionally only available through dedicated software programs.Some of the MSN services affected by the rebranding included MSN Hotmail, which became Windows Live Hotmail ; MSN Messenger, which became Windows Live Messenger ; MSN Search, which became Live Search ; MSN Virtual Earth, which became Live Search Maps ; MSN Spaces, which became Windows Live Spaces; MSN Alerts, which became Windows Live Alerts; and MSN Groups, which became Windows Live Groups. Some other services, such as MSN Direct, remained a part of the MSN family without transitioning to Windows Live.
Following the launch of Windows Live, the MSN brand took on a different focus. MSN became primarily an online content provider of news, entertainment, and common interest topics through its web portal, MSN.com, while Windows Live provided most of Microsoft's online software and services. In 2012, Microsoft began to phase out the Windows Live brand, referring to each service separately by its individual brand name without any "Windows" prefix or association.
Website redesign
Microsoft launched a completely rewritten and redesigned MSN website, making use of the company's modern design language, on September 30, 2014. The new MSN portal featured a new version of the logo that followed a style similar to other contemporary Microsoft products. The website no longer offered original content, instead employing editors to repurpose existing content from partners at popular and trusted organizations. Much of the existing content offered on MSN was eliminated as the website was simplified into a new home page and categories, some of which had corresponding apps:- News: The latest news headlines and articles from a variety of hand-picked sources.
- Weather: Current weather conditions, forecasts, maps, news, and traffic.
- Entertainment: TV, movies, music, and celebrity news, plus theater showtimes, tickets, and TV listings.
- Play: The MSN Games website offers online casual games.
- Sports: Up-to-the-minute scores, standings, and headlines from leagues worldwide.
- Money: Stock market tickers, watchlists, personal finance, real estate, investments, and currency converter.
- Lifestyle: Headlines, features, and other content related to style, home & garden, family, smart living, relationships, and horoscopes.
- Health & Fitness: Tools and information about weight management, strength, exercise, nutrition, medicine, and more.
- Food & Drink: Recipes, cooking tips, news from chefs, cocktails, and shopping lists for food and drink items.
- Travel: Destinations, trip ideas, hotel search, flight search, flight status, and arrivals and departures.
- Autos: Research and buying advice, auto-related news, information for enthusiasts, and coverage of auto shows worldwide.
- Video: Trending and viral videos, comedy and pop culture, and videos from other MSN categories.
With the 2014 relaunch, MSN began supporting responsive design and eliminated the need for a separate mobile website. The redesign of MSN proved positive and helped increase traffic with an additional 10 million daily visitors after two months.
In 2021, Microsoft began phasing out MSN in favor of Microsoft Start, with an updated design, news pages being moved to Start, and ads for the website appearing on the homepage. This was reversed in November 2024, with the Microsoft Start page redirecting back to MSN. Microsoft also brought back the [|MSN app] in November 2024.