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Bing, Bing, Bing! Microsoft Revamp Enters Round Two

  • CNet, Friday, June 19, 2009 12:31 PM
While most of the discussion of Microsoft's online business has been around Bing, Microsoft is also working on a fall revamp for MSN, its decade-old portal site. At this very moment, in fact, Microsoft is testing a revamped version of its MSN home page in France that features fewer channels, more video, and a direct connection to a user's Hotmail in-box, CNET reports.

The MSN portal remains important to Microsoft's online business. Its home page is the crown jewel of its display ad business and MSN is also responsible for about half of the company's Internet search traffic. And, despite the notion that portals are passe, Microsoft says its research shows that 37% of Internet users still rely on a portal as an important source of information. "It's not for everyone, but for a good chunk of the market, it's a way people can make sense of the Internet," MSN Vice President Erik Jorgensen tells CNET.

To stay relevant, Microsoft is working on overhauling MSN in a few key ways. In particular, the company is trying to add a limited amount of personalization as well as more social media features. Microsoft is also trying to downplay the myriad of channels that date back to the days when its portal, like Yahoo and AOL, aimed to be a directory of the Internet.

Read the whole story at CNet »

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